Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations ideas or suggestions

Our 4yr old 1/2 acre pond was loaded with lmb and bg. Last winter here in wny was brutal, the pond was frozen for a long time. This spring we put in a two diffuser aeration set-up so I can have one part of the pond open. The kids have always been able to catch fish in the pond. This yr, we haven't caught but just a couple. I put in a few thousand minnows in the spring and I'm not seeing them anymore, but I am seeing a bunch of real tiny fry around the sides(telling me something is in there ). So is it just harder fishing now that the fish have more room? Did I lose a bunch in winter fish kill, combination of both? The pond has a deep end of 20 ft and a shallow end of 6. One diffuser is in each end. Ideas/suggestions?

That is a hard question to answer? Not enough information... I would say if your pond was "loaded" like you say and the it was froze over for a long time it could very well be, because of a fish kill. Sometimes you can have a fish kill and not even know it as fish may sink and then critters get them and turtles and such. With that being said I would think if you were loaded with fish that you would see some kind of evidence of a fish kill though.

Did you see and dead fish this spring? Do you have an otter maybe eating your fish? Or something? I don't know just throwing out questions at this point.

With all that said there are times I can go out to my pond and not catch a thing.... And I know I have fish! So don't give up just yet.

Do what Dave told me to do and see if it works. Catch one of those small BG 2 or 3 inch and put it under a bobber and throw it out there and see if you can catch one of those bass. You will find out fairly quick if they are there. It's worked for me serveral times. If you catch one weigh it and measure it and check it's RW against a chart to see if it's in line. If it is then you know it's been eating something...

Good Luck
RC

Thanks Rc, I will try that. I haven't seen any otters, and in the spri.g there was only one small bass floating by the shore. So no real evidence of winter fish kill. Just last yr you would throw a worm out and have a bite in 2min. Now, nothin...with the new aeration and turnover of the pond the theory is now the fish have more room to move about with good oxygen at deeper depths. Does this make the fishing significantly harder to find them? I should also me.tion the kids swim in the pond during the day, so I don't know how that fits in. But they were doing that last yr too.

Here is what I have noticed with Bluegill. Last year when we had 100 degree heat and drought my larger bluegills died. Then we had a hard winter fish kill and I have not seen one bluegill and I walk my pond a half dozen times a day looking. However my minnows are thriving. So what I have experienced I believe Bluegill have a very low tolerance of oxygen derivation.

BG have medium O2 tolerance 3-5 ppm+ and LMB about the same to a little higher. FH are better at low O as are some others. Most sportfish require medium to high PPM of O2 (5+ ppm for non stressed and 3 ppm lower lethal range).

I know it can happen, its just so hard to believe I may have lost my bass population and haven't seen one floating. Three years ago we fished in from a neighbors pond several nice 13-15" bass. I would have thought they would be huge by now, haven't seen any evidence there still there. While watching some small bg feed on pellets the other day I saw our 3 carp. They were 10-12" when we put them in, they must have been 24-30". They we're all together too, looked like a pod of killer whales when they came up compared to the tiny bg next to them. So they made it.

ewest/Bill:

How do the O2 requirements of fish change as they go from fingerling to adult?

Well I can tell you this your bigger fish would have died first if you had a 02 issue from what everyone here has told me. So you should have seen a bass or 3 bigger ones floating. Plus I would think if it was bad enough those carp would be floating also!

I swear though there are times I can't catch a bass on my pond. If you have one close by go get a dozen big shiners and fish with them under a bobber or like I said a small BG.

I'm telling ya it works!! Put a bass hook on and hook the BG or shiner through the back about mid way up put a bobber up about 18 inches form the hook and hang on!! If there is bass in there they will bite it. They can't stand it it's in their DNA!! Keep us posted.

RC

P.S Use a bobber about the size of a golfball or a bit smaller. Try this a couple of times at the pond. If you don't catch anyting doing this...... then you may be in trouble....

I'll give it a run, I am gonna head up to gander mountain tonight and get some. Man, even after reading so much on here I feel like I'm constantly going upstream. Pond was built, holds water, weed issue. Beat the weeds, put fish in, everything great, major winter freeze in ny here and don't see any fish anymore. Finally get aeration set up to prevent that and see some water leaching through the top layer of soil on the dike and running down the back. Ugh... A friend of mine who has property says, " hey I think we're gonna put a pond in this yr. Yours looks great, anything I need to be concerned about?" HA!!! How much do you have in your bank account???