Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Got the Pond Killed Off today

Ha!! Been thinking about that.. ill just keep my name. If the Drathaar doesn't measure up quickly, I'll be looking for a Setter. My wife is accusing me of purposefully looking for the ugliest dog alive.

The water is so clear, you can see the Blue Heron tracks on the bottom of the pond. There is no doubt that I got the pH up above 11, everything is toast.

I am not much help on this, I did not put anything but some bass and bluegill that I stocked in the summer of 2014. There was very few of the bluegill in there, none of the bass I put in were seen. The previous owner must have put that big bass and the one big drum in there. I only saw the one big drum.

No I am not going to spend the money to clean this pond out. It is in the cattle pasture, and long term I plan to build another pond in the hay meadow, for the family to enjoy with know cattle.

Will SMB survive in a pond that is going to get that warm in the summer. I thought that they needed clearer cooler water than a KS cattle pond.

But I love SMB, we used to go up to Sioux Lookout Ontario when I was a kid, we caught lots of SM, Norther Pike and Walleye.

As long as your dissolved oxygen stays above 4ppm the smallies will very well survive the warm temperatures. There are SMB surviving in a Phoenix AZ pond which a lot warmer than your KS pond. There is a very good place in KS that raises smallmouth bass:
http://www.hartleyfishfarmsinc.com/
Give the smallies a chance with some minnows, shiners, abundant crayfish, yellow perch & maybe redear sunfish and then you can always restock with hybrid striped bass or LMB if the SMB do not meet your expectations. Keep us advised as to your fishery progress.

We finally got a little rain, but the pond has not filled back up much more than 5-6". So it is maybe a foot deep. But we are supposed to get some more rain over the next couple of weeks.

When full the pond will be about 6' deep again. How much do I need to let the pond fill back up before I stock it again? Is there a better time of year to re-stock?

I have not tested the pH in the pond since I killed it off. Is that a concern or should the pH return to normal on its own? I assume that with all the frogs showing up, the pH is not an issue.

Well we got some rain finally. The pond is about as full as it can be.

I think what I would like to do is have a pond with big HBG, and some small bass, to control the HBG population.

So now that the pond is full I guess its time to figure how the stocking plan for that. I assume that I should put some FHM and some HBG in there this spring and some bass next. Debating between SMB or LMB.

But here is what the pond looked like when I was down there turkey hunting today.. but the turkeys didn't want to play.
Forgot to get the metal barrel out of there, so now that looks like a job for the SIL.