Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bought a pond, where to go from here

I have bought a piece of land in central Louisiana that includes an old borrow pit from when the highway was built many years ago. It is basically rectangular, about 10 acres. Water level fluctuates, as the soil is sandy and allow water to leach out in dry weather. Normally averages around 4-5 feet deep, last summer got down to about 2 ft depth (during a drought). I have only fished once, while it was pretty low. Water is crystal clear, not much cover, but has thick grass growth on the bottom.

We did not catch anything the time we fished it. Walking around the banks, I have observed small bass (up to 10-12") and bream fingerlings (1-2", not sure what type, but not BG). However, I have not seen many of either. It appears that the overall population is pretty low.

I would like to develop it into a good all-around fishing pond for me and my kids. I am not really concerned with trophy fishing. My concerns are with the lack of cover and the loss of water during drought conditions. I don't think it will ever get much lower than the level last summer, but is that too low to sustain the fish population?

I have planted a few cypress trees in the lake to start some cover, but that will take years to pay off. I have also cut down a few trees around the edge into the lake, but it doesn't seem like much for the size of the pond.

Any suggestions regarding cover, stocking, etc.?

It sounds like it might be pretty nutrient-poor water. IF there is a high flow-through rate, it may be hard to fertilize effectively and maintain a good algal bloom. Feeding would still help to increase the volume of fish in the pond if this is true.

If you can swing it, maybe bringing in a trackhoe, etc. to deepen the water near the outside of the pond would increase the amount of deep water in reserve for when the level drops a lot.

Any wise Southern experience & advice, guys?

The crystal clear water indicates a lack of phytoplankton, the bottom line of the cycle of pond life. However, I would proceed very carefully with fertilization in a body of water that can fluctuate that much. Can you identify the bottom vegetation?

I have thought about bringing in a trackhoe to put some irregularity in the shoreline as well as add some deep areas. I can't swing that right now, but it is something that I would like to do in the not to distant future.

Next time I get over there, I will try to identify the bottom growth. I see it all the time in this area, but don't know the name.

I have been told there has been good fishing in the past in it, but cannot verify that. Before we bought it, it was not gated off and everyone in the area fished it at will. I have gated it to help me manage it. I don't know if it has been fished out, or if it got overpopulated and crashed, or if it never had a large population of fish.

There is no significant flow-through. It only drains when the level gets very high from rains. All of the water level fluctuation is from leaching, as best as I can tell.

There is some bottom variation. I would guess it is 7-8 feet at the deep end, tapering up to a shallow flat at the southern end with some small ridges, etc. But no variation in the shoreline. It is basically a rectangle, and no structure in the pond itself.

A little more info. I did a little research to try to identify the grass present. Without having a sample or photos of it, I narrowed it down to one of these three:

Southern Naiad
Sago Pondweed
Widgeongrass

Hiya Sandman and welcome to Pond Boss. Glad that you jumped right in with your questions. I'll leave all the technical pond stuff to the pond experts however I do have an answer to your subject question:

1. the poor house

2. the psychiatrist's office (it is a scientific fact that attempting to manage nature will in fact make you tickyboo).

3. Pond Boss world headquarters at which you purchase a subscription to Pond Boss magazine and various other informative books in order to help you avoid choices 1 and 2.

Anyways glad to have you on Pond Boss. Post photos if ya got 'em.

A little update. I made it back up there this past weekend to do some work on the property. While I was there, I fished a little from the bank. I was pretty limited, as there are only a few gaps in the brush allowing me to get close enough to fish. I caught 7 or 8 bass that ran from 1/2 to 3/4 pounds. I also caught one that had moved onto a flat to spawn that was right at 7 lbs. I was very pleased overall.

I am guessing that this means that the bass are not stunted. What do you guys think?

We also bought the adjoining property that has another 10 acre pond (also an old borrow pit). It is similar to the first, but more irregularly shaped. The guy we bought it from said he catches lots of bass in it, but didn't say what size. I say a few in it up to 1 lb.

Sandman, I live in Jackson Parish (Quitman, LA) just wondering where your property was.

My wife and I bought 10 acres last november with a 4.5 acre pond. My pond is about twice as deep as yours and I have caught everything from bass, bluegill, catfish, and white and black crappie. On the bass, If you are catching mostly skinny foot long bass and quite a few of them, then they are overpopulated. Do they have big bellies or are they skinny. Was the bigger bass healthy looking or what it have weighed 9 or 10 lbs if healthy?

Just a few questions. I'm new here and learning as well.

My property is in Rapides Parish, not far from Glenmora. The north and east sides are deeper and have more structure (brush, fallen trees, etc). The bass I caught there looked pretty healthy. They were dark and fairly chunky. The ones I caught on the south and west sides (which are more shallow and have less cover) were lighter and pretty skinny. I found that to be strange, seems like they would move around enough for there to be no differences. Of course I only caught about 8 of them, so that is not a large sample size.

The big bass was very healthy looking. She was not very long, but was very fat and thick. I don't think it could have weighed any more than it did.

I am very limited in my fishing because of the brush around the lakes. I really need to put a boat in and do some serious fishing to get a better idea of what is in them.

Also, I am really curious as to everyone's opinion whether the large bass I caught suggests that stunting of LMB is not a problem. I am unsure since the other 7 or 8 I caught were all of a fairly similar size (1/2 to 3/4lbs).

I know there is no definite answer with so little info, but I would be interested in best guesses.

A pond with a stunted bass population often has a few fat lunkers - living off their stunted offspring. That may be your situation.

Sandman,
I agree with Theo.

In my experience with a stunted bass pond, I caught the occassional bass from 5-8 lbs. I'd say I caught one that size for every 40-50 skinny 12" bass, with almost no fish in the 2-3 lb range.

I would sample the population before making a definite conclusion. Catching 3/4 pound fish, the upper range of the size you mentioned in your last post, may not mean you have stunted bass. Do you have any length measurements along with those weights? Do the smaller bass appear skinny or fat?

Sandman welcome to PB. The Glenmora area is mostly pine hills and the dirt acidic. If yours is you will need lime which will help . The next thing is to try to limit the leakage. You need to keep more than a couple feet to avoid oxygen depletion in the summer. I suggest you get the soil/water tested -- La --- Chemical analysis of pond soils can be conducted at the LSU Agricultural Center Soil Testing Laboratory for a small fee. Soil samples should be delivered to the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service office in your parish for processing. , Rapides - 300 Grady Britt Drive · Alexandria, LA · 71302
Phone: (318) 767-3968 · Fax: (318) 767-3971

I would cut some of that brush and put it in the pond for cover. Read here http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92492#Post92492 about population balance and that will help you assess if you are LMB crowded.

Take a look at this publication.
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/...3FarmPonds2.pdf

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some homework to do.

The property is adjacent to the calcasieu river, and in the winter and spring the river backs up into it. I tried to build a sandbag berm in the drain, but the sandbags were actually pushed back into the pond when we had a major rain event. So it appears that rather than a drain, it is more like a fill valve.

As far as the length measurements, I didn't have anything to measure them, but would estimate them all to be near 12 inches.

Thanks for the good info guys. I will do the research on what you guys have provided and let you know what I come up with.

Sandman, how high above normal river level is the surface of your pond? Not counting rain, does your pond rise and fall with the river's level?

If your pond's water is on the same level as the river, digging it out would be worthwhile.

If your pond's water is higher than the river's level, you may run into the old river bed, and cause your pond to drain.

Rivers always meander over the centuries, and it's almost certain that you will hit sand and gravel if you dig. If the old beds are within 1/4 mile or so from the river, the old beds almost always communicate with river. That means that your pond will rise and fall with the river, if indeed it isn't already doing so. If it is communicating now, digging it deeper would work, and your water would always stay fresh and cool.
In that case, fertilizing would not work well, but feeding would help.

It is a good bit above the river level at normal stage. I don't know exactly how high, but safe to say the normal river level is below the bottom of the ponds. I know the water leaches out through the sandy soils, but I am not sure if it goes the other way when the river is high (but not actually flowing in). The water levels of both are up right now, but that is at least partially due to the high amount of rain recently. I will pay attention to that in the future.

The ponds front on the highway, and until we bought the property, lots of locals fished them pretty regularly. We have now gated it off and greatly reduced the trespassing (but have not eliminated it). I would think the other end of the stunting issue is that we may be in recovery from overfishing.

I have a Google Earth shot of the two ponds that I would like to post. How do I do that?

Save the image to your hard drive then upload it on a site like facebook or photobucket.com and then you can use the image posting feature here on the forum. All you need is the url of the page your picture is posted on.

For further info, see the archive thread on posting photos.

Voila' Success!

These are my two ponds. The one on the right (East) is the one we originally bought about three years ago and is about 9.5 acres. The one on the left we just bought at the end of the year and it is a little more than 10 acres. My dad has been able to fish them a couple of times recently (he lives a lot closer to them than I do). He has caught a fair number of small bass and some small bluegill, but we still haven't fished it enough to be sure what we have. I suspect them to have too many bass, but am not sure. I hope to spend a lot more time investigating this spring and summer. The problem is too many places to fish and not enough time!!!

What about your weed problem? If southern naiad, grass carp have just about eaten it from our pond in a year. It is a 4 acre pond that was atleast 80% covered.

I don't really think it is a problem. It all grows on the bottom, nothing near the surface. Unfortunately, that is about the only cover in the ponds right now (except for some brushy banks).