Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations mowing pond edge

Does anybody have experience with a "hover mower" for keeping the edge of the pond neatly trimmed? I watched a guy use one on a golf course and it seemed like a great tool!
The only manufacturer I can seem to find in the US is Allen.
Would appreciate ANY information!

Unfortunately I can't share any experience with you because I don't have any. I did check out their website and I have to tell you... That thing is COOL! I want one.

An old tractor mounted sickle bar mower will also do the trick quite nicely on the cheap assuming you have a tractor with pto. Just watch out for rocks, and keep your tractor wheels safely away from the shoreline.

You can get those old things for less than a couple hundred bucks, even free sometimes. Just be aware, they can be extremely dangerous due to the exposed blades. Have someone show you the ropes before you use it.

For those unfamiliar with the ins & outs/pros & cons of sicklebars, see SICKLEBAR MOWER REPORT

P.S. Last year, I just used a weed wacker.

Hello Brian and Staci, welcome to Pond Boss.

Personally I don't see any real advantage over a weed wacker to trim around the edge of a pond.

Now if they made a hovercraft mower, we I'd be all over that bad boy...

What's up??? Did ya'll's goats die or sumpin?

I couldn't raise goats. The song dogs (coyotes) would get them.

Mix a llama in with the pack of goats and the song dogs will sing somewhere else... IMHO that is.

I know people who do that with llamas, BIG dogs, mules and donkeys. It does seem to work but the coyotes never starve to death.

Actually, I admire coyotes. They are the ultimate hunter and survivor.

I just wish I had actually read this before I spent 1000$ to find out on my own. I now own a 1000$ worth of junk iron. And if you want a free sickle mower you can have mine. IT does do a great job mowing the edge of a pond it even cuts under water that is when it was all in one piece. As stated it vibs it self to pieces. I have given up and am now in te market for a new brush hog. I'll just have to start backing into the pond edge again to cut it. What a pain in the neck but not in the rear like a sickle mower.

Any of you use a DR Field and Brush mower? You can walk the thing into the water and cut everything down. Just put it in speed 1 and be careful not to let the wheels get wet. You can wack everything quite well with it. The blades will wack water and tear everything up. It's a pain to have to push and pull it all along the edge of the pond, but if you are doing just small areas, it's not too bad. Plus it's great for tough to reach areas a normal mower deck tractor type bush hog can't do... I've had mine for 3 years now and never had an issue with it.

I have tried the sickle bar (a new one). I would be willing to sell it. Probably has only 10 hours on it. I find the best thing for keeping the edge clean is a bush hog that gets within about 1 to 2.5 feet of the edge of the lakes, then I use a sprayer mounted on the back of my Polaris Ranger with round up. Probably cost about $10 worth of round up each time a spray my 2.5 and 3.5 acre lakes. Money well spent and very safe.

Well, if you really, really wanted to mow down to the water's edge, look at these:

Boom mower

How can you walk the thing in water without getting the wheels wet? The two sentences seem like a contradiction.

It only has two wheels... You walk it blade first towards the pond, all the way until the wheels are at the water's edge. The cutting blades are well out into the water cutting whatever you want them to be cutting. You back it up, then move over and walk it back to the water's edge... You keep repeating the process. It is a pain because you can only mow a deck width at a time, but it does work.

Like I said in my other post, the thing is awesome. 3 years, no issues and still cuts through just about anything 1" and less in diameter. I have driven it over 2" black locust and it'll even blast through it.

As I was bush hogging, finish mowing, and weed whacking around the pond this afternoon, I kept thinking about this thread. As I recall from the survey that Bob Lusk published in Pond Boss a while back, quite a few of us have ponds of one acre or less. Mine is about 0.7 acres, with about 650-700 feet of shoreline.

After bush hogging and finish mowing, final cleanup with my weed whacker took less than 20 minutes this afternoon. That included the entire shore line, bushes around the pond, and the three "mugger's benches" I keep near the pond to help our city friends feel like they are in a familiar environment.

My bushhog extends about 6 inches on each side of my tractor. That gets me pretty close to the edges, but I also want places for the little pond critters like frogs, snakes, turtles, grasshoppers, crickets, etc., where they can hide from the fish and the birds.

One side of my pond is mowed down to the water's edge. Two sides have an intermittent 1-foot buffer that is clipped at about a 12-inch height. In some places, this intermittent buffer is trimmed down to the water, like where we launch the canoe and kayak, and where the little kids can fish. The fourth side has a two to three foot wild buffer that is trimmed at about an 18 inch height. This side has about a 12-15 foot wide area that is clear, but it adjoins a mature hardwood forest that is home to nearly every feathered and furry critter that calls WV home. It is also the side where I annually renew about 1/3 of the structure made of hardwood and softwood tree tops. It is amazing to see the diversity of wildlife and fish that depend on this area.

Here are a few pictures from about a month ago.

This photo shows the frog buffer on the left. It shows the "wild" area across the top and to the left.



This is the same area as above, but looking the other direction. I keep a big pasture buffer above the pond. During the spring and early summer it is home to lots of critters, from baby hawks and turkeys, to fawns and baby ground hogs. I bush hog this area twice a year -- once in mid August when the babies are on their own, and once in early spring before things start to green up. At the far end is a miniature "wetland." It stays very wet about 8-9 months out of the year. Although small, it is the birthing center and nursery for an incredible number of critters. We also keep a lot of brush piles all over our property to keep the critters safe while raising families.



This is the "wild side" of the pond. It is where I dump tree tops. I pull about 1/3 of them out each year, but replace them with fresh structure.




Good trimmin'
Ken

P.S. I grew up with sickle bar mowers. Never again. Too much maintenance, too dangerous, and too darn difficult to mount onto the tractor.

Looks great Ken...

Yep looks awesome Ken! I am struck by your root beer colored water albeit clear. Is that typical for your area?

There are times when I am afraid that I may have over achieved. As of this weekend, most of the neighboring ponds are FA covered and green. Mine is as clean as can be, FA free, and as you say, "root beer colored."

Besides the miniature "wetland", I've dug two settling ponds where most of the water comes from, I've moved a road, and I've done a lot of other things that really clean the inflow into the pond. I have just as much water as before (... now, at the end of August, I'm only 2-inches down from full pool), but the water is seriously filtered and oxygenated before it gets to the pond. It has been incredibly clear this year since ice out. It now about 30 inches of visibility, but was beyond 4-feet in May.

I had fantastic BG and LMB recruitment this year -- so we'll see.

My average BG catch is over 9 inches right now, and we get a lot of 10 and 11 inchers, even several right near 12 inches. I see lots of 3-5 inchers, and big schools of 1-2 inchers. Great CC too. They were put in as 10-12 inchers last summer, and are now very fat 20-24 inchers. I took out a lot of 8-10 inch LMB early this spring. Still lots of small bass in the pond -- which is OK with me, for now.

My biggest concern is that I'm at the "old folks home" from Sunday nights through Wednesday night. I only get to feed from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We'll see.

By the way, this is what it looks like from my view at the old folks home.

This is looking north into Maryland. The river is the Potomac.



This is looking west. Those are the Blue Ridge foothills in the background. The Shendandoah Valley is just beyond.

Very nice Ken... That are of VA has some great views and the river is pretty! Have you gotten a chance to fish the river any while at the "old folks home"? Your pond is looking great! I love the root beer color. Your BG and CC sound fantastic!

Great stuff Ken. We keep a "wild side" to our pond as well, actually we only groom about half way around our pond.

Is the Potomac really muddy looking or is it due to the lighting conditions?

Brian and Staci, if you are still wondering about the effectiveness of the "hover mover", i would say stick with a weed-eater for the edges. I used to work at a golf course and we used the hover movers or fly mowers as we called them to mow the steep banks around the bunkers. they seem like a good idea, but are harder than they look to swing back and forth and are somewhat dangerous because they can flip over easily and the blades are still continuing to spin. but thats just my opinion.

Those DR units are really nice.

I'm mowing with a Walker MB 56" ZTR. http://www.walkermowers.com/MODELBspecs.html

It was the only zero turn I could find that could handle a 3:1 slope fairly safely, unless the grass is wet. The deck sticks out a fair distance from the drive wheels so I can just run around the pond NASCAR style blowing the algae producing grass clear of the pond. It stripes nice too and is low enough to the ground that I drive under low hanging trees. My only complaint is that you sit right on top of some pretty small tires making for a rough ride at times.

I don't wanna steal Ken's thunder, but we've been getting a lot of rain with the tropical storms lately, so the river was running high. That may explain the off coloring... Ken lives a hop, skip and jump away, so when he gets back on, he can shed light on the actual answer...