Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help 1st Post - 1/3 acre pond advice

I recently purchased acreage and built a home, making an existing pond part of my front yard. The pond was dug 20yrs ago and neglected since (I think it was dug for fill).

Specs: 1/3 acre surface (approx 12500 sq/ft), avg depth 9ft. Located in NE Wisconsin.

Goal: Swimming pond for my kids and fish pond.

Questions:
1) Recommendation for aerator? Size? Brand? I plan to run 115v to the pond edge.

2) Recommend how to evaluate habitat in prep for stocking (reading material, links, etc.)

3) I'm in Wisconsin. Where can I get Hybrid Bluegills?

4) What would you recommend stocking?

5) Recommendation on chemical supplier for muck eater, aquatic weed killer, etc.

Welcome, JohnnyB. The Steelers are going to lay claim to the "Titletown" label come this Sunday! (A little smack talk is a great welcome to the forum, huh?!) Seriously, glad you're here and posting. Good questions. I'll take a stab as best as I can, but definitely wait for others to chime in who have more experience.

1. There are a lot of great threads on aerators in the aeration section of the forum, so check this link to do some research. With a little luck, some of our aeration experts will chime in, such as Ted Lea, Sue Cruz, and others I'm probably slighting by not remembering who they are!

2. If you don't have any idea of what sort of habitat/structure is in the pond, you may want to do some poking around, literally, with a long pole to see what you can find in terms of solid objects, brush piles, etc. Short of swimming with a mask on or lowering the water, this could very well be a complete shot in the dark. Check out this link to the archives regarding structure and habitat. You can do all the reading here you'll ever need on the subject.

3. Skip the hybrid BG. Most feel the claims of size are overrated and once they start breeding, they will produce seriously inferior offspring that overpopulate your pond and have a negative impact. Stick with pure strain BG if you want them in the pond. But before you commit, make sure BG are part of your ultimate stocking plan based on the goals you have or will establish for your pond.

4. Stocking really depends on your goals, and also on what is in the pond already. One of the best things to do is simply fish the pond for awhile and get a sense of what's in there now and then develop a plan around that. If the existing population isn't compatible with your goals, you can always kill the pond and start over. With good management methods, in a few years you can have a nice fishery established. Again, it all really depends on your goals.

5. This is a toughie without knowing what sort of stuff you're dealing with. Some plants are good, too many are bad. Any amount of certain plants can be very bad. If you don't know what's in there yet, wait and see what grows in the spring, post some pics here, and the experts will offer suggestions on proper management. Muck can often be controlled through aeration, particularly if it is organic muck. There are varying opinions on how well muck eating beneficial bacteria actually works, so do your homework. There are a handful of threads on the topic around the site. One of the best things you can do is just jump in and search the site for old threads on these topics and then ask questions as you go.

Again, welcome aboard. Stick around for a lot more input.

Welcome to the forum Johnny! My brother lives in Wisconsin. Very interested to see the responses to your questions.

Todd3138,

Thanks for the reply and the welcome. I realize the steelers have the 2nd largest fan following next to Green Bay. Hope its a heck of a game and the right team wins

Anyway, maybe to help with more info so you and others can help me. the muck seems to only exist from the edge of the shore to about 6ft deep (about 8-10ft from shore) and then turns to hard clay. The area of the muck seems to also be where the cat-tails and submerged weeds grow.

As for structure, I drilled several holes through the ice and prodded around with a 2x4 and found none.

The reason I was out there in the first place in the middle of winter was to drill holes and pound dock posts to construct a dock. The posts in 4-5ft of water seemed to go through about 8-15inches of muck, about 20-24 inches of hard clay and then hit rock. The posts that were in 7-8ft of water seemed to go through the same depth of hard clay and then hit rock.

Johnny my man Green Bay all the way baby!! Dont listen to that Todd fella he don't know jack! Just kidding Todd!!

Johnny I just posted a rather lengthy post on Air and the system I am using. It IMO would be a great system for your situation and it won't break your wallet! I am no expert by any means but I set this system up in June and it's worked great for my 1 acre pond! Enjoy and look forward to gloating with you once the Packers kick some butt!!!

RC51....

Found your post on your aerator. Thanks for adding the detail. Looks like what I'm going to build.

As for Superbowl XLV, your analysis leads me to believe you are a wise man!!!

Go Packers!

You two and your Green Bay love fest are making me nauseous!

The rest of the forum and I will enjoy watching the Pack get dismantled on Sunday and will accept your humble apologies on Monday (we'll give you the evening to mourn!)!

On a pondier note, RC is right that aeration could have a good impact for you, especially if you have a fair amount of good clay still generally exposed. Aeration would likely help you maintain a fairly clean bottom for a much longer period. Just remember that it will help dissolve organics, but may not be as effective on actual dirt/silt that runs into the pond. If you have that sort of runoff, there are a lot of solutions to helping prevent that, including building settling ponds and wetlands that filter the dirt and other nutrients out before the water finally enters your pond.

Got any pics of your place?

I dunno Todd, we may have to get a picture of you wearing your cheeshead hat after the game is decided!

That's enough out of you! Don't you have DO measurements to take or something??!!

Nope, I took them all yesterday - all 5 ponds. I'll have to go out and push some snow around in a bit, but for now I'm content to be here pushing buttons. Ya think Ken has an extra hat for you?

In the off chance the Pack wins this one, I doubt he'd be willing to have it sullied upon my black and gold head!

The off chance??? Man I got a cheesehead you can borrow too. Or a nice hard hat, lets see a hammer, silverware, plates, mugs, and on and on! Just 3 days away!! Esshup I think Todd would look great in a cheesehead!! Old Big Ben just doesn't have what it takes to win the big one anymore. Heck the Ravens gave it to them anyway! LOL!

Oh, man, it is getting downright dirty now! I'll send you a Terrible Towel to model for the forum after the Steelers victory on Sunday. Just don't do a pic in nuthin' but a Terrible Towel - remember, it's a family oriented forum!

LOL!!! I love it!!

The pond and surrounding area is under 12-20" of snow...pictures won't be really good right now.

I cleared a section last weekend to start building my dock through the ice. I drove posts and attached cross beams. Now its under the snow again....when I clear it to work on it next weekend I'll snap some pics of the dock. The rest of the pics will need to wait 'til the snow is gone.

BTW...two clarifications:

1) I'll let you in on the secret of the cheese hat and its real use. If you turn it over, it is a great holder to carry 3 stadium beers (cupholder in each corner) and a pile of bratworsts (large hole in the middle) back to your seat in the stands!

2) The terrible towels will be great for the Steelers fans whiping away the tears while they mourn their loss until pre-season next year.

Go Packers!

Todd I noticed you said to stay away from the hybrid bluegill. I have HBG in my pond for about three years now without a problem. The ones I catch are huge. Just wondering if there is going to be some long term effects I'm not aware of?

Kenz, what other fish do you have in the pond?

I have a 1/3 acre pond that I stocked three years ago with 75 HBG, 75 YP, and 20# of Fatheads. Then the following years I stocked 15 Walleye, 5 Black Crappie and 5 Largemouth Bass. This last fall the HBG were so big I had a hard time wrapping my hand around them. I'm more scared of the crappie than anything.

You might easily end up with a shortage of groceries. However 20 pounds of fatheads with that stocking mixture ought to last for awhile. The problem is, at some point, as they grow, you will need larger forage to sustain the bass, walleyes, perch and crappie. A minnow might be a mouthful but not a gut full.

I've also put 10# of Fatheads in the last two springs. I figure if I don't see schools of minnows I need more. I also am going to try to pellet train whatever fish I can. I'm hoping the YP and HBG for sure and hopefully the LMB.

You probably won't have much luck on training the LMB.

Here's my concern. A bass needs 10 pounds of forage to gain one pound and the optimum size (calories gained vs energy expended) is forage that is 1/4 to 1/3 the body size of the predator. I know you don't have many LMB to start but those guys are spawning machines. I believe the crappie have the same feeding characteristics. So, the optimum forage is one that is self sustaining.

So do you think that the explosive reproductive rates for LMB and crappie might produce enough forage to sustain each other? Or is this why the comment was made to stay away from HBG? I have always kicked around the idea of stocking one northern or musky, but I'm afraid even just one will clean me out.

Hybrid Bluegill don't have much reproductive capacity. Therefore nothing you are putting in, with the exception of the crappie and bass, will get much of a spawn. You have to pray that 99.9% of the fry and YOY fish get eaten with them.

My favorite small pond recipe is HBG and channel cats with a feeder. Eat them and replace as needed.