Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking how soon after a fish kill ..

This week my favorite pond died. All the fish are dead. At least it appears that all the fish are dead. This is a private sportsman's club.

How soon can re-stocking begin?

This is my first visit to this site. I met Bob at a Bass Resource Road Trip at Pickwick Lake in 2008, so I know this is the right place to ask the question.

I know there are many factors to consider, so I will be visiting this site and reading everything I can. I will get up to speed as soon as I can.

Thanks to all who reply,
GK

I would fix the issue that killed the fish first..

Ghoti:

In what part of Illinois do you live? I live in Fayette County and we have had water temp in the high 80s+. On Sunday we had a 2 inch cold rain. My air temp went from 95 to 72 in less than hour. Several local non-aerated ponds have had massive fish kills caused by the sudden air temperature change and two inchs of cold rain.

I'm right down the road bing.. Exact same scenario no aeration as of yet.. And I tjmhink my fish were jumping for joy, that rain totally rejuvenated my pond (seemed like it anyways lol )

Rarely is there a 100% fish kill. I would first access what survived. Often it's the smaller fish and the less desireable trash fish if they are present... Then look into aeration. I'd consider killing off any remaining fish and starting over if you lost most of the bigger fish.

We had a fish kill during the winter but we suffered extreme cold. Not normally we don't experience. We had four days of below freezing and the lowest temperature being -20 F. But more recently, we experienced a fish kill due to a lack of aeration.

Like they said, see what you have.
Mabeye a good time to rid the pond of GSF, bull head and carp, if you have them.

Then of course, every body suggest bait first, appropriate amount to acrage of dam.

They would say bait this fall once the temps cool and forage fish this spring.

Then later you big game fish either as the target speiceis or to control a trophy blue/brim/perch fishery.

unless you are doing trout, which I doubt.

Can you give us more details.

What was in the pond?

Game fish, trash fish, bait fish, feeder creeks.

What is in the dams up the drainage from the pond?

We all image that the estreme heat was to blame, is this your impression too?

Sorry guys, I haven't been home for a while, and haven't had e-access while out.

BGKiller, you're on the money; there are problems which need to be addressed.

Bing, this is in Christian county. We're practically neighbors. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad to hear that this was not the only occurence in the same time and place. It eliminates some suspected stupidity.

For background info; the pond is about 10 acres, dammed, with four in-flows. Two of these are from roadside ditches full of grass so the entering water is mostly clear. Once source is from a pasture and one from farmland. The pond has very good clarity for central Illinois; at least it does for much of the year. It gets dingy in the spring, but clears fairly quickly once the grass is green and the spring rains have ended.

The fish population was largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, hybrid redear and catfish. Catfish used to be stocked every year, but not for the past 8 years or so. I've been fishing this pond for better than 20 years, and that's what I've caught; LMB, crappie, bluegill, hybrid redear, and once in a blue moon catfish.

A survey from a rowboat two days after the fishkill revealed bass up to about 6 pounds, crappie up 18", hybrids up to 12", lots of bluegill, and only a handful of catfish, all of which were in the 5 - 7 pound range.

Here's what I believe happened. This is a private sportmen's club which changed management a few years ago. They have been on a radical weed kill scheme. Last year they introduced some chemical; nobody is saying what, which killed every bit of vegetaion in the pond. I mean everything. Since that happened the fishing has been lousy.

There is a large aerator which they claim costs them 20 bucks a month to run, so they will not turn it on.

I, along with others, have urged them to turn on the aerator to no avail. This year, the only bass I've caught came from less than 4 feet of water and were all small. The only crappie I've caught were from less than 4 feet of water. Ditto all other fish I've caught this year from this pond. I think all the decaying vegetation depleted the oxygen levels such that the only real inhabitable area was near the surface.

Well they finally decided that maybe the aerator was a good idea once the surface temps were approaching 90 degrees. This was on a Friday afternoon. That Friday evening we received about 2" of cold rain. I think the pond turned over, mixing the dead water from the bottom with what little water held any oxygen, lowering the oxygen levels to below the sustainability limit, suffocating the fish. They turned the aerator on at just the right time to expidite the process. Fish started floating Saturday, and by Monday afternoon the the largest area to be seen without a dead fish floating in it was about the size of a queen bed.

I stopped by the pond this afternoon. I watched for about 15 minutes and did not see any surface activity.

ghoti, my fishkill sounds a lot like yours. Two weeks of 95-100 degree weather, followed by a rainstorm that filled the pond with slightly muddy water, then a few cool, cloudy days. We had good growth of planktonic algae before that, making the water green in color. After, the water turned brown and the fish started dying. I have a small pond (1/2 acre) so 15 catfish and 15 LMB is a big deal. Worse, I don't know what I could do next summer to avoid such a chain of events and another fishkill. I guess I will call in a biologist from the local fishery for a consult. Maybe I should have been more diligent in keeping all the algae minimized rather than being glad it wasn't filamentous algae mats.

Aeration, will help prevent that type of fish kill.

Aeration will help but it won't overcome ignorance. An expensive aeartion system not used because it costs $20 per month. How much would that have been per member?

You are 100% correct DD1. And the better question is what will it cost to repair the damage caused by NOT running the Aeration system? I guarantee that by the time you add up the cost to restock a 10 acre pond and the time lost for them to grow back to there previous sizes. (Bass to 6lbs) That $20mth will seam like a bargin. Do they plan to run the aeartion going forward? and how does this affect the rates if theres no fishing for the next couple yrs?

Ghoti,

Sounds to me the cool rain hastened the turn over which would have happened any way from just cutting on the aerator and walking away.

If the lake is real deep all diffused aeration equipment needs to be "broken in". Run the aerator for a small amount of time per day for a week and then increase the time every weeks that follows.

I agree on killing of the rest of the lake before stocking again.