Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass Will My Fish Survive Winter?

I'm not sure this is the correct forum; I apologize if it isn't. We built a new .75 acre pond one year and 5 months ago. It was dug on high ground with absolutely no run off feeding it. We did this on purpose so that the water would be nice and clear (our big, old reservoir pond is often muddy). At full pool the new pond will be only 8 feet deep with a single small trench area of 10 feet deep. Unfortunately, the pond is still about 2 to 2.5 feet below full pool. We haven't been receiving much precipitation this month and the pond will ice over soon.

My question is will my fish survive under the ice if the water is only 6 feet or so deep? I've already stocked LMB, BG, YP, FHM and GS six months ago and they have grown nicely. It would be a tragedy to lose them and start over.

If necessary, it is possible to borrow water from the big old pond and pump it uphill to the new pond. But it's expensive and time is running short before the ice covers both bodies of water. If I don't have to pump in water, I would rather not do it.

I'm including a photo of the new pond and a photo of a young LMB from it. As always, I really appreciate the help!

Six foot is pretty shallow....extended snow cover on the ice is your enemy, not so much the ice itself. You need sunlight to get down to depth and stimulate plant growth, providing O2.. I don't see any aeration in your photos, which is a great method of keeping an area ice-free. If it freezes thick enough, perhaps you could clear some of the snow off by hand...CAREFULLY.

Temps wise, the 10' deep area might provide refuge, depending on the number of fish present....

Thanks, sprkplug! I was hoping that someone would say that the 6 foot depth was OK for the winter. It would seem to me that ice over shallower water would actually permit MORE light penetration, thus more plant growth, thus more oxygen.

So, I'm still not sure why fish in winter need a lot of depth to survive. Could it be the temperature is too cold in water less than about 10 feet? I know if you go deep enough the temps are 39 degrees F.

I've caught BG and LMB in the big pond under the ice in 3 feet of water before, but I'm not sure that proves anything.

Depth has to do with oxygen reserve. Think of oxygen in a pond under the ice as a money in a piggy bank. The more money in the piggy bank, due to a larger piggy bank, the longer it will take to use up the money if you withdraw a little at a time. It's the same with oxygen under the ice. The more water volume as in deep water the longer it takes to use up the oxygen over the winter.

Depth isn't really an issue if you invest in a small diaphragm pump with a short airline and diffuser in the shallow end of the pond.

Keeping snow off works when you can do it safely as sprkplug says. Unfortunately you can get a heavy snowfall over thin ice and not be able to get on the ice to get it off. Additionally you can have slush underneath it from the water coming up through cracks freeze some of it and makes an opaque ice.

I used to actually snowblow snow off my ponds. I finally realized just running a small pump and diffuser in the shallow ends was less labor intensive and cheaper than burning gas!

Another option is pumping up pond water through a hole in the ice through a sump pump to melt snow. The diaphragm pump and diffuser is still your easiest option.

Cecil, thanks! Your analogy to a piggy bank is just the kind of picture I needed to understand what's going on with the issue of oxygen depletion (withdrawal from the piggy bank). I never thought of the problem like that before.

I've got to find a diaphragm pump! I'm thinking that has to be easier and cheaper than pumping water up the slope from the old pond to fill the new one.

1) probably you will get a bit more water till the real winter;
2) 6 feet could be enough if you use some aerating device.

[quote=Grundulis]1) probably you will get a bit more water till the real winter;

Normally that is true Grundulis but we haven't had normal weather here in the Midwest for some time. Still long periods without rain.

Sandman's pond does not get runoff so that's a negative too.

The same problem is happening in the local ponds. Groundwater Ponds that don't have supplemental water are running anywhere from 6' to 10' below normal full pool. That's not typical. Usually we will see ponds drop during a normal winter. This year will be bad if we don't get above normal precip.

FWIW - Normally my ground water fed ponds are very shallow with an average depth of 4' and a max depth of 6'. With aeration, my fish have had no issue with surviving the long MN winters.

This year (record setting dry conditions in my area)is a whole different story. I have a max depth of 5' and almost zero moisture in the ground. If my depth stayed at 5' I would have no worries. Its the water loss thru evaporation into the dry winter air that concerns me. With little ground water there is no way for my ponds to replace the evaporated water.

As an inventor, I always want worst case conditions to test my designs. Well, I'm about to get what I want....How does that saying go about being careful what you wish for?

Thanks everyone! The new pond pictured above was considerably lower six months ago (May) when I stocked it. It was almost a year old then. I was expecting that spring rains would finally fill it, but they never arrived.

After the fish were delivered in May, I asked an excavator to pump water from the big old pond up a slight slope to the new pond. He raised the water level about two feet in two days of pumping (at $675 per day). Despite the worst draught in my memory, the new pond lost less than one foot since then. Hurricane Sandy replaced some of that last month.

I'm still 2 to 2.5 feet below full though. So, with 6 or so feet of water in the pond, the experts here seem to agree that aeration is the only way to insure my fish survive the winter. I'll have to get a pump. Thanks to all for your interest and advice!

MrSandman, I think your fish will do fine even if you have to clear some areas off after heavy snow. Just clear it off as far as you can reach if you don't trust the ice.

What scares me is if you get muskrats into your pond, they can drain it pretty quick since your pond is on high ground.

Anybody know how to get around that situation^^^?

Sandman, clearing snow off the pond to let in sunlight can be a difficult and sometimes dangerous task, as Cecil has suggested using a submersible pump to run water on top of the snow and ice works well to allow more light into the pond, I've used this technique every winter before the snow gets too deep.
It really helps in addition to aeration.

Wide enough dikes where they can't bore far enough to create a leak?