Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Pond is disappearing.....

I fish out of a pond that belongs to a friend of mine. In the last couple of years it has become really choked out with weeds and lily pads. The pond is approximately 20 acres when full and averages about 6-8 feet and abot 10 feet by the dam. The problem is the Corp of Engineers have dropped the water level becasue beavers are digging into the dam and they are trying to trap them. The water has been low for about a year and a half. The north end of lake always had a few pads but due to the low water the weeds have really spread and have grown almost to the surface of the water. The pads have started rooting in the weeds beds and now take over more than half of the ponds surface. There are very few spots in the pond with no weeds. The water is gin clear.

We are interested in putting some grass carp in the pond to help control the weeds. What is the formula on numbers of carp to acerage?

Where do we buy them>

What can be used to kill the pads that wont kill the fish? Due to the size of the pond it isnt practicle to pull them by hand.

Thanks!

Scott

Scott :

Welcome to the PB forum. When will the dam be repaired and how much will the water level go up when it is full? Below are 2 links which should help. Nither one indicates that GC will eat lily pads. You need to id the weeds.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf see page 13

And you need a permit to stock GC in Texas.

Coontail and milfoil. Mostly milfoil. I wouldnt think that the carp would eat the pads but if the weeds were thinned out the pads wouldnt be able to root in them.

The pond is about 3 feet low right now but the corps is unwilling to repair the dam until it becomes an emergency. They say they dont have the $$ so we have to deal with the current conditions.

Ok here are the management options links from TAMU from the link above on the plants you ided.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/submerged_plants/eurasian_watermilfoil_mgmt.htm

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/submerged_plants/coontail_mgmt.htm

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/emergent_plants/white_water_lily_mgmt.htm

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/emergent_plants/banana_lily_mgmt.htm

Can you do this without Corp ok ? Why are they involved ?

This pond is a lake on private property but is a soil convervation pond so the corp is ultimately responsible. It basically means that you cant do it on your own and they dont have the $$ to do it either. Puts you between a rock and a hard place.

Contact the TPWD for a grass carp permit. The criteria will be whether the water outflow winds up in a public body of water. About 10 to 15 carp per acre is the recommened stocking rate.

I think I would take an active hand in beaver control and get the Corps out of the picture.

How did they drop the water level that requires a $ fix? Or are you talking about weeds that requires $?

Let me take a guess since this happened to us once. The ?#%! beavers tunneled a 30" wide hole in the dam below the water line when the water was down, a good rain brought the water level back up and then it punched a hole through the back side of the dam creating a really big leak. The water level has to brought down so the tunnel can be caved in and repaired with some heavy machinery, this cost us a couple thousand dollars to repair when it happened to us. Beavers are NOT welcome at our pond.

BINGO!

Scott, did the beaver move the chunk rock away from the dam to dig the hole too? The little bugger that did ours went in about 30 ft, then did a "T" and that went another 30ft each way with an air hole at the "T". If I remember right it took three weeks to bring the water level down a couple of feet to to where it could be filled in and repaired with a bull dozer. Our probelm was solved with a 330 connibear trap in front of the hole before the heavy machinery went to work.

Lots of problems can be solved with a good night vision scope and a .30 caliber rifle.

Hey Shorty, sometimes I fish and other times I stand around like an idiot. Hard to tell the difference.