Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Had my first dead fish this winter...

As those of you in the IL/IN/IA can attest, we've had a colder and snowier winter than usual so far. With the knowledge I've gained on this site I knew to keep an eye on the ponds as they froze over and became snowbound - to help prevent a winter kill. Throughout the last few weeks I've monitored the situation, and due mostly to the strong winds we've had neither pond had any significant snow cover on most of the ice.

Despite that fact, it appears there's a chance I had a winter kill. My dog drug up a dead channel cat yesterday via I believe a clear patch of water off of the small pond - 6-7 lb by the looks. It could've been something else, normal mortality, etc, but the fish looked healthy. I'm now wondering what I'll find if the ice melts off some more this weekend. There was some plant growth in this pond but not much, so a die-off of plant matter I wouldn't think would be all that detrimental...I guess we'll see.

I've seen several frozen floaters in my pond, all BG but they appeared healthy, so I'm wondering the same. Is it normal to lose a few?

Since then I've started up 2 of my 4 diffusers and have had continuous open water in those areas, so hopefully that will help.

I haven't seen any "open water floaters" so maybe that's a good sign.

I sure hope your one CC was an isolated incident!

Vast majority of morts don't rise to surface for our verification...sobering fact is we'll never fully be aware of the extent of the event when we experience a partial kill.

Dale keep us in the loop - the more I learn from guys like Condello, Rayl, Lusk, and Cody about water chemistry the more I realize I know absolutely nothing! Let's hope its an isolated incident - depending on the pond size that could be a mid sized CC or one near the end of it's life - again, depending on the size of the BOW.

I'll hope for no more evidence of fish kills this weekend - keep us posted.

TJ, how's your main pond doing?

I hope it's isolated for you guys too.

Haven't fished it for a couple weeks - bite's been slower and more tenative than normal - late ice typically heats up much more though. Water clarity is it's typical 8-9' depth, with lots of zooplankton all over the lens of my cameras - but I'm not seeing evidence the BG are grazing it much as they're all running around 75-80 WR. I've accepted the fact my fishery is settling into what it will be - likely never a trophy panfish fishery, but that's ok. I'm creating the fYP/mBG/mRES fishery in the .4 ac pond to satisfy that niche. SMB, HSB, HBC are all still doing well with WRs over 100 in my estimation, and the WE are slowly but surely beginning to resemble something other than cigars and pushing 16-17". Once they hit that 17" mark I feel they'll turn the corner as the gapes will allow for more forage sources - hopefully 3-4" BG. Have strong class of healthy YP from 7-10" coming up, and we still pop at least 1 master angler every time we ice fish [13"+]. Just wish their numbers were stronger.

You didn't panic and smash a hole in the ice by chance?

A not so funny story is my buddy went down to Costa rica for a holiday and came back to see his koi pond frozen over hard. He went to the shop and grabbed a big sledge hammer and smashed a hole in the pond. Come spring this smash on the ice had killed every fish in the pond.

Another friend just the other day screwed a ten pin bowling ball to a half inch rope and threw it out on to the ice of the pond till it broke a hole in his. Trout pond..... Will see this spring how he makes out.

I second the thought of the more I read the more I do not know. I love to read and to be able to read all I can on this site is worth its weight in gold. When I get some extra cash in my Pay pal account I will be dropping it here.

Cheers Don.

Funny you should ask...I historically check the ice thickness via the 'axe' method...chopping a hole through near the edge in several spots before I'll let the kids go ice skating.

I guess it's theoretically possible Mr. Channel Cat was somewhere in the close vicinity of the impact areas and I inadvertently killed him from the shock, but nowhere did I check the thickness in depths beyond about 3-4 feet...I would assume to expect CC's to be down in the deep holes this time of year? Or not?

I'm old enough to remember when we used spuds exclusively.. Funny thing is we didn't have a problem making an 18 inch hole with one because there was nothing better, and we didn't know any better.

Update on this one....we're still totally ice bound here, something at or near a foot thick in most spots. So it's hard to tell if my dead CC was an isolated incident or not at this point. I have gone through the effort of plowing strips through the 10-14 inch snow we have standing on the small pond. Haven't bothered with doing it for the big one though.

I would assume in this situation it's going to be difficult to figure out if I even HAD a kill? By the time the ice comes off any fish that had died would no longer be floaters, they'd have sunk to the bottom and/or been eaten, right?

TJ in answer to your question, the BOW is right at 1 acre, average depth of 13', steep sides with very little shallow water. Little vegetation.

In cold water, not much decompostion happens. Once the water warms, right after ice off, you'll see floaters. You might see them before all the ice melts too.

Ever hear "Lake Superior never gives up her dead"? That's because of the cold water.

I think you'll have a much less chance of winter kill with a pond like that vs. a shallow weedy pond. Don't panic you may just come out just fine. One fish doesn't mean squat. I had a big perch die just before ice up probably of old age.

There is a possibility the jet stream trough and ridge could position itself farther east, and we could have a later winter and spring like last year. Totally opposite of our cold snap.

Thanks Cecil...I'm hoping you're right.

Our pond is shallow, but not weedy. We'll see what happens at ice-out. Despite Tony's best efforts, no one is brave enough to venture out and fish it.

We've had one floater -- the sole remaining carp. He must have been 30 years old as that's how long it's been since it was last stocked. On the plus side, we got to watch a bald eagle land on the ice to eat it. Pretty cool.