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Joined: Sep 2014
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Hi There! My name is Jarrod. I've been reading up on the forums for a while now and have decided to finally post up my pond. What an awesome place this forum is - Thanks to all out there who contribute and share information and ideas!

BACKGROUND - I was an avid sport fisherman all during my childhood until I moved away to college. Bass and Pike were my favorites, and at one point when I was a kid I had dreams of joining the Bassmaster's Tour and becoming a professional fisherman. Well dreams gave way to reality and I ended up becoming a pharmacist. I have not really fished much in about 18 years now. Last year I moved out of town to my dream property in the country. It is a 10 acre peninsula with about 1/2 mile of river frontage on the 3 sides, with about 1/3 acre pond in the front yard. I've done more fishing in the past 9 months than I have in the past 18 years! I LOVE it! It's so great to get back into it again. Now it's time to make the pond the best it can be.

RIVER - the river is the Pine River in Central Michigan. It was contaminated decades ago and for a long time only supported Carp. Now it has a great population of SMB, some CC, Rockbass, Suckers, Carp, Shiners, and even a few NP, and I've seen one LMB. Those are the ONLY species I've found so far. Never seen or caught a single perch or BG or sunfish or Trout. In the same hole at different points in the year I have caught a 24" NP, 17" SMB, and 21" CC.



POND - I bought the property a year ago. The pond was built around 1995 as a trout pond. I was told by a neighbor that it was dug 40' deep and that there was a natural spring feeding it (I doubt both of those claims). Some time ago this whole area flooded and the trout were all lost to the river. This past spring I saw a couple dead fish when the ice melted. I tried fishing several times and could not catch a single thing and saw no signs of fish, not even minnows. Over the spring and summer the pond was stocked with about 15 SMB between 12" and 17", 1 12" LMB, 4 CC from 12" to 21", a couple Rock Bass, 1500 FHM, and one sucker. I recently re-caught one SMB that was now about 19" and healthy looking.

From spring until late summer the water was crystal clear with bright green Chara all around the bank anywhere from 4' to 10' out from the bank. I could probably see about 6 feet down into the water. There was also a bit of ugly floating algae also, but very little weeds.



Late summer the water turned cloudy and the Chara seemed to die. I couldn't see more than 2 foot down. It happened after I added the CC, not sure if the murkiness is due to the CC stirring up the bottom, or due to the water temp rising causing a change in the vegetation/algae. About a month ago I added some beneficial bacteria (Easy Pro Sludge Remover) and an aeration system (1/4HP Stratus Rocking Piston with single membrane diffuser). At first I got a lot of sulphur smell and chunks of goo floating on the surface, but that has since gone away. All of the floating algae has gone away around the edges. Visibility has improved to about 2' and all of the floating algae is gone. Now starting to see some green blobs of algae under the water, but not the weedy or mucky floating looking stuff from before. Just green "blobs".

I was told the pond was about 40' deep. Well I went out and measured (brick and rope) and the deepest part now is 18' The pond is currently 2' low from max springtime fullness, so all the numbers in the picture below would be 2' deeper in the spring. Even if it has collected 3 feet of muck in the past 20 years that would put max depth at about 23 feet when it was built. The water level fluctuates about 2 feet from spring to fall. This is why I doubt that it is spring fed. I would think it would maintain a more even level, as the only escape for the water is into the ground or evaporating into the air. Here is my depth chart:



PLAN - I'm not really sure where to go from here. I am having a delivery of fish brought in about a month but not sure what to stock. I want something good for the SMB and CC to eat. I would LOVE to be able to catch a 10# bass or a 20# CC some day, and I also plan on having one large NP in the future, but I also want some easy small fish for the table. BG, crappie, perch, etc. . . maybe even a few trout if the pond could support them. Right now the aerator is in the center of the pond at approx. 12' depth. I plan to move it to about 6' before winter and let it run all winter long. I would like to be able to swim in the pond some day. This would involve cleaning up the bottom or putting in sand, and getting the water quality back to more clear. Draining and starting over is not an option at this point. . .

I'm thinking of adding 250 HBG, 50 YP, 20CC, 10#FHM, and one adult NP next spring. Your thoughts and advice are much welcome and appreciated! Also, how can I tell if there is a natural spring feeding cold water into the pond? How can I tell if fish born and raised in the pond are safe to eat?

Here are some pictures of what I've caught in the river this year:









Last edited by EVOlutionary; 09/19/14 08:31 PM.
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Hi Evolutionary! Welcome to PBF and welcome from another fellow pond owner and pondlover in Michigan. I'm in the greater Grand Rapids area and you are welcome to stop by anytime you are in the area. I'm sure we would have a lot in common!

I can tell you have been lurking for a bit on the board, you are doing aweseome on your planning, investigating and study.

You are finding out one of the rules of this board which is that no matter what someone says your pond is for depth, spring fed etc, you need to prove it yourself. It would be very hard with most soil types encountered in michigan to have a 40 foot deep pond since you can't usually excavate with vertically steep sides.

You didn't mention the surface area size of the pond?

I see some vegetation on the bottom near shore that does not look like charra or FA. Hopefully some of that helpful vegetation will consume some of the nutrients.

Do you have water or power or both at the pond? How much water can you pump?

have the FHM spawned?

Is there a way that fertilizer run off can make it into the pond?

I'm not sure I can answer your questions about stocking since I'm still at the stage where I only have forage in my pond. I did put some rusty crayfish in this summer, some freshwater shrimp but no predators.

You already have SMB, LMB and CC so not sure how you go from here. I imagine some other apex predators would be helpful, NP, some have even mentioned pickerel.

Welcome and thanks for the awesome pictures. Those SMB look great.

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Welcome to the forum!

Look in the archives for the thread on carrying capacity. Pay attention to how many pounds of fish per surface acre you can have.

Each top line predator in the pond will eat around 10# of fish per year, more if possible. So, run the numbers on how many top line predatory fish you have in the pond, and hwo many forage fish you need in the pond.......

Remember that you cannot tell a fish what species to eat, they will eat whatever fits in their mouth when they are hungre.

Another thing to keep in mind is that bass like to eat fish arond 1/4 their body length.

What fish will be your forage base in the pond?


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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Thanks for the replies folks! The pond is approx 1/3 acre. Fairly steep drop offs. At one point the brick I lowered down actually slid from about 10' to the 18' deep spot. I could feel it sliding down the ledge.

I have power for the aerator. For water I would have to pump from the river (read contamination concerns in OP) or from my home's well which has a lot of iron.

I believe the FHM have spawned because I see lots of schools of tiny minnows all around the bank. Smaller than the FHM I put in.

There should be absolutely no fertilizer runoff able to get into the pond.

As for forage, that's what I need to add. HBG, YP, something else?? I also plan on getting a load of crayfish.

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I've thought about it some and my goals are to be able to go out to the pond and catch a dinner of good sized panfish or small WE or Trout a couple times per week. To catch a nice fat SMB maybe once per week for fun, and to catch some CC maybe once per month for a fish fry for friends. . . So I guess my main questions now are thus:

- how do I find out if fish grown in my pond (not transplanted) are safe to eat?

- how do I find out if fish from my river are safe to eat?

- what stocking strategy would you recommend for a 1/3 acre pond with an abundance of large predatory fish and no forage so far except for invertebrates, a few crawdads, tadpoles and frogs, and some small FHM??

- drop offs are steep in the pond - should I try to add rock or dirt or sand in a few areas to give more shallow areas for spawning or feeding?

- what is your best SMB, BG, and CC recipe? :-)

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Also, (sorry to keep asking more and more) - I've read that SMB don't necessarily prefer to feed on BG or HBG as much as LMB. Should I add some other medium sized prey fish for them, or if that's all that's offered will they learn to like it and continue to grow to BOSS size?

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Crap, just thought of another question - during the winter should I aerate or otherwise treat the small extension/protrusion of the pond? My concern is if fish get caught in there during a really deep freeze the small 4' deep connection could be froze solid and they could be trapped. Any worries of this in Mid Michigan area? Supposed to be a nasty winter this year. . .

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EVO, it is entirely possible your pond was dug near 40' deep originally and due to it's relatively small diameter to depth, the steep sides simply caved in and filled the bottom. Since you say you have no spillway, it could also be "spring" fed and the spring just fluctuates with it's source water table level. Essentially making your pond a groundwater level controlled pond. As the water table rises, water enters your pond and rises...when the water table lowers, your pond drains.



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Winter aeration is good, but you'll want to avoid super-cooling. I doubt many, if any fish would get trapped in ice, but that 4' shelf is a great place for the winter placement of your diffuser to keep a large area ice free and avoid super-cooling. Summer diffuser placement should be in the deepest part.

Winter aeration is done to only keep an area ice free where oxygen can be dissolved into the water while unwanted gasses (Like CO2 and Hydrogen Sulfide) are released to the atmosphere, and to NOT circulate and "super-cool" deeper waters



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Thank you ALL for the advice and information. It is much appreciated!

I think this winter I am going to make some cover/spawning pieces out of lumber and PVC as I've seen in other posts and put them out on the ice so when spring comes they will sink in place.

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Here is a video of my "pet" snapping turtle eating a hotdog. My friends call him the pen!s biting turtle - but I assure you it's just a hotdog! lol

Whenever I'm out fishing or walking around the pond he follows me all around the perimeter of the pond just waiting for a treat. Loves fried catfish almost as much as do I! smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT45urWDzFc

Last edited by EVOlutionary; 10/03/14 10:11 PM.
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Never before seen that.

Last edited by Dave Davidson1; 09/23/14 03:56 AM.

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Well I ordered my first large batch of stocking/forage fish. I got:

200 5-7" Hybrid Sunfish
50 5-7" Perch
25 8-10" RBT
10# of FHM

I expect half of the perch and sunfish to get eaten in the first year. Hopefully some will spawn next year to start the regeneration of a forage base for my SMB and CC. Also, hopefully, the 10" RBT are large enough the bass won't eat too many of them and they will be able to grow into tasty table fare. . .

If all goes well in the first year I may add some more RBT and some more CC next fall.

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I have a question - as I showed in the first picture water clarity was really good this spring. Now it is about 1/4 of what it was then. The only things I can think could have changed this are either:

- adding 5 adult (12-22") CC
- adding 8# of FHM
- adding aeration to stir up the water
- adding "beneficial bacteria" to try to eat up some muck
- rise in water temp causing a bloom in microscopic algae or plankton or something like that.

Which of those do you think is the culprit, or none of the above?

Do you think by next year with me changing nothing else the water will go back to super clear?

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rise in water temp causing a bloom in microscopic algae or plankton or something like that.

The more nutrients that are in the water, the more plant life you will have, either planktonic, vascular or algae.

If your pond is warm enough in the summer for the CC to grow, then it might be too warm for the Trout to survive the summer.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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Pond and fish seem to be doing well after the winter ice has thawed. Last fall I stocked 25 RBT, 25 YP, and about 200 HSF. This spring I found two dead sunfish floating after the ice melted but that's it so far. During the winter I pulled the diffuser head to about 5' of water (18' max depth) and ran it intermittently through the winter to open up the ice once a week or so. When the hole was open I also fed the trout some floating food. They seemed to gobble it up. Now I am feeding the trout about once every couple days, and will increase once water temps rise. I see them feeding on the surface (insects, etc) sporadically all throughout the day. I have yet to see any of the perch, SF, SMB, or CC. Hopefully once the water warms up more I'll see them up in the shallower water.

This week I added a 2nd diffuser head in the 2nd deepest section, and moved the main diffuser to the deepest point. At first the deeper diffuser did not put out any air, so I pulled the air line up leading to the 2nd diffuser and added a ball valve in-line and adjusted it until I had approximately even flow from both heads. Noticed a LOT of black stinky gunk rising up from the bottom so I'll run it only for an hour today and slowly increase the run time until the sludge/stink goes away to avoid a fish kill. Also added a bit of beneficial bacteria too just in case. Water is still cool, so I'll add more throughout the summer as water temps warm up and the bacteria can work better. . .

I also got a pond rake and have been pulling some of the leaves and debris out of the pond. Upon doing so I found out there are probably thousands of crayfish living in the crap at the bottom. That was a welcome surprise. Now I know how the bass lived last summer before I added some minnows. Speaking of that - there are swarms of hundreds of minnows all around the perimeter in the shallow waters. This time last year I could not see a single live fish anywhere in the water. I also found some little 1-2" SF or rock bass babies, so something must have spawned over the past year smile This summer I'm going to work on spawning habitat (rocky bottom) for my large SMB . . .


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