Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Cutting Back Vegetation While Pond Is Low

My pond level has dropped ~ 18" with the dry weather recently allowing me to run the tractor and shredder around the banks. How much should I shred?

On one hand I want to beat back the vegitation to control growth and make fishing easier this fall/winter but don't want to ruin the habitat when the level comes back up. Literally tens of thousands of frogs are living around the banks and currently the bass fishing is fantastic.

Is this a non issue since the weeds are going to grow back anyway?

Tbar, I am no expert on the return growth of the vegetation around the pond water, but if mowing it makes you feel good, do it
And about the frogs, like you I had a pond full of tadpoles piping for air a couple of weeks back. And now I have frogs sitting along the waters edge, setting side by side all around the banks. I am not sure of the numbers but there is a lot of frogs. As I walk the shore line, the frogs will jump into the water and they swim rite back to the waters edge as soon as I pass. I wonder if they are thinking, I am NOT going into the water because the lmb are like sharks in there

Tracy

You see the two bull frogs to the left of the shredder deck? They never moved.

Thinking Duck and Cover is better odds than swimming out there in the sharks

Tracy

Tbar, I've found that a sustained water drop is the biggest issue with losing perennial shoreline plants. Is there a particular plant you're trying to save?

Al, I cut back 70% of the vegetation shown in the picture. I also left clumps of more vertical woody vegetation(don't know what its called).

FWIW, Last winter when the bloom went away and the water cleared I had a pretty good surge of underwater plants so maybe the fish/bait will have cover to hide in.

LOL.....could be!!!

This might be a Texas thing but what is a shredder? Up north we feed confidential documents in a shredder and they come out like strips underneath. Actually at my work a big truck parks out front every morning and some huge engine revs up in the truck and hundreds of pounds of paper go into some hidden hopper inside while the truck vibrates and shakes...

Is this a special tool that has hydraulic wings that come down from the side? A tow behind mower with rotating blades or chains underneath? I think up north we call it a 'Brush Hog' but that is probably a brand name like 'kleenex'

this is probably like texans calling HBG 'bream' and ponds 'tanks' I love seeing the diversity in our nation

Part geography and part different machine. Up here shredders are commonly referred to as flail mowers. They are typically used on tougher stuff than a rotary mower would be used on, but they often do fine job on a finish cut also.

Shredders and flail mowers spin their cutting edges vertically, while finish mowers and rotary cutters spin their cutting edges horizontally.

thanks sprkplug! I need to look now and see what the underside of a flail mower looks like. The equipment on my Gpas farm only had rotary cutters some with blades swinging on a bolt to allow them to hit something hard and not shear off the shaft, some had chains going around horizontally. Vertical cutting sounds wicked...

I like to leave some weeds emerging from the water in certain areas. Wild ducks are attracted to it and like to forage in the weedy areas, as it provides habitat for various critters.

Weeds in the shallows also give dragonflies a place to breed, as well as a place for the resulting dragonfly nymphs to climb out of the water and complete their metamorphosis before flying off to prey on mosquitoes and flies and whatnot.

Envision a roto-tiller with the tines swinging free, sharpened and spinning at high speed.

CC, down here a shredder is the same thing as a brush hog. A shredder and an empty 16' flatbed trailer are pretty much requirements here. I think everybody's given one when they buy any rural property. At least it seems that way.

Tbar sorry, I'm no help with the plant pic. It almost looks cloverish. The vertical stalks may be new rush/sage plant or something like waterleaf. Either way, I would think most anything that's an emergent shoreline plant should be fine if the stalks are removed.

We need a Texan to English dictionary.

Tony, please.

We actually need a West TX to East TX dictionary. I was a grown man before I knew what a cistern was. I just assumed every hole in the ground was a well, because that's what we all called them. Growing up in Dallas will do that to ya.

Al, the next time we're sitting around a fire someplace, will you please pull me aside and explain Texas to me?

You know Tony, I just thought the other day that I needed to make an Indiana fishing run at some point.

I could pick you up and we could go make fun of Scott. Dying his pond Burnt Orange might be nice too. That's lesson #1.

Early morning afterthought: Tony, I made another chemical order from Scott this morning. Probably not a good idea to dye a friend's pond when he's gonna ship 6 gallons of various herbicides my way. That, and he can shoot a lot better than I can run.

Al, you DID order pink pond dye, right?

Thanks for the order!

A pond the color of Pepto Bismol.

Scott, you were still supposed to be stump pulling. I miscalculated how long it would be before you got back on the forum. Rookie mistake on my part. At some point I need to get a calendar.

Stumps are pulled and 95% burned. While waiting for some return calls I can use the smartphone for other things, so even having a calendar wouldn't do much good, providing I have cell signal.





While the green Deere looks small, it really isn't, it is a 65 hp tractor.......

Boy O Boy esshup!! what I could do with the big yellow thang. No tellen how many ponds I would have in these deep E Texas woods I could carry yall around the place in that thang. And Sparky, hows that for a little Texas talk? While fishing the white river yr's ago and using a guide because I did not want to fool with the lady I now call my wife, the guide asked "where youen's from" My wife thought he was pulling her leg

Tracy

Tracy, I had to work to dig out a couple of the bigger stumps - they left holes that you could hide a medium sized bobcat in. But, they had to go - a client is doing some construction at his place and you can't have stumps under concrete.... That JD tractor wouldn't touch them, but the backhoe made short work of them. The trees weren't that big, only 15"-16" diameter. But the roots were very wide due to the high water table.

Having the right tool for the job sure makes things go a lot smoother!!

Yeah we don't use Y'all around here, it's you'uns!