Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Got the Pond Killed Off today

First Off I what to than the number of you here that have coached me through this, both in the threads and in PMs.

So here is a description of what I did over the last month or so off and on. Not sure that I did everything by the book, but I got it done. There may be better methods but this worked.

I drained the pond down from about 5 feet deep to about 6". This was done with 3" pvc schedule 40 pipe held together with rubber connectors. Once assembled I capped the two ends, filled the siphon at the T on top of the dam with a 55 gal bucket. Once filled I screwed the cap back on the T, removed the capped end in the pond, then the cap below the dam. The water came rushing out below the dam, like a dream. I started the siphon in the afternoon, came back the next morning and the siphon had stopped. A small CC had gotten stuck in the pipe and broke the siphon. I made a wire mesh box to put over the inlet and started the siphon again. It ran overnight and pulled the pond down to 6".



More than a month went by before I got the chance to kill off the fish with hydrated lime. Got that done today.

Today I rented a 3" trash pump, bought 10 50# bags of hydrated Lime type s from Mendards, along with goggles, dust mask. and some disposable gloves.

Set up the trash pump with the inlet inside a 55 gal drum that I put on its side so the water would flow into the mouth of the drum and help pull the hydrated lime into the drum and inlet of the pump hose. I got a couple of bag in and the fish started to come to the surface. In fact there were so many small crappie that they plugged up my hose inlet. So I clean out the fish from the trash pump inlet hose, and then put the wire mesh box I had used on the siphon to keep the fish out of the hose. I got the remaining 8 bags into the pond. There were fish flopping all around the pond for a while, maybe an hour. My SIL pulled out several big fish.



The only bass we saw, but it was several lbs.



The four big fish we found, CC, Drum, Bass and a big Crappie


The water cleared up a lot, so you could see the dead fish on the bottom.


Where we had thought that there were tons of small bullhead there were many more small crappie. There were the 4 big fish in the picture 4-5 medium sized CC, a dozen good sized Bullheads, a few small bluegill, a small drum, and that was about it. We had no idea that there were that many small crappie in there. We had only caught a few.

Thanks for the decription of how you did your siphon. May use that. What re you going to do with the pond now? Is this going to be the forage pond? Cmm

Here are a few pictures of the pond at different times of the year before I siphoned it down.

The water has always been very muddy, were you could only see a fraction of an inch into the water.

I like the idea of using the rubber connectors on the PVC...you can return it to Home Depot when yer done!

One of the mail uses for the pond it to cool and water the dogs when we are training or running. Now hope to be able to do a little fishing at times.

Now I need to get a bunch of rain down at the farm to fill up the pond.

I am going to restock after it fills up.

We are thinking about putting in some hybrid bluegill and some bass. I like to fly fish.

Also I suppose I should put in some structure / small cedars or hedge trees for cover for the small fish and fathead minnows.

But I am open to suggestions other than adding crappie or bullheads.

Good looking dogs!

Don't know about the crappie, pond is pretty smll for them to do well.

About 90% of my fishing is with a fly rod, mn those big gills are fun on my 4wt. And a 4 or 5 lb lm on 6 or 8 wt is one of the greatest feelings in the world, I believe.

You've got some time to consider what you do next. And lots of people can help once you have your fish goals set.

Cmm

If you want to do Hybrid Bluegills, go with Hybrid Striped Bass. The HBG won't have a large enough spawn to keep the LMB fed.

Did you test the pH of the water after the H-lime?

If you don't want to have to manage the fish population, Or have to worry about the predators overeating the forage base like Largemouth Bass typically will, stock Hybrid Bluegills, Hybrid Striped Bass, Redear Sunfish, Fathead Minnows and Golden Shiners. If you can find other species of minnows Bluntnose/Spotfin, toss some in too.

I did not find a tester in the area that would go up to a pH of 11.
In the morning I will check to see if there is anything moving in the pond. I know that not testing could leave me with some uncertainty about a complete kill. But the waster is shallow enough and now clear enough that I should be able to see anything still alive. If I have to retreat, I will.


I have never had a pond, and am not familiar with HSB. I would like to have something that will take a top water popper on a fly rod, and something that kids will catch easily.

The HBG will be great for kids and will take topwater poppers. I have even caught a 10"-11" Redear on a bass popper.

If I do the HBG and wanted to do LMB, could that be done by putting something else in with them for forage for the LMB?

Congrats, project well done! Just a thought, a pond that size is an excellent candidate for single sex LMB, HBG, HSB, RES, GSH. Just need to catch LMB on beds to determine sex, or find someone who can provide them. Rex may be able to help you - Rainman on the forum.

I second the single sex LMB route if you are determined to stock LMB. BUT, be 110% sure that they are all one sex......

BUT, here's why I said no. A given pond can only grow "X" pounds of fish. In your pond, I would only plan on having 25-40 LMB. That's of all sizes..... For each of those LMB to gain one pound per year, they will have to consume 250 to 400 pounds of fish if you don't buy feed trained LMB and feed them pelleted fish food. That's pushing the limits of carrying capacity of your pond without aeration and supplemental feeding.

Year 3, you will have to remove about 10# of LMB per year.

If you use HSB, since they don't reproduce in ponds, just keep tabs of how many fish you take out and replace them annually. No worries about the population exploding due to spawning.

OR, change your goals to raising large BG/HBG. Then stock 50 LMB in there and remove any that grow larger than 15" or so.

I would think that kids would love a pond where you can catch big bluegill or HBG, and then as a bonus get to keep any larger bass they catch.

I will look though some of the other forums and look at some of the options others have used. I also need to determine what type of structure to get into the pond. I have lots of cedar and hedge trees that can be used.

Love this thread! Well done!

Keep in mind that the LMB you might stock to control the HBG may take to eating pellets also. Then you may find yourself struggling to remove numbers of larger bass.

I really was not planning on feeding.
My wife and I will likely build a house down on the farm in a few years, currently we are 30 minutes away in town.

While I would like to think that I would spend the time needed to feed and manage a pond properly, the reality is that it will be farther down the priority list. So I need to develop a modest maintenance pond,

When we build a house at the farm, I will likely build a new pond. So this is my training ground. Figure out what is needed in time and money, to get as close to what I want as possible.

A feeder is a great investment and grows the fish soooo much faster, really aught to look at it

There are several of us on the forum who are interested in freshwater drum. How did your single drum do in the pond? You are sure there was only one? Was it bucket stocked? It seemed to have been in there a while to grow, or maybe bucket stocked as a large adult?

What are your plans now?

Are you going to get some heavy equipment in there?

Have you considered stocking a few Smallmouth Bass to control Hybrid Bluegill?

Beat me to it, Rex!

Setternut, Great looking dogs, I hunted on a regular basis with a family that hunted setters. We used to get together every yr and make several quail hunts in southeastern Okla. My E. Pointers and their setters. We would walk around 6 miles per day hunting. By the end of the day, the Setters and the pointers would have bloody tails at the Tips. And I remember setting on logs to pull our boots off for a break during the hunting. I remember we would have 50+ birds on a good days hunt. Thank for posting the pics, brought back great memories.

Tracy

Bird hunting is one of the most fun and satisfying sports there is. It's really an addiction.
I've (of course) always been partial to Setters. if you e trained your own dog, it's even a notch or two better.
Our quail populations have gone away here in Missouri. There are still some pockets of birds here and there, but not like 10 or 20 years ago.

Setternut, good luck with the renovation. Rex and TJ, have some great solutions mentioned above. Be patient, I'm not, and it's been a bit frustrating at times.
(FYI, I'm changing dog breeds, picking up a Drathaar pup in a few weeks.)

DrathaarGuy just don't have any ring to it......