Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations New House & New Pond

Hi guys, been browsing for a few days and first time posting. Just bought a new house a few weeks ago with a .4 acre pond. The house listing said "stocked pond", but have no further info. I do know it was dug in 2003. Pond is in a wide open grass area. River rock border 75%, and a short retaining wall going down one whole side about 25%. Very clean, no plants or trees. It does have an aerator with the pump on the patio and I'd say 1/2" poly ran underground to what I'm guessing is some sort of diffuser on the bottom. I don't know the depth yet.

Met one of the neighbors the other day who knew the previous owner (who only lived there for the past two years) and said one of the previous owners before the last guy put a bunch of goldfish in there, so the latest owner had stocked the pond to eliminate the gold fish (stocking would have to have been within the past two years). He had a fishing boat so I'm guess the previous owner was fairly knowledgeable. There are some remaining packages of "fish habitats" in the garage which appear to be a sphere/star of PVC pipe sticks to create a mock brush. I'm not sure if they are in the pond or not. There is one small area of the pond where someone (guessing previous owner) put a pile of medium size tree branches in the water near the edge to create some fry protection. (it's in the same area as the aerator)

Walking the border I have seen bluegill & largemouth bass, but they are very shy to human presence and scatter quickly. There were a ton of tadpoles back a few months ago when we looked at the house and I have seen some good sized frogs lately. Also have seen some sort of amur or carp, but not sure what. The house sits up higher then the pond and on the deck I can often see what I'm pretty sure are the largemouth scanning near the surface sometimes in groups of two or three, but mid afternoon, guessing the amur or carp, are very close to the water edge and their fins and/or heads are breaching the water slow & calm as I'm guessing they are feeding on algae?? Oh, also seen some fingerling sized bass while walking around. Not sure if there are any catfish in the pond.

We aren't even living at the house yet since I still have a lot of painting and some small projects to do, but the other evening I had a small window to grab a pole and fish for about an hour. Using a rooster tail and another spinner bait I caught about a 10" LMB, and another larger LMB that went airborne 3 times and on the third jump spit the lure out. Pulled out one good 4-5" bluegill and had a ton of what I'm guessing were small bluegill hits but not big enough for a lure (saw a handful of them as they got near me then released off the end of the lure). Oh, my cousins kid fished last week and caught a bunch of average/small bluegill.

The pond is also treated with dye.

Anyway, was just looking for a little direction on what I may need to do to keep the pond healthy and thriving. Never taken care of one myself, grew up fishing them and in the aquarium hobby though. ..If it was stocked in the past year or maybe two, should it be self sustaining or still need fed? Have been reading some feeding threads and considering buying a bag of Optimum Bluegill either way - not sure if the regular or Jr. size.

My one concern is the pond being so "open". The river rock border does go into the water at least knee deep from what I've found so far. There's really no protection of plants, trees, etc. except for what I described earlier. That OK or a concern?

Any opinions on everything is appreciated!

...BTW I'm in Northeast Ohio.

Job One is to do what you are doing...evaluate.
As you do that, think about your goals, and what you'd like to have. If you have goals, and a vision of what you expect, then cater your evaluation to figure out what you have, compared to what you need.

For example, if your goals are to have a fun fishing pond, with healthy populations of bass and bluegill, where you can catch 1-4 pound bass and bluegill up to ten inches, then you have a target.

As you evaluate, and find out you have a population of those fish, then you create a game plan for that fishery.

Start with habitat, learning all you can about the habitat for each species of fish. I love the river rock border, because of interstitial spaces for small fish to hide. I also like rock because it can help prevent noxious amounts of plants, and is an excellent surface for beneficial microbes and periphyton to grow.

But, if your goals are plentiful smallmouth bass and yellow perch, or something different, then your management strategy will be totally different.

'Evaluation' means sampling and studying what you have, to determine the status of the pond at that moment. Evaluation means learning about habitat, water quality/chemistry and the existing fishery. You can pay a pro to come evaluate, our you can study how to do it yourself and then get it done.

Start learning how to evaluate your fish by way of relative weights (RW). I am new to the idea so I will not attempt to school anyone here, but it appears to be a very useful tool in evaluating your fishes health. It basically allows you to determine what percentile your fish are in for their length and weight compared to average charts. Once you know what size classes are above or below average, you can start catering to the skinny ones. That is, however, if your goals are to manage the fish you have rather than killing the pond and starting over. RW will still be a useful tool if you start over, but more later than sooner.

Welcome to the forums!

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have some updated info... because of the recent stocking, I took a long shot and called a fishery that was nearest by and the guy who answered was nice enough to check the address in his system to see if they were the ones who had done it. Sure enough he brought the info right up! I was pretty excited. I learned the following...

2015

4 Grass Carp
7 Adult LMB
35 7" LMB
150 4-6" BG
100 4-6" Hybrid BG
75 6-8" Yellow Perch

Spring of 2015 got 10lbs of Minnows and 8 lbs Golden Shiners and again in Fall of 2015.

2016 Got the same spring & fall minnows & shiners.

I just took ownership a month & a half ago in 2017 and haven't done a thing.


Would the Yellow Perch have survived? Do you think the pond is self sufficient at this point? Should I start pellet food or return to the minnows and shiners starting in Fall?