Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Shoveling snow from iced over pond

This might be an odd question...currently my pond has 6-9" of snow on top of 6" of ice. I still have 5-10 GPM flow through the pond from feeder creeks. The top 2" of ice are very white due to snow+slush freezing at ice up. With the white ice on top is it still beneficial to remove snow from the ice? The amount of light penetration through the white snow will be minimal compared to if the pond was frozen over with clear ice.

They're saying we will be getting another 3" of snow over the weekend

I think because the pond gets constant 5-10 gpm feeder creek flow you should not have to remove snow. Fish in their day to day travels should remain near the higher DO from the feeder creek. Fish loss should be minimal during extended snow cover. How big is the pond again. The larger the pond the lower percentage of influence from the feeder creek. The cold water from the feeder creek should travel long distances to produce a large influence around the mouth of the creek.

To piggy back off this, my pond is .6 acre, 15ft deep or so . Ice over now in Ohio, small amount of snow. How long before I would need to clear off the snow?

1.25 acre, 16 max depth, about 10 ft average depth. one feeder creek is iced over, the other (leading from the outlet of the adjacent pond) is open and flowing. I have small areas of open water directly above my outlet and directly below the main inlet.

I was just thinking that clearing that much snow, plus whatever we accumulate before/during the weekend is going to be a huge undertaking!

If you have an ATV you can clear a few passes pretty quickly. Be cautious and test the ice with an auger bit in places across your desired ruote first. That white snow ice can be pretty weak, so you have to rely on solid ice below. With snow on top, the ice may not be as thick as you think, especially near the inlets and outlets.

"my pond is .6 acre, 15ft deep or so . Ice over now in Ohio, small amount of snow. How long before I would need to clear off the snow?"

Simple question complex answer. A lot depends on how fast a pond environment consumes the DO. Two main features under ice & snow cover in winter: 1. amount or degree of eutrophication i.e. amount of dead and living material includes bacteria to fish. Bacteria are the biggest consumer of DO in summer and winter. 2. Depth of the pond with average depth as most important. The more average depth a pond has (volume to surface ratio) the longer the DO will last.

The general rule I use is 4 to 5 weeks of complete snow cover and I start to get concerned with a pond having a maximum depth of 14-16ft,

I spent 5 hours clearing snow with a snow blower and shovel..

Guess I can't post pictures anymore like I used too??

I wish an ATV were an option for my place but at this time its completely inaccessible by anything other than foot. I'll see if I can't at least shovel a decent amount of snow off at some point in the next week.

Mother nature is doing the work for me and the snow is starting to melt. The next three days are forecast to be 40-48 degrees. I need to make it down to the pond to check runoff and ice loss as my inlets. After this short thaw we have at least 5 more days of below freezing temps that will build some serious ice thickness. I haven't checked ice on the pond but my guess is anywhere from 5-12" of ice at this point.

I too am hoping for the warm up (and predicted rain) to clear the snow on the ice. I hope the fish fared ok in the darkness.

Finally made it down to the pond to check the ice...snow melted (thanks mother nature) and I have 2-3" of slush/ice over 1" of water, over 4-6.5" of hard clear ice. It'll all be solid again this weekend.

My feeder creek from the upper pond is frozen mostly solid and backed up.....the surface seep in this area is also frozen, it was wet most of last winter.




Rest of the pond


I poked a few holes to measure ice. I have an 18" drain hole on a sunken "sheet" in the middle that should keep weight from building up as we get some more gentle rain tomorrow