SetterGuy - Great update for your fishery. Keep up the good work. Your experiences with yellow perch in Missouri are very educational for us.
1. Do you have any mid-summer high readings for water temperatures? If not try and get us some of that data this summer.
2. Do you aerate your pond and how much each day?
Bill, I will watch temperatures more closely this summer. I'm not sure why, but just swimming in it, I'm always surprised it doesn't feel that warm. We swim in Tablerock Lake a lot in the summer, and it usually feels pretty warm in August. Our little pond never feels that warm. I suspect a lot of that is due to the trees that grow near the edge. They are big old oaks, hickories and maples. The water stays pretty cool a foot or so below the surface.
The trees present another problem though. In the fall there are days when a good portion of the surface is covered by fallen leaves. I know they are all sinking to the bottom. When diving down to the bottom, in the middle of the pond, I don't find that many leaves. I suspect the wind what little I get, pushes them to the banks. I see lots of leaves in the shallow water along the bank.
This means I need to aerate. I am planning on getting it done this summer, but haven't even started on it yet. I think I'm going to run air from the barn, but that's 900' from the pond, with a pretty good ravine in between. It's too costly to run electric. If I get it done, my plan would be to only run it at night. The pond is just three years old, but it does get a lot of leaves.
