kay im new at owning a pond but have learned along the way i built a 1/4 acre trout pond and this is my first winter in central wisconsin. be very careful about supercooling your pond i have a fresh flo surface areator and was keeping a hole open. fishing was great untill christmas day and the bottom fell out of our air temp. i went 4weeks with no fish biting being my first winter i thought water had too stay open. i was getting nervous by then and had to find what was wrong so i called Peter at rushing waters in wi. He asked what my water temp was and at 13ft it was 32.6 degrees the fish were near death with no warm water to retreat to. I shut down areator and he told me too wait it out this is when my investment in an o2 meter paid off in 10 days my pond warmed up to 35 to 37 degrees the fishing came back and o2 stays in the 10 to 12ppm it is now complety iced over and i can sleep at night remember nature uses ice to create a insulation blanket over water so -20 degrees cant touch the fish . if i would not of caught my problem i would of killed the whole pond by mixing -20 air with entire body of water. Ive been dairy farming for 20 years and took my knowledge of watering cattle to my pond. a simple breathing hole can be kept open by putting a floating livestock water tank heater 1500 watt 110 volt in the pond. i also use this hole too feed my minnows . no mixing of air .
