Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Old Strip mine pond

TimJean, I would suggest killing off everything and starting over correctly, IF you'd like a better than good chance at a quality fishing pond. I hate sounding harsh, yet it would be the fastest, easiest, and least expensive solution to what is happening...

You are woefully off on stocking numbers....With only 60 Bluegill to feed 30 Bass, the bass will be, or already are, starving....you need about 10:1 minimum BG to LMB...The 2000 Fatheads is only about 2.5 pounds. Chances are high that the Bullhead ate most everything within hours of being stocked.....The Bullhead are why I suggest killing and sterilizing the pond.

Given your latitude, and the steep sides (I assume rocky sides), I'd suggest a Cool Water pond stocking with Smallmouth Bass, Walleye and Yellow Perch along with your Redear and the Fathead minnows (no bluegill for a few years). The rocky sides would be great for SMB spawning and habitat, yet a typical Bass bluegill and catfish pond will do well also.

Stocked properly in your latitude, you would need about 20 pounds of Fatheads stocked a year before everything else, or about 50-60# if stocked with other fish.....If going with largemouth, you'd need about 3000 Bluegill, 500 Redear and 100-200 Largemouth. If you like fishing for Catfish, go with Channel catfish, and keep numbers pretty low (no more than 100).

Anyway, I hope you are getting some ideas, and sterilizing the pond is not that hard or expensive if using Hydrated Lime, and the pond could be stocked within a couple weeks after being sterilized.

As for aeration, I'm not thinking it is doing much either if your pond is long and thin. Your fish will only congregate around the aeration plume if the rest of the pond is low on dissolved oxygen.

Agricultural Lime (pelletized, pulverized or bulk) (not Hydrated Lime) will not change your pH quickly. It will take weeks and months to raise your pH...You could easily add 20 or more ton of Ag Lime to the pond safely (and that is probably close to the tons needed, if added).

I understand your wanting to stock something, and only stocking a few fish till you know they will survive...Unfortunately, that caution can also create a situation where it becomes FAR more expensive to correct than a less cautious approach would have cost originally.

Once your Bullhead went in....only killing off the pond will get rid of them...My educated guess is that most everything you stocked was quickly eaten by the starving bullhead....Have you fished the pond much to see what may bite? It is rare that 2 acres of water has been left devoid of fish for very long.....