Hello, Last year I bought a house in south central FL that has a small pond next to it, and I've been meaning to maximize it... my goals would be to have it where I can catch some bass, and bluegill and harvest a few every now and then.
The pond is right at .25 acre and 10-12' deep.... I have thrown a cast night a few times and got nothing, but that might not mean anything... I have plenty of mosquito minnows, and I know I have a very healthy population of hoplo catfish, which is a fairly recent invasive species that not many, if any studies have been done. I also have a few softshell turtles and at least one hard shell turtle. I have recently added 5 largemouth bass between 10-12" long and from the strikes I've seen recently, they are surviving. I also have a very healthy population of leopard frogs, which I take as a good sign. I have tried all manner of small lures, live worms, and bread and have caught nothing, so I assume that there is very little or no gamefish. The pond does have algae and is not very clear... I plan to aerate soon and was hoping for some advice.
Here are my short term plans... please tell me if I'm going wrong. -Buy an aerator.. thinking the Hakko HK40L. - Adding more bass and maybe a couple Florida gar, (I can can remove those later, I've also heard they are good eating but never tried them). -Adding some bream after I get the hoplo's under control. I want the bass to eat the hoplo's if they will, and I think they will, they only get to about 6-8" and only live 4 years, so I'm hoping I can control or eliminate them through predation). -Planting or seeding some water lilys, and hope they don't take over.
I also have 3 cows that have access to the pond and that will not change, they only go into the pond during that hottest months, I also have a well that has a pipe to the pond and I can raise the level of the pond during the dry season.
