Hi, my name is Jim from Alachua, Florida. I have a 1/8 acre pond. I had good luck with channel cat and sunfish 15 yrs ago but kind of neglected the pond. It gets a lot of shade and became covered with a mat of duckweed. I have skimmed off a good % of the DW with a landing net on the end of a 10' PVC pipe. I also broadcast some dolomitic lime to raise the PH. My fishery guy says there seems to be a correlation between ponds with acidity and Duckweed. I have recently stocked it with channel cats, 20 tilapia to help with the DW and gambusia minnows. I have an aerator that I plan to put on a timer and run for 2 or 3 hrs every day just before daylight. I'm not sure my aerator is really effective. I mounted a Jacuzzi pump on a little shed on the bank of the pond with a line going into the pond to a strainer/check valve. The outlet of the pump spatters water through a nozzle back into the pond. The intake water comes from a depth of about 3 feet (max depth of pond is 6 ft.). Obviously my pond is small but If I start harvesting the catfish before they get over about 3/4 lb I think I can keep it healthy. I'm 70 yrs old and retired so I don't feel like starting over but I sure would like to have some property with several ponds so I could dabble with different fish. Lots of great info sharing on this site.
Last edited by warmouthy; 07/03/18 04:44 AM.
