Good morning! My name is Jonathan and my brother-in-law just purchased a property with a 1 acre pond, here in Florida. While we were celebrating our Independence Day and birth of our great nation yesterday, we had an opportunity to fish in his pond. Unfortunately I'm not convinced that there are any good fish in there and an overabundance of trash fish, specifically plecos and armored catfish. They were munching on the vegetation around the edges and coming up gulping for air. I think they have cleared out all of the good vegetation at the bottom of the pond as I was not able to feel any structure or plant life on the bottom when dragging a worm along the bottom. We also noticed that there didn't seem to be anything that were eating the bread balls that we were tossing in around the pond.

He is wanting to just have a fun recreational lake where his boys and mine can swim and catch bluegill, bass and the occasional catfish. With that in mind, it seems we will be starting a project to get the pond back in shape.

With so many of these plecos and armored catfish in the pond, I think we will start by cast netting as many as we can in hopes of greatly reducing the population. Any other suggestions for removing them? We will also be looking at the soil and water quality and possible aeration/fountain to promote better vegetation and water clarity long before we start to put any good fish in there.

In the meantime, I will be reading and absorbing as much information as possible to make this pond great again.