Hello from cajun country.

l bought my first home a few months ago and on it also came my first pond. Its a little pond measuring rough 60 x 150. Its small but has alot of character with nice veg and several cypress trees. Off the dock Im around 7ft deep but not sure in the center. I have a well plumbed to the pond and also a small v ditch to pull rain water. Right now I have bream, catfish, and turtles coming to feed. We have cought one nice bass. I see a fair amount of minnows in the veg and in the cypress knees. All have two small gators that call the pond home.

Uses:
Id love the pond to be an easy catch for kids with bream, cats, and some bass.
Once I get the gators out Id like to swim in it.
My biggest use is to just drink beer on the dock and watch the fish.

questions:
What should i be looking for in water clarity. Id say i have 3ft of visibility right now.

What are proper fish numbers for a pond this small? I feel good about the brim. The bass i have no clue only getting one to hit. Its the cats that worry me. When i feed i get around 50 or more very small cats coming up. All 4-8 inches.

I have been feeding the floating catfish feed from tractor supply. Good Bad? And how much is to much.

Turtles: How many should i control

Gators: Has anyone let them stay? Im afraid of them using thecpond as a buffet.

Airation. Good system for small pond.

Sorry for all the question right of the bat but that gets me started in a good direction.

Thank for the help and im very excited to learn.

Hi Nate and welcome to PBF!

Lots of good folks here. A couple of thoughts for you.

1) Gators in a swimming hole make you a faster swimmer!
My advice, eliminate the gators as it's hard to swim fast with a beer in yer hand!

2) The small catfish are probably Bullheads (BH) and won't get much bigger. Something you might want to consider eliminating. If you want to know for sure what your catfish are, post a pic and someone will help identify them.

I'm sure some folks with sage advice will be along to answer your questions.

Again, Welcome!

Bill D.

Nate,
Welcome to PB...tons of good info and lots of good helpful folks here. First n' foremost, the gator's gotta go. Get your water quality checked for pH, hardness, and alkalinity and post the results...BTW...when's the crawfish festival...

Proper visibility should be 18 to 36 inches. That's an indication of the planktonic base which is the bottom of the food chain in the pond. You MIGHT need to fertilize. Have a soil sample and water sample done. As stickem says, post the results here. If you're in pine tree country you might need to lime prior to fertilizing. This is the same thing that area Farmers have to do for crops. Proceed carefully when fertilizing and don't over do it. Over fertilizing can cause an oxygen crash with a resulting fish kill.

The Tractor Supply food isn't bad. But, it's also not very good.

I don't consider turtles a problem. They are the clean up crew, like buzzards, of the pond. They seem to come and go and are the #1 food for the gators.

How big are the gators? Small gators are seldom a problem but I can't think of a lot that they add. Kids are seldom on their menu.

I can't think of one dang thing that I've just posted that would improve beer drinking at the pond.