Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Shallow Pond in the Winter

Hello all,

I wanted to ask a few questions on how winters effect a shallow pond. The pond as I am looking at appears to be 5-7' deep and I want to look into adding forage to it while I wait to put in an offer. The property isn't visited and i am sure they won't mind if there is a bit more life added to the mix. What I wanted to know is what does it take to freeze a pond with this depth? Our winters drop to around mid 20s at the worst but this pond seems to have good tree cover so that should reduce the windchill factor quite a bit. I ask this because I went to the pond and didn't really see any aquatic life outside of tadpoles and insects. I will go back monday with worms and see if I can catch something but I'd go out on a limb and say there isn't a healthy population of fish and wonder if this can be attributed to winter kills because of the pond freezing over. Any opinions would be great.

RB

Don't know about the freezing stuff I'll leave that for the experts but I wouldn't stock a pond that you don't own - just my opinion.

It is really not the freezing and cold temperatures that cause winterkill. It is the snow cover. The deeper the snow and longer it lies on the pond the more likely winterkill will occur. Two main factors of several tend to reduce the likelyhood of winter kill: 1. deeper water, 2. low or minimal organic load/ accumulation on the bottom or in the water column.

RB,

I am fairly new to the forum. But I have an observation you may find use full. Guessing how deep it is or what somebody remembers it being has always led to disappointment. This is especially true when purchasing land with a BOW. I also have first hand experience of this. I have read lots of posting in this forum and so far I have not found a post or anybody that has purchased BOW or that has taken over pond meister duties and said wow the lake is deeper than anybody guessed. You will not know how deep a BOW is until you have sailed across it and taken soundings. IMO get the boots wet and measure everything before you make any plans.