I don't know what happend, suddenly the screen hopped and my first post went out incomplete. Maybe my finger hit the Enter instead of Shift? Trying again. I have a small 1/2 acre pond in Central Va. We had it dug in 97 when I retired, it was a gift from my mother in law. But it was up to me to stock it and get the initial water plants going. I made a few mistakes that I'd like to undo but don't know th best way. I'm considering draining the whole pond and letting it lie dormant and hope the roots to several varities of aquatic kudzu that I put there will be gone. The worst plant is the Marislea 4 leaf clover that actually wouldn't be so bad if it were only in one area. It's kind of pretty and provides good cover for the forage minnows, young bass and bluegill to hide and reproduce. The other plants are manageable using rakes, Isralei Carp and Koi. But if I do dry it up and start over I will not re-iontroduce them, I put them in as oxygenators but now I don't think I actually need them and thin I could find some oxygenators that are less invasive. I don't like the idea of using chemicals and weould like to find something that eats the vegetation. Overall, I have really enjoyed having the pond, it is a fishing pond and we eat regularly out of it. I have LMB, Bluegill, Red Ear sunfish, Channel Catfish that do not reproduce and have tried to put some bullhead catfish in but they haven't established a breeding population. I have also failed to get bullfrogs reproducing for more that two or three years before the need to restock comes up again. I put some eels in but haven't seen them again since their release. I do like to eat eel but think it is likely impossible to get them to stay.
You may be the first forum member to stock your pond with eels... I am guessing American eels? You are probably right that they didn't stick around. I have caught eels out of a couple ponds, but they naturally found their way into them through the outlet streams that are connected to them. I am not sure what you could do to get an eel to stick around in your pond.
You may be the first person to stock bullheads and fail to get them to reproduce as well. Most find they somehow sneak a way into their ponds and they explode in numbers, then they're looking for ways to get rid of them...
I am not familiar with an aquatic species of kudzu? Do you have a photo of these plants? Speaking of photos, could you post a few or your pond for us all to enjoy? The forum loves photos!
Hi CJBS2003, Thanks for responding. Yes, I believe they were American eels. I think the bullhead were too small and were eaten, I had a fair amount of bass at the time. This spring my pond was poached to nearly empty and that gives me an opportunity to restock and maybe do something about the weeds since there are so few fish of any value in there. They left only one CC and none of the large LMB, I had a mixture of Va., Fla. and a northern strain of LMB but they are nearly all gone and there are very few small bass so I think they came sometime before the spawn. They also took 2 Isralai Carp and 3 Koi. So this year the weeds are really going crazy. I will try to figure out how to post pictures. I will put a post in the weed section to ask questions about the aquatic kudzu. Which was intended as a joke. The weeds were called Parrots Feather, Hair grass and Mares Tail in the catalog where I ordered them. The Water Clover came as a volunteer that looked so pretty when I first saw it I hoped it would grow but now it is a monster that I really regret. I have some pictures of them that I will post to get proper counsel about what to do. Thanks again. I don't think I can post pictures. It looks like I need to keep them in an Internet storage site and so far I have avoided that. If there is another way to post pictures someone can enlighten me.
I'm sorry to hear about the poachers. I hope you can catch them. CJ might be a while getting back to respond, he's currently on his honeymoon. You never know tho!
There's some tips on how to post pics if you don't have an on-line place like Photobucket here
Hi esshup, Thanks, I'll check it out. I've already found this forum a wealth of information. I've decided to read before asking questions that have already been answered. The main thin I do need to figure out for the pond is how to beat this nasty floating clover weed. I already have a plan for restocking and dealing with the poachers. I did a search and only found one entry that even mentions Marislea water clover but the other weeds that I have are very thoroughtly dealt with. I also need to find the place to subscribe to the magazine and my time to sit at my computer is very limited right now. My Mother has severe dementia and her money is running out, as her Power of Atty. I need to do something but haven't figured out just what yet. Today I go back to the VA. Plus, I'm supposed to take the family on vacation to Pa. on Thursday but before we go I need to set up a fencing project and buy the materials so the work can be done while we are away. Thanks again.
Yowza, you've got a full plate. I'm Sorry to hear about your mother. It's very time consuming helping a sick family member, but they ARE family, so you do what you gotta do!
Your a better searcher than I am, I couldn't find anything on Marislea water clover. When you get back and can post a pic I'm curious to see what it looks like.
I think I have figured out how to post a picture thanks to esshup. This is a picture of my whole pond. It is a composite of about 5 pictures I took and stiched together. In the photo I'm standing in the SE side of the dam looking NNW to take the picture. It is about a 1/2 acre with a small island in the middle. The whole pond viewed from above looks kind of like a Mickey Mouse head with wierd shaped ears and the island as a very big nose. To the right is a wood duck box at the base of Mickey's left ear that has stood there unoccupied since 1997 when we dug the pond. This area of the pond is very shallow and designed as a place for forage fish to breed. The other ear partly behind the island is about 2 - 3 feet deep with large round rocks covering the bottom. The deepest part right in front of the camera is about 8 feet deep and the bulk of the pond around the island is 3 - 4 feet deep. Originally I put sand and pebbles across the top of the island between the two shallow (ear) areas, pebbles on the East bank close to the dam and sand in the corresponding area on the opposite side. I hand dug a number of ridges and other structure throughout the pond to make for interesting fishing but the whole pond has become overwhelmed with pond weed which creates it's own structure depending upon where I have most recently dragged weeds out. Here goes, I hope this works.
I'll bet that a glyphosate based product that is rated for pond use would get it, but it's also get anything else that it's sprayed on as well. I think a Diquat based product would also work.
It looks like the lily pads are spreading as well. You'll need to keep an eye on them because they can cover a great amount of water, and they are difficult to eradicate as well.
Hi Everyone, I'm back from vacation and caught up on most of what got out ahead of me while I was away and think I can focus on making a plan for the pond now. I'm going to move this conversation to where I is more appropriate; Renovating a Pond or Lake.
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