Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Should I be worried???

I was in an accident in late fall last year and was unable to get around too good. This spring, I found that my inflow pipe got clogged and there was no water running into my pond over the winter. Water level dropped slightly, maybe 3 inches. Now that I'm back on my feet, I can't find a fish anywhere. I had alot of LMB and a few CF in there. I did see one fish belly up, but that's the only one I've seen, period. You'd think with the warm weather, I'd start seeing them and being able to catch them. I've caught or seen nothing. This morning I seen a bunch of ripples, so I walked over only to find that there were dozens of frogs swimming. Any of this making any sense? It sure isn't to me. Any help would be appreciated.

I doubt a drop of 3" in the water level would have any major impact on your ponds ability to hold fish over the winter. What is the deepest and average depth of your pond? Age?

What part of PA are you in? The severity of winters varies greatly from one part of the state to another.

Deepest section is 9ft. Size is 1/4 to 1/2 acre. Ave depth is 5-6ft. South Central PA. I bought the property 1.5 years ago, so I only had one spring there. I was working on other projects around the property most of the time last spring and didn't have chance to enjoy or fish the pond in the spring, so I really don't have anything to compare it to.

Still no fish. I'm getting worried.

With the weather we've had this winter and spring, I'd wait a little longer to set up for full panic. I don't know how far north you are from me (I'm just west of Winchester, VA.), but my fish just started getting active in the last several days. My peepers didn't start peeping until the middle of last week.

I've been in Connecticut since last Thursday afternoon. I left 84 degrees at home, hit 70 degrees going through Harrisburg on I-81, and arrived here to 48 degrees and cloudy. Those temps aren't going to get the fish real active.

By the way, what the heck are "CFs"?

Ken

I think "CF" is a catfish.

This link will help with the acronyms: Acronyms

Catfish. My bad.

Still no fish...I'm hoping it's the cold nights we're having.

My fish are not real active either. Been getting some serious cold fronts coming in and messing with the fish. I threw out some AM500 yesterday and got some fish eating but it took a bit for them to eat and my feeder has been going for 2 weeks now. We need a week of nice constant 70 plus days and that may kick things off.

I wouldnt panic yet either,I'm in Cape May NJ about as far south in NJ as you can go and my fish just showed signs of life last week.Even then the bass I caught was sluggish,it felt like reeling in a clump of weeds and not a bass.This spring has been strange and seems to have caused a late start for the fish in my area.