Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Fish Kill in West Central Indiana

I had all sizes in the fish I took out from this kill. Probably two thirds to three quarters of the floaters were BG - and I would say only a third of these fish, at most, were what I would call "keepers" if I was fishing. I know I have several bass in there that are around 3 lbs and I have only seen one of those floating.

So maybe the good fish did die and just sunk instead of floated? Nice thought...very encouraging..

On the weird side I did discover I had an over 3' grass carp. I didn't even know I had it in there... At first I thought it was basszilla when I saw it floating.

Did it look like this? 38.5"

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=369013#Post369013

Yes, running air though 1/2 inch poly water line is far cheaper than electric, and you don't have to bury it deep, just a few inches below grade if at all. Cheap and easy to fix if you spring a leak, and not prone to lightning damage either.

Very luckily I have quite a bit of water running through the pond even though it is frozen more than 15" right now (I cannot get my bit plus extension through!). I have a long ways to go though to see if anything has made it or not. No thaw for us :-(, at least for the next few weeks. Arg!

I swam in the pond two years ago this date.

A few years ago a clients pond winterkilled when the wind conditons didn't favor windmill aeration. It was a relatively new pond (3 years old) that he had stocked lightly, and we had a very good idea of the number of fish in it.

You can read about it here: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=280429&page=1

That following fall, the pond was drained and rotenoned. While only 49 HSB were counted floating, 0 were found in the pond when it was drained. So, 51% sunk and never surfaced.

IIRC not all the trout were accounted for either, and they were fished for before water temps increased. The amount of RES and YP that were in the pond were very low at the time of draining and rotenoning, nowhere the number of stocked fish.

I know that this isn't good news for you, but I don't want you to have false hopes.

The water is very muddy, but so far only one dead CC is visible. It is frozen in ice.

I could tell from the bank last summer that I had 1000s of fish, just don't know how many 1000s. I just have BG and LMB and they reproduce as if they know their kids will be getting medicaid and food stamps. I said be fruitful and multiply and it was so. We shall see soon enough when things warm up, but even if I lost 1500 fish, I think I'll still be ok. Might as well be positive. I know of a pond the same size as mine where the owner took out over 3000 floaters after a fish kill and he was catching fish that summer.

I hope that your fish are OK.

For 15 years I never had a winter fish kill until 3 years ago when we had a long freeze with snow cover like this one we are experiencing now. I had a lot of big fish then and all were killed except for one grass carp and a few bluegills. So I have some hope that some fish may be alive to restock the pond. As soon as the ice is off the pond and the water warms a little I will launch the boat and using my underwater viewer I will look for any life in the pond. The ugly part will be raking in the dead bull frogs and disposing of them. Because my tadpole population will be low I will probably have a lot of algae this summer. I'm sure I will have to replace my grass carp. Now is the time I wish I had a lot of crawfish to help clean up the dead fish and frogs.

The foam island has survived the under the ice deep freeze and looks good. Blue foam is tough stuff. It has survived two winters and summers so far.

My pond (Central Illinois) has melted a foot or two along the edges and thus far I've seen no floaters, so I have my fingers crossed. It is 17 ft deep and no aeration. Hopefully that trend continues as the rest melts.