Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Did all my Grass Carp die?

I stocked my 3-acre pond last fall with 40 White Amur - which were maybe 12" in length. We had a fairly cold winter with thick ice frozen over the entire pond for probably a month here in Indiana. My pond has a deep spot around 18'. This past spring in late May I added some Aquathol (1 gallon) on only half of the lake's perimeter thinking the other half could have the weeds. I noticed that it seemed to knock out most all of the fresh green that was starting to grow on the bottom - even on the other side that I didn't treat. I treat the entire lake perimeter with Cutrine Plus once a month during the algae growing season and avoid any copper sulfate. I see tons of spawned fathead minnos that I added in the spring, but I have yet to see a single grass carp feeding anywhere. Is it possible they are all dead??

Anything is possible, but I hope they are still alive.

If you go out on a very calm summer evening just before sunset, do you observe any big surface wakes? My brother and I casted to catch those big "bass" hundreds of times when we were kids ... and never caught a single one. So one evening when there were tons of wakes, we decided to sit motionless in the boat and try to observe the big fish. Every single wake we saw beside the boat was a big carp!

If your 12" carp are the only sizeable fish in the pond, then any large wakes you see are definitely "proof of life" for your carp.

Another option would be to make some tasty doughballs on something very buoyant like dry Cheerios. You can look up some carp recipes on the internet. If you throw out some flavor-enhanced Cheerios all around your pond on a very calm evening, you may be able to observe the carp sucking up the treats from the surface. You may just see a mouth break the surface and slurp in your Cheerios. They will NOT hit it the way BG or LMB hit floating feed.

P.S. I hope your carp are still alive. In my limited experience, they are pretty d*mn tough fish!

I've stocked Grass Carp in ponds only to not see them for 2 years. Don't give up hope.

Ok thanks guys. I'll keep watching for them. Thanks for the ideas!