Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a Nebraska Pond

Kevin - As I recall B. Lusk has said that fish structure (aka fish attractors, features, or �cover�) should be placed at depths of 6 to 10 ft and shallower. The smaller the water body the shallower the cover needs to be. A search on PB forum should verify his recommendation.of depth placement. Often in many ponds the wind does not mix the upper waters much deeper than 6 ft unless they have bottom aeration (exceptions do occur). In your case, a windswept pond of 2 ac could have a thermocline at about 7-8 ft. Fish can not and will not use fish structure located deeper than the mid-summer thermocline. Very rarely will a pond have adequate oxgen concentrations below the thermocline for fish survial during summer staratification. Deepwater cover is used by fish only during periods of complete mixing usually early spring & late fall-winter. I also agree with this 6-7 ft maximum depth for structure placement especially in cases where the pond may need to be seined some day or seined on a regular basis for fishery management..

Underwater Structure's Impact on Seining Using a seine to collect fish for sampling or removal is a useful pond & lake management method. Fish seines are available in many lengths and mesh sizes but to cover a larger area and collect larger fish the seine should be 50 to 100 ft long or more. Obviously trying to pull a seine through the basin of a pond that contains lots of obstructions is practically impossible. Thus one would want all the fish structure out of the lower basin, bays and or channels, in order for a seine to be pulled through these areas. Try and keep the fish structure above the water level of the drawn down.

Draw Down.
In fall draw downs water levels are typically taken down 4 to 6 feet from full in ponds. Recommendations for draw down depth can also be to half the pond size. Draw downs are usually designed to expose weed growth so it dies or is killed back. Typically most rooted vegetation does not grow much deeper than 4 - 6 ft deep.unless the water is quite clear. Draw downs are also useful for managing fish populations because the lower water level usually forces small fish out of the weed beds and concentrates them into more open water where predators can more easily thin numbers of overabundant panfish,.

Draw down is done in late summer - fall before the fall or early winter rains. Sometimes the pond can remain at low water level until spring. If one does not get much snow and ice during winter the necessity of refilling the pond before winter in minimal. In theory, late fall rains will bring the pond back close or near full before winter freeze-up and snow cover. More water depth during ice & snow cover creates a greater "oxygen bank account" and minimizes winter kill. Also the draw down exposes pond bottom and associated organic accumulations which can oxidize (decay) quickly when they are exposed to the air. Less organic muck causes less oxygen demand on the whole system when the exposed sediments are again underwater.