Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Overflow Pipe

Had a huge rain and hail storm here in Ky yesterday. I could not get out to the pond, but made it out there today and the overflow pipe was rolling out the water and my FH, BG. Tried to catch them with a small net but was only able to catch around 12 FH and 2 BG before the water got so muddy I could not see.

What is the best way to screen off the pipe so that this does not happen again. I had 3000 FH in the pond and now I can not see none. Not sure how many BG are gone, lost around 150 from unknown death, now this, feel like filling it back in.

First and foremost, Don't give up. I dare say most of the Fatheads and bluegill did not go out of the overflow pipe. I am sure the water is a bit clouded due to the rains and hail. Because of that the fatheads and gills are not visable or near the surface. I had a similar scare on my first try at a drain for my overflow. After a day or two I was able to see the minnows and fish still in the pond.

First before saying how to screen the overflow, what type of overflow do you have? Horiz or vert? Plastic or metal? Size opening? ...etc

With those questions out there, I did add a small mesh screen to my overflow ( window screen mesh size ) I have it on the pond side of the overflow. The problem you get with that is you will have all leaves and anything that floats block or clog the overflow if you don't clean off the screen on a regular basis. I am always out there so I can deal with that and keep it clean. There are many other options to deal with it as well. From check vales to piping configurations. Give us a shout back at what your overflow piping looks like and we can take it from there.

Donnie:

Check out this thread Outlet Reconfiguration where Fozzybear had a similar question.

My drain is 12" double wall corrugated black plastic. I dug a small trench and layed the pipe hor. with the water running down a slope onto lower ground.

Just kidding about giving up, but if can be a pain at times.

Thanks for the info, I think I will try the t-post and wire mess. If anyone has more suggestions please post.

Now guess what? I saw hundrends maybe thousands of fry. I can only guess they are FH, as the bluegill are only 3-4" long and dont seem old enough correct me if I am wrong.

The temperture here is still bouncing between the 50's and 60's with nights low around 30 to 40. We have even had a frost last nignt. I figured that it was still too cold for any specis to bred yet, but there they are. I noticed that there was different sizes, around three that I noticed so it apparently has been happening for some time.

Is this common or not, I was waiting until it warmed up a bit before placing pallets in the pond but it seems that I wont have too now.

I think FH may start spawning at about 60 deg F; your water temps are probably above that since mine are here.

A couple years ago we had a flood and the overflow pipe got covered with a turtle, raised the pond level a whole foot! Also I was astounded to see a 3 ft. wide river of small bluegill over 100 ft long at over 100 bluegill per sq. ft. washed over the dam from the flood. The 30,000 bluegills that washed over didn't dent the population much, which seems that it is impossible to overfish bluegill. Kevin