Hi All -
I've been reading all winter, but have not contributed much. I'm curious what you all think will our experience will be with our 1st year pond after Ice Out. I have a couple specific questions I'm interested in, and would like to hear other comments and advice too.
First a quick synopsis, since most of you don't know me well at all. The Pond was dug in June 2008. It is about 11-12 ft deep when full, and about 7-8 ft at the shallowest. Its about 2/3 acre in area. Its spring fed, and collects run-off of about 2-3 acres.
We stocked about 200 BG in the summer(2-5"), had a limited spawn in the fall (saw very few 1" or less BG fry). We also put in 10 Brown Trout about 6-8" each in the summer. We stocked 45 SMB and 750 FH minnows in October.
Its 2 miles from any road, and we get serious snow. Its been iced up since Thanksgiving, and snow-covered since early December. Over 150" of snow this winter. There is no practical way to shovel snow off here. We are anticipating the Ice to melt in the next 1-2 weeks. Here's a picture from 3-14-09 as the snows are melting back. Its over its banks a little, and while we can see some open and moving water (runoff) -the open water is on the banks - not yet the pond. (next year we will have in a outflow Pipe, we didn't expect it to go up and over the banks.
My 2 big questions that will be answered soon are
1. Will there be a fish kill?
2. What color will the Pond be (it was a beutiful green at iceup)
Others
3. Will the pond stay anywher near this full? or will the "springs" act like a drain in the later summer months. It filled to within 3 ft of the Banks once in July last year - but never near as full as it is now!
Any predictions or advice? If there is a fish kill, can I expect fish to "float up" - or do I have to look on the bottom for signs of dead fish? any Ideas on how long a pond of this size can hold adequate levels of DO?
As a side note - my neighbor at the farm has a 1/2 acre pond of similar depth with Trout & FH minnows only - and he has trout well over 20" that winter over without any special care to the pond. He thinks we'll have no problem, I'm not so sure.
Thanks in advance -
I'll post updates.
FH
