Your correct Dave, it, to the best of my knowledge was void of fish.
I'll briefly give you the past 5 yrs history, which is basically all I know; 1999 I discovered the property while looking for land to build a house on. The pond was stuffed with Green Sunfish and LMB. I was on here at that time asking about a way to evacuate the pond of the Sunfish as they are not my choice for table fair. When I found out what it would cost to Rotenone I backed off that route. I watched the next spring as the pond cleared and to my supprise I saw no fish, and caught no fish. I pointed my finger towards the fact that central Iowa that past winter was blanketed by snow for a period that broke some records. Guessing the O2 depleated for lack of photosynthysis? Or lack of Phytoplankton? Anyway, I made arrangments through the IADNR to recieve the programs stock of BG & CC that Sept 2000. I watched the BG spawn and dropped the bass in that late June 2001 along with 8 White Amur. I made sure I kept a cleared spot on the ice that winter. 2002 there were no signs of LMB, BG, or CC until right after ice out when I saw what I believed were all the fish. I didn't really know what happened but we had an early thaw in Feb which cleared about 1/3 of the ice from the north side of the pond where the sun could melt with no wind to cool it down. That summer I discovered that some of the White Amur were still alive, later during the Dawg days of summer I watched them die along with one bass that was in the 2 - 2.5 lb range. I then remembered the summer before that the BG were close to the surface sucking O2. I was to dumb to know what was going to happen but guessing again that they ran out of O2, since many were showing up under the thin ice during a late ice over that late winter/early spring O2. 2003 had me applying for another free stock of BG & CC. Next spring, 04, I watched for them and got worried as my intentions of getting aeration came and went, I got worried not seeing them so caught 40 adult BG from another pond and put them in so they could spawn, knowing I had bass coming. Shortly after, I discovered the originals spawning. In June 04 put the bass in again. I watched the BG spawn and saw the bass grow to the 5-7" range but as mentioned earlier Oct brought the cold rain and I'm sure the turnover killed some because a couple days later see several of the bass, some of the adult BG and some of the original BG. No CC were found??? I have fished for the CC a couple times but have not caught any and not sure if their alive??
This leaves me worried, as my managment skills are very limited. Honestly, had I known I was going to have to deal with all these issues I might have just looked at different properties. I am going to try to get elec dropped in next weekend so I can finally get the aeration in. Waited on someone who promised they would rent a trencher last year and we would split the cost and use time.
Sorry for the long winded post but that's the last 5yrs in a nut shell.
Thanks again for any and all direction you expert, and experienced managers can give. Eventually I will have this thing in order, or have no hair left.
FH
