I took a water sample to the county extension office about a month ago and their test said the alkalinity was 13ppm. They recommended 2 tons of ag lime per acre. The pond definitely hasn't had a bloom in the last two years that I've gotten more serious about pond management. I don't think it had one in the 10 or so years that I've fished it before that.
One thing I hadn't thought about until reading on here last night was that I might get a bloom with just the ag lime and wouldn't need to fertilize. I think I'll just do the ag lime and see what happens. If I need to fertilize I'll do that instead of feeding for a few years and then reevaluate.
The half acre pond that I want to stock CC in soon got an algae bloom after I drained it and treated with hydrated lime to kill off the stunted BG. It looked just like the pictures in
this thread. The green foam has been there for a good two months now. Sometimes it gets thicker and sometimes it thins out a little. I had never seen it before I put the lime in. I'm wondering if the nutrients in this other pond were there all along and adding the lime was all that it needed to bloom. This (future) CC pond is directly upstream of the LMB/BG pond. It would be nice if I could get a bloom in the LMB/BG pond with just the ag lime.
I think I have a good harvest plan in place for the LMB/BG pond. I've kept careful track of weights and lengths and harvested every LMB that is under about 95% WR, which is all but three fish so far. Most of them have been in the 60s and 70s, with some 80s. I've harvested 11.5 pounds of LMB this year (23 fish). Still another 6 pounds to go if my calculations are right (10 pounds per acre per year for a non-blooming pond x 1.75 acres = 17.5 pounds).
