Here's a few tidbits of advice to decide whether to aerate or not.
1) Aeration mitigates all the "bad" things which happen to water during drought.
2) Aeration stabilizies the water and its environment and the temperatures.
3) Depending how old the fishery is, there are some economical concerns. To restock properly, if you have a 100% fish kill, will cost $400-600 per acre, depending what you choose to do. For a 7.5 acre lake, that's $3,000+ (if you do it correctly).
4) A mature fishery, that's say, five or six years old will take...drum roll please...five or six years to replace. If you chose to buy the fish (assuming a fish kill), replacement cost for fish that age would cost $1,500-2,500 per acre, depending how good the fishery is currently.
5) If the pond is full of overcrowded, stunted bass and isn't a good fishing lake...a fish kill might be good.
6) If the drought extends and the fish don't die, here's what happens...they will adjust their numbers to fit the size of their environment. Big bass will eat smaller fish and all fish numbers will drop. Then, when the lake fills up, those fish will spawn like crazy and re-stock the lake.
7) Your decision should be based on how good the fishery is, how good your water quality is and how much money you want to spend.
