Questions for the more experience pond guys:
-Would adding some Christmas trees or other cover in shallow water help YP recruitment? I've heard DNR biologists say that leaving treefalls along lake shorelines helps with WE growth rates by providing good spawning cover for YP.
Yes, but only if there isn't a lot of this type cover in the pond already.
-Would HSB be a viable option to add in this pond? I've heard that they are very effective predators of GSH and preferentially eat small forage, and obviously they are sterile so they can be removed if needed.
I don't know if it would be recommended in this pond because of wanting to add WE as a predator further down the road. There's a 1 ac pond that has a number of small GSF in it, and HSB were added just for this reason (no other predators except some 2# RBT added this Fall). Fyke net survey will be done in the Spring to see how things went.
