EWEST: I have had no problems with winter kill or mortality of any sort so far......just a tasty meal occasionally.
Sunil: There's not much plantlife as you noted it is a lined pond alough the habitat shelves and beach are all coated with about 6" of sand so about half of the bottom is sand covered. I do manually clean out bushels of Chara every summer.
I was able to get out a couple of times to clean snow off of about 30% of the surface (snow blower) but to Cecil's point, I am 56 y/o and this is the worst winter I have lived through. Seemed like you'd clean it off and the next day we'd get another 4-6". I actaully had to go out and get a large snowblower this year to keep up. This is the first year I haven't just shoveled.
Bing: No offense meant to anyone but yes I do believe some of the warnings were a bit overstated. I believe fish are primarily dormant over the winter and use very little oxygen in 35 degree water. Have you ever left a bucket of Emerald shiners in a garage when the temp is below freezing. The top ices over and as long as you break the ice occassionally those darn things will live for weeks. In the spring they won't survive overnight.
Don: I do both types of feeding. I pellet feed every 2-3 days and I stock around 50lbs of fatheads per year. I also stock Tilapia evry year and have Crapie and Perch spawn which I know are primarily getting consumed as there is very little recruitment.
Thanks for the questions all and I'm looking forward anxiously to the results of this and hoping that my hunches are correct.
