Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations major winter kill

Pond opened up with the help of gradual aeration. Now that is opening I am realizing I have a major fish kill. Kicking myself for not aerating but kids ice skate so I did not want to deal with open water.

Lots of 4 to 8 inch bluegill and some bass too.

Many are frozen in the ice in the shallows??

Plowed half the pond so I had incident light through winter.

1/3 acre 10 ft deep at max. Probably averages 6.

So help me understand how this happens so I am better equipped next year.

Pond is in NO Wisconsin

Sorry I meant northeastern Wisconsin

It seems that despite the sunlight you might not have had enough dissolved oxygen in the pond for the long, cold winter.

Some members use continuous shallow water aeration during the winter months to maintain a small area of open water. You may find that the ice thickness is still good except immediately adjacent to the hole.

Others intermittently aerate to allow for gas exchange and then shut it off again to permit complete re-freezing. I believe Bill Cody does this -- send him a private message on the forums if he doesn't respond soon.

I also aerate shallow intermittently. When the snow builds up, or the ice gets milky, I start up and open a pretty good sized hole, then shut it back down. The refreeze will usually produce near window pane clear ice. Repeat when necessary.

I used an experimental method this year I ran my 2 shallower stations all through the ice season my pond is 12-13' ft deep at full pool and was about 9-10 with all this ice this year..thr 2 shallow stations are at 5-6 ft and 3-4 ft they ran 24 hrs a day.. A couple years I had a massive kill with half the ice and snow and duration we had this year.. I only found 6 I think it was very large lmb and one trophy BG I was very happy with that loss.. it's a schedule I will keep in my arsenal from now on..

Even with keeping the snow off some of the ice, if it's oapque ice, not a lot of light will get thru the ice. I'd try running the diffuser in shallow water near shore (about 3' depth) away from where the kids ice skate. Run it right after the snowstorms pass. That should melt a hole open, and once it's open, shut it back off. The ice should freeze clear and let a lot of sunlight through for phytoplankton ro produce O2.

In my area, I think most without an effective winter management strategy will be at a loss this year. Some ponds still have a fair amount of ice cover. It was a tough winter for ponds.

+1. Exactly what I do with my well when snow builds up or ice gets milky. So far, so good.

I run my 24/7. I've shut mine down even with a check valve and had the air line freeze up.

I've often wondered if you could take one of the cheap gas water pumps that pump up to 2000 gallons of water per hour and drill a hole in the pond ice and quickly cover the pond with water which would remelt the snow that would refreeze clear. If that would work for those of us without electric at our ponds.

John,

I knew a fish farmer that did that. Can't get more info as he's passed away.

Have been running bottom diffuser in about 10' all winter, froze over completely for about two months(extreme (-)temps during this time). Now reopened but snow is too deep still to determine if we had a fish kill. Hoping with aerator running we might have dodged that bullet. Sounds like a year to not forget. Next year will consider a shallower area to run diffuser.

If you ran that in 10' of water what is your deepest spot in the pond? Hopefully 10' is not your deepest hole..