Hello everyone,
I'm Alinda, and my boyfriend and I just purchased a home late last summer (end of June), and the properties top asset is a 1 and 3/4 acre pond. The previous home-owner died in a motorcycle accident, so we know very little about the pond other than it was stocked with largemouth bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. We do have construction plans for the pond if that is helpful.
We hired a pond consultant to get some help preventing the weed problems this summer, and he sent us here for help with pond stocking, feeding, and wildlife management questions.
Our top priority for the pond appears to be a unique one having read several threads already, and that is to grow large black crappie. We eat a few, but mostly they are my boyfriends favorite. We already stocked 40 large adults caught from friends crappie ponds. Our secondary goal is wildlife management. We pulled 7 large snapping turtles out of the pond last year, and we have several pairs of ducks and a pair of canadian geese that were not present last summer. 3 muskrat have died by high velocity lead poisoning.
The pond is aerated, and we were able to keep water open throughout the winter, and had a minimal winter fish kill despite a very hard winter.
The catfish and bluegill are quite large, the size of LMB are disappointing so far, but were very difficult to catch due to the weeds. Most were 10-12 inches, but we know they are spawning because there's quite a number of fingerling bass.
There is a lot of cover in the pond. It appears they cut the timber and left it where it fell when filling the pond. We were even getting snags while ice fishing - its thick down there.
We are handfeeding Purina Game Fish Chow several times a week, as much as the fish will eat in 10 minutes or so. We have seen only bluegills eating this feed.
The maximum depth of the pond to our knowledge is 12 feet. The banks are steep, and the pond appears to have a pretty level depth with a gradual incline towards the back of the pond where the creek inflow is quite shallow.
Here's some photos of the pond from last summer:
View from the deck - about 3/4 acre of pond is around the corner to the right, and not visible from the house.
Fountain - prior to getting aerator pump repaired:
Inlets to the right of pond, lots of duckweed:
Widest portion of pond, and pond dam:
The weeds we hope to control better this year:
Weed coverage on a bad day - very difficult to fish.
One of the snappers we pulled out - he was tasty:
One of the crappies immediately prior to release:
Bluegill - ice fishing:
Pond over winter - one aerator running. We shut the other off so we could fish closer to the center of the pond.
