WOW! What a weekend. I never thought that pumping out that water would be so much work. I got the pond pumped down so that there was about only a foot of water in pool 3 feet wide by 50 feet long. It took about 48 hours of pumping total, we started on Thursday night and stoped Sunday night,with a few shut down times. Had to refuel every 2 1/2 hours so we didn't get much sleep. Discovered one really good spring and other smaller ones that just seemed to be seeping in water.
We were able to remove 8 bass that were all in the 3lb class and 3-4 that were about 8-12 inches. Saw more that were from 2 inch(75-100?) to about 6 inches(10-?).
On Thursday we caught 34 bluegills that were keeper size(7-9") and saw very few after the water was down, maybe 10+?. The small 'gills(less than 3") were everywhere! I would take a guess at 1000, just a guess.
I was able to snag out the only 2 pike that we saw, they were both about 22" long. Had to snag them because the fish didn't want to bite after the water got very low.
Crappie were still in the pond but I think that they were not as fat as when they were put in a year ago. Also caught(snaged) out some small fish that looked like bluegills but had a huge mouth, not rock bass, maybe those green sunfish. Nothing that was stocked in there that looked like that.
Holy cow, you wouldn't belive the crawfish! There were many hundreds of them in the bottom of the pond. When the water got lower they were just everywhere. I thought that the bass would HOG UP on them.
I was upset that we couldn't get more of the fish out and taken to another pond but the sides of the pond out from shore were to slippery and to mucky. I tried to get out with a boat but the sides were to steep after about 10 yards out. Would have at least been able to get a more accurite fish count.
Another thing that surprised me was that there are no rooted weeds in there. Muskgrass grows on the top at the edges but not so much that it causes problems. Some stuff on the bottom of the pond(12ft. deep) looked like weeds but ones that have been dead for a while, brown sort of leafy.
I am going to have to poision the remaning 'gills out with rotenone but can't get it at my local mill. Where can I order it in Michigan? The fish might die on there own 'cause the don't have much water and it is pretty muddy after the rain we got and with the spring running in water.
I think I am going to stock regular 'gills and bass and manage them so I don't have the problems of having to do the hybrid renovation in a few years.
Lots of work to do yet on the dam spillway and clearing trees. I will post my pictures as soon as I get them and figure out how to post them on this site. Not sure how to get them on the web first.
Any questions,comments,suggestions, or input at all are welcome. Thank you to all that have helped so far.
Ta Ta
