Yes, I hope that much fertilizer wasn't applied. When examining the invoices, there is no question that 160 gallons was what he was billed for. I applied 13 gallons for an initial treatment rate of 2 gallons/acre like I always do.

Over half of the 10k was rotenone treatments. No electrofishing survey was done, and very few dead fish were observed by the client after the treatment. No attempt was made to reduce the size of the pond by pumping or siphoning which would have saved the client a lot. I haven't done the math, but probably about 35-40 acre-feet were treated. Price seems high, but maybe not.

Restocking rates (per acre) were as follows:

In the fall:
325 3" bluegill
150 2" redear
4 lbs fatheads
4 lbs golden shiners
95 grass carp

In June:
25 1-3" bass/acre

Supposedly 8 surface acres were stocked. Stocking costs were around $3500, which is about right for the numbers of fish that were supposedly stocked. Pretty light stocking rate, I think, expecially on the bass. Heavy on the grass carp, though.

Few, if any, of these recommendations make any sense to me, but I'm willing to accept that there are other paths to pond nirvana. Anybody think this is one of them?

The sad thing is that the client is understandably less trusting of lake managers because of his experience. That amount of money, wisely spent, should have dramatically improved his lakes. As it is, I don't think they are a bit better than when he started, perhaps worse. It just gives all us pond professionals a black eye.