Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Fishing

Prior to aerating I was consistently catching large healthy fish. Since i started aerating in July 2016 I haven't caught a single fish. Any thoughts?

Sorry to hear that. Do you still see fish? Is it a new or older pond?

When you started aerating, did you go thru a acclimation schedule, like aerate for 30 minutes the first day, 1 hour the second day, etc or did you just turn it on and let it run? Any bad odor coming from the pond when you started aerating?

could be that the fish are now able to be in areas of the pond that they previously had not...Like out in the middle or on the bottom. Are you fishing the new areas that the fish might be able to hang out in now?

It's a very old pond that I drained about three years ago due to a lot of build-up from soil erosion over the years. All the build up was pushed out and the dam repaired, so essentially it's a new pond. I started aerating two hours the first day and doubling the next. After four days I aerated during daylight hours only. I've since put in a timer set at one hour on and one hour off. I didn't any odor when aeration first started

Typically I would fish for bass with top water lures but have tried multiple lures, locations,and depths. The grandkids like catching the catfish and hybrid bluegill but they have stopped as well.

When you cleaned this out and started aeration were you able to keep the existing fish during this "redo". I am just a bit confused as you were catching fish then you drained and kind of started over which I understand but how did you restock the pond after?

Sorry for the confusion. There were no fish prior to the clean out. The pond was stocked by a local fishery after clean out and aeration didn't start until the following year.

Could some fish-loving predator have visited your pond?

I did see an otter around the time I started aeration, but I only saw him a couple of times and never noticed any signs around the pond that he was killing the fish.

If you saw an otter in the daytime, then I suspect there is more than one. Take a walk around the pond and look for slides or trails leading into the ponds. You can also look for otter scat, it will contain a lot of fish scales and may also contain some trace of crayfish. They can eliminate most of the fish before they move on. And will then return at a later date to check out their old feeding spots.