Like many on this board, I found out about Pond Boss after I had already "goobered up" my ponds, ie., added predators the same time as forage, added white crappie, little structure, etc. Now I have massive fil. algae problems, maybe out of whack populations, and more.
The reason I post is because I am getting ready to start the long, slow process of renovation. I'm not sure what I am going to do yet, but it may include anything from draining and deepening to just a supplemental stocking. I've noticed several times on the board people asking for a step by step process of how things were done, so that is what I would like to do, if there aren't any objections.
Phase I. I bought 80 acres of farmland in northern OK which has two ponds. The small, upper pond is about a half acre and maybe 8 ft deep at the deepest. It is a shale pit dug out pond. This pond receives some underground seepage from the field, so it loses very little water during the summer. I might lose a ft. where in the big pond I lose 4-6 ft. This year it was overrun by naiad. 80 white crappie were added, several 6-9 inch skinny bass are present, one 16 inch bass was removed to the big pond, and a few green sunfish have been caught.
The big pond is 3 or 4 acres and is an old, earthen dam pond. When I bought the place it was silted in, it would have only been about 4 ft deep going over the spillway (no pipes). Legend says that there used to be huge trees on the dam, which may be leading to my leakage. Some work was done to deepen it, but only amounts to about an acre that is maybe 12-15 feet deep at the dam. It gets very mossy this time of year, but last night I caught an 18 inch bass (5 lb?) and a 15-16 in. bass (3-4lbs) and a huge 13 in. crappie. There also happens to be a couple of blue cats, channel cats, and a 6-7 lbs flathead or two swimming around. Oh, yeah, you can't throw a rock around the shoreline without hitting spawnng bluegill.
Long term goals is to make this a family fishing pond. The small pond is being considered for a forage pond or even all male BG. Trophy" sized bass are not as important as "sporting" size with higher frequency. If there is board interest, I will keep updates going here and gladly listen to any and all advice.
