Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking 35 Acre Farm pond I'm trying to correct

Stick around and keep us updated on developments as you proceed. We all learn from each other here. This particular thread would be a good one to record progress and status. Some folks put a link of their pond thread in their signature where it is easy to find.

You'll probably never be able to manage your fish population well in a lake that large with the water / fish coming in from pond above so it may be more of a mitigation / improvement issue.

Would be interested in knowing pond depths and contour. Max depth? How much is shallow?

Would you be able to set up a siphon and drain out a large percentage of the water? That would possibly get a lot of those small fish out of the weeds and provide food for the big fish. After the muck dried out some, you could possibly take out some of the silt / etc. to deepen those areas and minimize weed growth to a smaller percentage of the lake.

I am fortunate enough that I have enough contour / height differences that I was able to install a siphon and pull water from my big pond (17 - 19 acres built in 2003). I used 8" heavy duty PVC (schedule 40 or 80?) and installed it with excavator. Put a small valve with riser at top so could fill pipe or open valve to allow air in and shut off in needed and another big valve near the bottom that we use to turn siphon on or off. I keep the top one closed. Works really, really well to adjust water levels.

That's not the easiest thing to do, but I am self a employed excavating contractor, and was able to trade out a bunch of work with my local baitshop owner that was pretty close with the fish supplier that he used regularly for his bait needs, so he was able to get the fish at almost a wholesale price and I was able to trade out clearing a bunch of land and green fields for him. worked out great for both of us,, so yeah,, the boss doesn't realize just how much of my time I spent there.
I am learning myself that a bigger body of water is really neat when its really neat, but when you look at the costs and magnitude of stuff to manage, it can be daunting, just imagine what a 1 acre pond costs and the labor to maintain, the 10 acre pond is multiplying every number by ten pretty much. I can catch enough fish to alter the populations in a 1 acre pond but when you are talking ten times that much area its a bit harder to do.
Good Luck HBound, let us know how it turns out. too many fish is a good problem to have if you got some time! worst case scenario, turn a breeding age pair of otters loose in that lake,, your fish populations will be under control in no time!

I intend to. I'm not looking for an immediate turn around. My kids are younger and catching crappie will make them happy. The pond is in south georgia and we live in virginia so as they get older we will be able to travel there more often as they get older. I'm hoping to turn this around in 4-7 years so my timeline is longer term and i'm not trying to get the latest fatest bass. I'm wanting to get it to where my kids can go fishing and reliably catch a stringer full of bass over 5lbs when they're around teenager age.

I'm going to try to grab some videos of it when we visit soon.

Also how can I put a link to my pond in my sig?

I am glad to hear this. To put the link into your signature, do the following.

1. click your name in upper left portion of your post above and click "forum posts"

2. find your first post in this thread and click it. In the address bar of your browser will be address of your thread. Copy the address.

3. On the right about the blue bar and between the advertisement click your username and then click "edit profile"

4. paste the address in the signature and add anything else you want. Save the changes.

Done. I'm hoping to start stocking next week. I"ll have a better idea of what my budget is after next week.