Canyon - Good additional information. With both posts, a few pictures and a little help from Lusk, I think you have enough information now for a good northern pond report in PB magazine. IMO the article is basically written. Lots of people get the magazine and do not read the forum so all this good info will be new to them. Go for it. I look forward to seeing it in print.
Walleye that stay skinny in pond habitats I think have too much competition from predators and the WE do not get enough easy to capture prey food. IMO WE are not aggressive predators like the LMB. Thus WE do not perform well when the pond has lots of LMB who usually keep prey fish community to a minimum.
""No, no riprap, just a bare bowl and this year tons of algae. No idea why. Raking constantly,...""
You are getting lots of FA and need for frequent raking IMO because you have a bare bottom pond with lots of accumulating unused nutrients. I assume that you feed your fish. Not all the fish food is used for fish biomass. Nutrient laden manure is always a result. FA loves and thrives in those conditions.
It is a shame the MI does not allow tilapia - they love eating FA and are very good for eating for meals at the end of each annual pond cycle. One option that may help reduce the amount of FA would be to build and use a floating island. This will sequester nutrients instead of or in addition to having some submerged vegetation. Submerged vegetation including Chara depending on biomass utilize lots of dissolved nutrients. Vegetated ponds usually have little or no FA. FA loves and thrives with no other plant competition.
Size and number of island/s for success would be based on amount of excess nutrients in the pond.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/02/22 10:02 AM.
