Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 20 + year old pond, needs help

Pond is 3/4 of an acre and is about 15 ft at the dam and about 0 at the opposite end. Originally stocked with lmb,bg,hbg,fh and would like to have some 4-5lb lmb to fish for. In se Ohio. What would you do if it were your pond. Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum. I'm impressed that you were a member for 13 years and this was your first post! Welcome aboard!

Have you probed the depths to measure actual depth and also how much silt/muck on the bottom?

The pictures look like a ton of organics in the water and presumably on the bottom. You may want to consider the possiblity of demucking or restoring it to the advertised depths. One way is to lay a earthen dam down the middle, use excavator to muck out one side and dump it on the other side (filling up that size with spoils). Get that side clean bottomed and at the same time see what your bottom looks like in terms of veins of sand/gravel or natural springs. Then decide if you have place to go with the other side dirt or if you can dry it out and use it on the banks.

You may lose a few fish in the process but you will gain enormously by reducing the nutrient load and not fighting the issue of heavy weed growth and heavy algae every summer after.

If that isn't something you are interested or is not possible then it is still wise to probe the depths for actual depth and then sample with nets and angling for how many and what size LMB are left and how many normal bluegill vs pure green sunfish you have now.

Do you know what the bottom material was when it was built 20 years ago or what was used to dig it out?

Thanks for the quick response and welcome to the forum. I have not checked the entire pond for depth but did put a tape measure close to the dam and the depth was similar to when it was built. I haven't treated the water shield ever and it has pretty much taken over along with the cattails. I'm thinking on using navigate to kill the water shield in the next week or 2 and clearcast for the cattails. Any +/- to that strategy? It was basically cow pasture 35 years ago and a dozer was used mostly for the dam and sheeps foot roller. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Welcome to PB. If/when you spray the veggies, do it by area. Maybe 1/4 to 1/3 at a time. Dieing plants robs O2 from the water. The fish will leave that area and go to the good water. If it’s dieing everywhere, fish die.

In addition to what Dave said above, cattails might need a 2nd or 3rd spraying this year. They are really susceptible to the herbicides in late Fall when they are taking nutrients down to the roots to store it for the winter. They bring the herbicide down to the roots and die.

About 2/3 of the pond is covered in water shield out to about 10 feet of water depth. Is it possible to kill the watershield and end up with a good pond or is 15- 18 years of build up too much to overcome? Would aeration help? Definitely no "good" place for the fish to spawn.I don't think there is a lot of silt, mainly watershield.Thanks

I am no expert, but I believe 15-18 years of build up is a problem, but definitely not too much to overcome to make your pond a good fishery again. The only way to eat an elephant is one small bite at a time!

Do you have a stretch of shoreline that used to be one of the good fishing spots? If so, you might start there by killing or clearing the cattails for access, and then killing off some of the watershield to make a fishable area.

I like starting small on new projects on my farm. Even with expert advice, I almost always discover that I have a learning curve and can quickly get better at the new skill.

Hopefully it will be the same for you when attacking the watershield. A small kill will be safer for the pond, and you can tackle bigger "bites" in the future.

Good luck on your pond rehab project!

I've had good luck controlling Watershield with a herbicide called Habitat. You have to be careful not to go over the recommended application rate, especially if you have trees or plants living next to the water - the herbicide will translocate to those plants and kill them too. I have successfully treated a 3/4 acre pond with Watershield with the Habitat and it had cypress trees growing in the pond, and it didn't hurt the cypress trees. I was careful not to treat it heavily around the cypress trees, I only used about 50% of max strength.

I sprayed 1/2 the pond, came back 3 weeks later and sprayed the other half. Follow the directions, add an aquatic surfactant and I also added pond dye to the tank mix to allow me to see where I was spraying and how heavily I was applying it.

What happened to my pics? I'm curious because I'm trying to download some in another post and I can't get them to work.lol Any help would be appreciated. I've read the tutorials multiple times and can't get them to load.Thanks

Have you tried hosting them on Imgur and then putting them here?