Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Reducing fish biomass

Since FA first grows on the bottom, if sunlight penetration is limited due to a phytoplankton bloom or dye, then in a pond with very steep sides, there won't be much substrate that it can grow on. Phytoplankton could be a much worse problem in such a pond, but in this pond, the owner uses a peroxide based algaecide, then turns on the water to flush out the dying algae from the pond - helping to mitigate nutrient loading on the pond.

In this pond, the owner knows that harvest is an integral part of pond management, but knowing and doing are two different things. So, me going there to harvest got him out there harvesting too, and me being there also helped him to remember how to fillet fish. He was having a problem with that (I believe) and that was part of his reluctance to harvest fish. Why harvest when you can't clean them? I showed him some different ways to do it, and he ordered some tools to help him fillet easier than what he was attempting prior. He says that the fish from cool water taste better than fish from warm water, so the main harvesting time is now and late Fall. Winter typically would be a great time to harvest the fish through the ice, but we only had a 1 week window this year where there was safe ice.

The pond owner used to grow Koi, and he has a large live rock saltwater aquarium in the house that he maintains himself, so he is aware of water quality issues and how that will impact the fish in the pond.

He has Walleye in the pond too, and since we saw a white grub on one of the HBG, AND he's never caught a RES out of the pond even though we've stocked 700 RES between 2.5" and 6" over the past 4 years, we are going to put in another 500 of the biggest ones I can source this year. Hopefully the WAE don't eat them all. He caught a WAE that was either 22" or 27" (I cant remember) last Fall and returned it to the pond.