Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry 1 acre 4’ deep pond in middle GA with Alkalinity 0

CampCobb,

Because of the pond gets its water from groundwater, any water you add will equalize with the ground water. Same thing will happen to chemicals, minerals, and such. Water will kind flow through and there is a good chance that the groundwater is of low alkalinity. So new low alkalinity water may gradually replace the treated water in that case. A ground water flow through probably helps keep your pond clear.

You have a great pond already based solely on your description. It is a great pond that by the time you purchased it had evolved into a panfish pond with slow growing but numerous LMB. You mentioned that what you love most about the pond was that it is crystal clear. That is, in part, because it has low alkalinity and hydrilla. However, if either of those change, then you may see that clear water become less clear. Also feeding may reduce clarity or increase hydrilla growth and standing weights.

So for your question about making the LMB healthier. Reducing their number will accomplish that task. Before sharing more thoughts, I would like understand more about what your goals for the bass are. You can have a trophy LMB pond, a balanced fishery with a few modest but memorable examples of both LMB and BG, or a trophy BG pond. But you can't have all of that at once. If you have a trophy BG pond, it will be dang near impossible to grow trophy LMB (the vice versa is also true). Also, how much are you willing to sacrifice clear water and/or endure more hydrilla? Too me, these questions should be first answered because we need to understand what the desired carry will be and which of three types of balances you prefer before making recommendations on LMB population.

So a couple of other things, I understand that the pond had skinny LMB ... but what were the conditions (and particularly the range of lengths) that the BG were before your started feeding? I am asking this question because I want to gain a sense of the balance of predator/prey and possible effects that your hydrilla may be contributing. Too much of any submerged weed can make BG too abundant to grow to large sizes even though there may be sufficient LMB to control them in the absence of the weed. If it was favorable for trophy BG, BG in 5" to 7" lengths would have comprised a minor portion of your catch. BG > 7" up to 10 or 11" would have not been uncommon. 3" to 5" BG would have pretty dog gone rare. If you predominantly had 3" to 5" BG, then there is a good chance that too much hydrilla was providing too much cover making it more difficult for the LMB to consume as many.

If you can provide an estimate of the range of natural fertility (pond carry capacity of LMB/BG) for your neck of the woods in GA, we could work with that middle range along with the additional carry 'capacity' feed can provide. Then based on that carry 'capacity' and your goals we could make a better rec for population management with your particular feeding program. Some states 'pond mgmt programs' provide information on regional fertility trends.

Finally, you seemed to like the Warmouth and I am not sure how important they are too you. But Warmouth tend to do well in low fertility environments. They have a niche there and can maintain a footprint in that kind of water. The changes that you are implementing, though they will be good for LMB and BG, will not be advantageous to Warmouth. They could be eventually extirpated over say 6 to 10 years.