Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Coontail dissappeared?

It seems like it happened overnight, but more likely over a week or two... it appears that the majority of the coontail in our pond died out. It has always pretty much covered any area's that was less than 8ft deep. Now the shallows are pretty much is clear of it.

Possibilities;

We'd had several years of low water. This year it has been full with regular rains.

We've had more muddy water than normal. But not all the time, just based on heavy rain events.

Aerial sprayers spray the neighboring land. They spray for broadleaf weeds. I know they spray up creek directly on the water. Otherwise it's pastureland.


What says you guys? Anyone have experience with something like this? Should I be worried?

I am hoping that your coontail just kept migrating down your pond slope and now it died off due to lack of sunlight in a full pond because the light had to reach it through several more feet of muddier than usual water.

Do you know your neighbors well enough to ask what chemicals he was actually spraying?

I believe Kansas State has a water testing department. Perhaps they could test for a specific herbicide if you told them which product?

Might take a water sample from your inlet creek on the day they spray, and another sample right after a rainstorm?


P.S. Have you been fishing since losing the coontail? I suspect the artificial structure you have placed will really be acting as a fish attractor/concentrator right now!

I hope it's option A!

On the spraying I know one of the neighbors well enough that we can talk about these things freely. The other neighbor won't want to deal with it due to a spraying that happed several years ago that involved lawyers/insurance and a whole bunch of dead trees. I do know the State will send someone out to test water and vegetation.

Haven't fished enough to know the total affects of the missing coontail. Fishing hasn't been great, but that could just be the summer lull or I picked some bad times. But, I took a friend from Canada fishing thinking she would be able to catch 20 bass and some crappie... but we only caught 2 bass and 3 little crappie. It was a very very slow fishing trip for us by any standards.

I wonder what active ingredient is in the herbicide that is sprayed. Diquat does a number on coontail.