Bill, I am happy to go with your suggestions. I had a weed/FA issue and here in NY we have to get a permit and send photos, etc. to get the GC. They tell you how many you should have - in my case they said 12! Being a bit pricey, I remember that I didn't get that many but can't remember how many I did get. I know I did have 4 older ones from many years ago already in the pond but they weren't eating much.
As for the shotgun, well, I could have gone that route, I was trying to be "slick" about it with my grandson. I'm retired from building custom LRP rifles and have plenty of other choices. I just wasn't expecting the GC to be hard to get at close range. I'll send out my grandson with a 410 or 20ga. He'll have fun.
Of note, in past years we have had a lot of FA but this year none. The GC have been snipping off my lily pads this year too.
I put my fishing boat in the water - quite a sight seeing my brother and I on the pond fishing in a 17ft boat - in order to use my graph and FFS and there are no weeds at all anywhere. I used to clean all the cattails from the edges as well but have started leaving a small patch. I do have a lot of old trees pushed in along about a third of the shore, several trees/brush I tied to cinder blocks on the ice and let fall in for cover as well as some homemade PVC cover here and there.
I do have aeration and of course, now the feeder. Fish are very healthy. We add a few hundred crayfish we catch through the summer in a local creek. I have started FHM in a little pond out back that I plan to trap and feed into the larger pond now and then. Overall, the pond has been great. If I let the weeds grow a bit, my grandson won't like swimming in it as much but.....he likes to fish and since I home school him, the pond has been a learning experience in management - this is just another chapter.
