This 7 acre pond has constant flow from springs even in these drought conditions. How much flow would be the threshold for fertilizing? It also gets runoff from 50 acres of cotton/peanuts (not for many months now). The water was very clear this winter but clarity may be as little as 3 feet now. If we get back into the normal rainfall I would think the water would become more clear. My feeling is that it could use more nutrients, but that the pond turns over too quickly, especially in wet weather to make fertilization practical.
Part two of this question is about supplemental feeding. To my knowledge this 12 year old pond has never had a feeding program. Could an automatic feeder help compensate significantly for low nutrients?
There is some FA which wasn't visible this winter. There isn't much on the surface, but 1/3 of my casts come up with a few strands on my lures.
There seems to be a lot of Lepomis in the pond but I haven't caught anything large. I catch a lot of skinny bass. Yesterday I got 4 LMB 12 - 15 inches in about 10 minutes.
I guess what I'm poking around for here is this; will a feeding program make a noticeable difference in the quality of fishing by itself? I assume it can't hurt, but I would like to be able to describe any benefits of feeding to Mr. H. without tying it to a complex program.
Does any of this depend on anything else?
