Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Too much water ..... good news-bad news

I'm not griping cause I think too much water is better than not enough water (Been there ....done that). But here goes.....
We got another 1.75" of rain last night, which gives me 17.8" in last 60 days. The spillway is running water again(4th time) and the pond level has come up into the grass again.
A couple of questions come to mind.
1) How do you get an algae bloom with that amount of water displacement in a pond?
2) What happens to the bottom part of the food change with the above situation? Not just the microscopic food particles/organisms but the small fishes that now have so much more cover to escape predation.

My observation is that you get more suspended junk that retards sunlight penetration. However, it usually settles out OK and the bloom returns.

At my home in Hurst, we got 3.5 inches Saturday, another 2.2 Sunday and .5 yesterday. I hate to see it all come at one time like this. The ground is too soaked to take it and it winds up as runoff. That may not all be bad. The highly polluted Trinity River that runs through D/FW ought to get a good cleaning.

20 acre pond in Ellis County......Another great thing about this rain and raised water levels is the fishing. IT'S GREAT. My pond is up about 6 to 8 linear feet which opens a lot of new fishing area with flooded grass and weeds. Bass are in their feeding ferociously right now. It reminds me of bass fishing in Mexico a number of years ago. Enjoy it while you can............

Rising water is usually good for the food chain, from the bottom up. IF area soils are fertile with the right nutrients, I think the phytoplankton base should get a shot in the arm. As BarO noted, newly submerged grass, etc. previously above the water level provide beau coup hiding places for invertebrates and little fish. From there on, the bounty trickles up to the big fish.

I haven't a clue where they came from, but we now have grass shrimp. I have done a couple searches and a little reading and actually saw them in some flooded grass Sun. They were first discovered a couple months ago by my son (davatsa) while raking primrose. This years BGs are almost 3/4" and are having a feast on the flooded shorelines. We have a LMB that lives in 8" of water, 2' from a feeder. It waits for someone to walk by and spook the minnows and nails them 3-4' from the shore. 2-3x a day it performs!
2 of 3 ponds now overflowing, and have been for several days!

We are still dryer than a escaped popcorn fart here!

I havent even been able to go out th ethe pond it has been flooding down here

Bar o my pond has done the same thing flooding into areas that were previously grass. The fish seem to love it. My concern is that the water is now stained a brown color from all the decaying plant matter. Will this cause the ph to decrease enough to cause a problem?

It's starting to get that way here too, you Texas guys need to share and send some of that rain a little farther north.

I test my water periodically during the year. It is now about 7.4 PH and the alkalinity is still about 30PPM. I just haven't had a real good "pea green" bloom since about April and my visibility is about 30-36". I sure have a lot of small forage up in the grass and some nice, noisy chasin' and gettin' going on about dusk.

How much rain have you had since May 1 (water overflow) and what are your water temps ?

For the month of July I have had nine inches of rain! Last year I had nine inches of rain for the first half of the year!

Eric,
I do keep a log on my rainfall so I have that answer. We have had 26.15" since May 3rd. The breakdown by month is: May 7.4", June 8.65", July MTD 10.10". I will check water temp later today ..... I have a tee time in an hour.

No rain in July, little in June.
The river is low, the lawn auburn.
The pond is wild and fish abound,
�cause water comes from underground.

a fixin , fishin , poet amongst us. :p

When Texas sends all that rain to Nebraska, please stay in Western Kansas on the way up. Central and Eastern Kansas do not need it. Talk to me in a couple weeks when it is 105 and no rain and I may change my mind !!!

ewest - My poetry is (thankfully) going on hiatus after this:

To some I�m a freak,
To others a geek.
PondsForFun opined beyond;
It�s that far out guy on Bremer Pond.

reference material

Sorry about getting this far off topic, it is something I rarely do! :rolleyes:

Dwight that just means you fit in there right along with the rest of us !! You know - that - great minds think alike kind of thing.

Eric,
I didn't have a great day on the links so I decided to come back and work on my spillway. The temp in my pond is 82-84 degrees between 12-24". I believe it was about 8 degrees warmer last year at this time. I am seeing lots of forage from 1/4" on up.....the pond seems very healthy. The BG & HSB are still feeding very good on pellets....and the LMB lay in wait under the pellet feeding area every night for easy pickings.