Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - 1 acre 4’ deep pond in middle GA with Alkalinity 0

I bought 22 acres 2023 summer that has a beautiful nearly 1 acre shallow pond.
It’s a water table pond and summer time can get very shallow 3’ or so.
In winter spring it’s mostly around 4-5’.

A little about the pond before I get to my inquiry about alkalinity…

The water through the entire pond is almost crystal clear. This is the main thing I really love about this pond.
There is moderate to fairly large quantity of hydrilla throughout the pond.
The pond is surrounded by loblolly pines, some deciduous, and some type of really pretty fir trees that have large stumps and some exposed roots in places and under the water.
The bottoms mostly near shore have a large amount of “muck” consisting mostly of pine needles and leaves.

It has small bream, decent warmouth, and a variety of skinny sized largemouth bass in it.

For the past 8-10 months I been feeding the brim with an automatic feeder and they are absolutely thriving. We catch some good hand size ones now and they are fat!

My goal is to produce and manage a nice largemouth bass pond.

The bass I catch now are mostly tiny from 6” to 2 lb and some with heads and mouths that should be a 3-4 ponder but just very under nourished. In another post (not discussing water chemistry) it was mostly concluded that there was not enough ambush habitat for the bass to help feed on the plentiful brim. Which I concur with.

I’m adding different structures and want to lay some of the pines down in the pond and this got me thinking about water chemistry. I did lay one large (about 10-11 inch trunk ) pine down in the pond already.

Got a water testing kit and all chemicals were spot on except alkaline which was 0 (and ph low)

Considering the current abundance of healthy brim should I be concerned with the low alkaline and just continue adding bass habitat?

Here is my plan for the pond…

Dig a shalllow water well about 40 yards from bank and supplement the water level with a solar powered pump from the well. I think a consistent topped off water level year round could be the most beneficial effort for the pond.

Secondly, with a pond rake go around the shores and rake out as much muck as I can.

Continue adding bass habitat.

Consider adding an aerator.

Consider adding up to 250lbs of sodium bicarbonate to bring the alkaline up to around 50.

The last thing I want to do however is go from seeing healthy thriving fish swimming around in the pond to belly up fish.

I guess it comes down to is what will it take to get the bass more healthy despite all the other currently good conditions the pond has going for itself.

Looking forward to any thoughts and suggestions

Thanks

CC

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.

Hydrilla Control - Grass Carp (GC)
GRASS CARP INFO and Hydrilla Control

Here is a Very Good info sheet. Read carefully and understand all the details..
https://sarasota.wateratlas.usf.edu...for-Biological-Mgmt-of-Aquatic-Weeds.pdf

Texas
https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/management-options/hydrilla/

https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/management-options/hydrilla/
2. Biological Management Options
Grass carp will seldom control aquatic vegetation the first year they are stocked. They will readily consume hydrilla, and it is, in fact, one of their most preferred plants. Grass carp stocking rates to control hydrilla are usually in the range of 7 to 15 per surface acre. In Texas, only triploid grass carp are legal and a permit from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is required before they can be purchased from a certified dealer.


Water Research Power Point Presentation
https://www.waterrf.org/serve-file/resource/031518Webcast_FINALv1.pdf

Comments from members of PBoss Forum
Greg Grimes - ""yes POSITIVELY identify it first but we have had great results with a one two punch. Grass carp and copper/reward combo as mentioned by JHAP (informative post my friend).

It is a 350 acre lake and we keep less thatn 2% coverage. Every three years stock 2-3 grass carp per acre to keep fresh young hungry grass carp going. The initial stocking 8 years ago was about 8/acre. Also key to stock larger 11" plus size to survive bass predation. Then we spot tret with 2 gals reward/1 gallon ktea/.5 gallon surfactant per weeded acre. I think for what its worth you did not stock enough GC or for the % GC eaten by bass or those that escaped. I suggest more grass carp in the spring before the hydrilla starts back. Then spot treat early as suggested. Hope this helps.""

Chad Fikes - First thing is we need to properly identify plant species that you are dealing with. I have been managing aquatic vegetation for 5 years in North Texas and southern Oklahoma and have yet to see an actual Hydrilla case. Once we id plant we can come up with a game plan to manage plant.

There are basically three different management options for plants. Biological, which you have tried with grass carp, physical removal and EPA registered aquatic herbicides. Each is a tool that we can use to manage plants. Sometimes one works better than others.

I would avoid fertilizing until then. I would be happy to help you come up with and implement a game plan to manage those plants.

Kelly Duffie - If hydrilla wasn't introduced to your lake (accidentally or intentionally), then it is probably something else. Verify the plant's ID before you do anything.
IF it is hydrilla, fertilizing to shade it out is not an option (IMO). Hydrilla is capable of withstanding extreme low-light conditions, which is why it typically dominates plant-communities. Also, fluridone (Sonar, Avast, Whitcap) might be more affordable than you think (despite the high $/gal price-tag), considering the low-dosage required for excellent hydrilla control. Then again, your lake's hydrological characteristics have a lot to do with making it a decent candidate for fluridone treatments (little or no flow-through for 90+ days after treatment is essential).

'Jeffhasapond ' - Also no expert but I've had first hand experience in dealing with Elodea. (Looks very similar to Hydrilla and often mistaken for Hydrilla). I originally was calling our pond weed Hydrilla until I learned how to distinguish between Hydrilla and Elodea, it turned out we have Elodea. Ultimately I used a Cutrine Plus/Reward combination that had a significant impact on our Elodea problem. Now all I do is spot treat areas each year. I believe I spent about $300-$400 to treat our 3 acre pond that had 70 to 80 percent coverage. It worked wonders for us. For a 10 acre pond I think I'd find out what a professional consultation would cost.