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New member here need some help hard heavy rain the other day and the temperature outside drop drastically. Today I have alot of dead baby bluegill and a few big bluegill dead what happen to my pond. I tested the ph it us 6.5.

Thanks all for the kind words.

@FishinRod

We have capacity to run power to the pond, but the quote we received for a full aeration system was pricey and more than I can spend right now. I’ve considered adding a simple pump at one end because “something is better than nothing,” but I’m not sure it’s worth it. As far as I know, we’ve never had noticeable fish kill. We have two small creeks that feed the pond and so I’d say the water turns over pretty regularly, at least a little.

As for the muck, I sometimes wade the shallow end and the muck is not nearly as deep as I expected it would be. Our lake/pond bottom’s around here are fairly mushy due to the type of soil we have. That said, I’d still like to drain it and excavate, or somehow “dredge” it with a pump to remove the silt without draining it. I have the same concerns as you about spawning habitat and plan to install pea gravel in a few areas after removing the muck in the surrounding areas. Fish are obviously spawning because I see them when I walk the pond. It’s not a proper survey, but I often see thousands of minnows, bream, etc on the waters edge when fishing or exploring.

My brother actually owns the entirety of the pond. Other family members live on the sprawling property, but ownership will never be an issue. Thanks for your help and guiding questions!

Edit: as for the leaves/needles, yes, we notice them floating after a long storm. I’m sure 2-3” of the bottom is pure leaf litter. I’d really like to remove it, and plan to at some point, one way or another. My kids enjoy fishing the pond, so if there’s anyway to clear it out without draining it, that would be ideal.

I’d love to grow a 10lbs bass, but I also like the pond as it is. The decision making is harder than expected.

Happy birthday Theo dude!

Starting to worry that we won't have a toad gathering (a toad-stock concert) at our pond this year. It seems as Mr. Cody says that right after YP eggs are laid, the American Toads start their chorus and then from far and wide they all find their way to our pond. I'm sure this has to happen every year regardless of COVID lockdowns and the rising inflations rates. This year has been odd. I saw zero YP eggs for the first time in 10 years (I suspect our Pekin duck which survived the critter that wrung the neck of his lifelong partner) is to blame for vacuuming up the eggs? No other reason why we would have zero visible ribbons when we caught some egg-laden females a few weeks prior.

Then as of yet we have zero toads in the pond. Anyone else who usually has toads in their pond have a late season or maybe it is too cold here at night for our toads? I saw the Ohio pond member posting that the event went on as scheduled in his pond so that is heartening.

I am NOT a Relative Weight guy, but these are my fishing observations.

A female LMB right before the spawn is at her largest RW of the year (obviously). The males right after they have been guarding the nest for an extended period may be at their skinniest for the year.

I am not positive that RW measurements taken at this time of year are necessarily indicative of the health of the bass population.

(All of the more knowledgeable people feel free to correct me or expand on this comment.)

I'd like to piggyback off this!

My scenario might be a little easier. My pond now shows up on satellite images, so size estimation is ~1/8 acre. ~1/3 of it is 11' deep, majority of the rest is 4-6' deep, with a shallow cove about 2' deep. I do have 20 acres of woods. Pond is almost 2 years old, I've been aerating a hour every morning with a double diffuser head since the pond was about 6 months old from April - Novemberish. Bill hooked me up with a great double extending net that I walk around the perimeter and net out leaves in the fall as much as I can. The pond is right beside my house, so access is easy. I've been looking into aesthetically pleasing bushes to get around in some areas as a block, but on to questions:

A). Would beneficial bacteria in my situation be of benefit to help break down the inevitable leaves that are missed? And if so, what is the preferred product?

B). I've seen them make products for ocean trash clean up that essentially float around sucking in water to skim it for trash. Is there any experience with any such type of product here? I see limitations mainly being holding capacity of the bin/basket/bag. Certainly this would not be the sole management plan, but I thought something like this might be beneficial to help scoop up leaves/debris that might have otherwise been missed. I did find a 5ft wide floating manual pull skimmer I'm keeping in the back of my mind as a back up plan, but a leaf-eating floating robot skimmer would be pretty cool!

Thank you for all help and expertise on this!

Happy spring, all!

The system that I inquired for guidance on last year is back up and running this season! Thanks again for everyone who helped me think through that.

[img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/WBURwXt38Jbf9zpT9[/img]

As I mentioned at the end of that thread (but never got around to trying late last summer), I'd like to try expanding the setup a bit to two diffusers.

To recap:

I started pretty small & simple - a single 9" diffuser on 50 feet of 3/8" airline, powered by the HIBLOW HP-60. HIBLOW specs say this puts out 60lpm and 2.13 PSI.

The Matala diffuser lists air inflow range as 0.88 to 3.53 CFM, which converts to 24-98lpm.

I'd like to add a 2nd diffuser, towards the other side of the pond.

Ideally I'd like to go ~75-100 feet with the 2nd line. Is 3/8" still Ok for this?

And, more generally - will I be bumping up against the lower end of the diffusers' inflow range?


Any other concerns / issues with this plan?

Welcome to Pond Boss!

I agree, that is a beautiful pond.

I love the look of having the trees right at the water's edge, especially since our property is in wind-swept Kansas. However, I expect your pond was significantly deeper when it was brand new.

The bald cypress trees that I have drop a lot of those feathery needles and also up to a hundred pounds of those darn round cones from each mature tree. I don't have longleaf pines but my Ponderosa pines also drop a huge litter of needles.

All of that tree material that makes it into your pond is building up your organic muck and robbing the pond of depth. I do like the rim of iris. They should catch some of the needles that are trying to blow into the pond.

Do you ever have a period in the fall where there are a bunch of pine and cypress needles floating on the surface of the pond? Do you ever have floating pine cones and cypress cones? If so, then it might be worth the effort to scoop out some of that debris after a good wind moves it to one shoreline.

Do you have the ability to easily run 120V AC electricity to the edge of the pond? If so, starting an aeration system may help get some healthy bacteria (that require oxygenated water) to start breaking down part of your muck.

I am worried that your LMB are so small because they do not have nearly enough forage. Even if you cull a bunch of stunted bass, the remaining/new bass will need lots of forage to grow rapidly.

I have seen many old ponds like yours and waded in to fish past the prolific plant cover in shallow water. Every single step was in deep muck. In that situation, where the heck do the BG (and the bass) spawn? I know they do, because there are both small BG and small bass in those ponds. However, there is nothing in the pond that could be referred to as "good spawning habitat".

Do you typically have enough water input that it would be easy to drain down the pond as much as 4', and then have it refill reasonably quickly? I am asking because drawing down the water and cleaning the muck from just a few pond slopes with heavy equipment and then adding some sand/gravel might give you a huge payoff in BG production.

Does your family own all of the pond? (It looks like there may be more than one house/cabin on the property.) If not, then it is much more difficult to get approval to spend money on pond improvements. However, the people on the forum in that situation generally have better success if they keep the rest of the owners in the loop during the planning phase.

P.S. Fathead minnows are typically a poor investment in mature ponds. They will be eaten long before they ever get a chance to reproduce, and they add very little weight to your bass for the price.

Good luck on your pond improvements. A pond of that size in LA certainly has the potential to produce some whopping big bass!

A way to quickly limit some of the bass in the pond is catch and remove the male that is guarding the school of bass fry. Then most of the unprotected fry will get eaten. which will help you 1-3 years down the road.

Welcome to the forum. I think the best thing to do for getting a handle on the pond with those goals in mind is to get an electroshock survey done. THEN you can determine what fish need to be added. It will also help you remove a lot of the underperforming bass quickly so you can start on the road to achieving your goals faster.

You may have to stock new LMB to help the genetic pool too, but that can be determined when the survey is done.

I stocked something similar just under a year ago. I spot minnows daily, a few catfish have started coming up to feed, and last week, I saw a school of bass for the first time, which got me really excited.

Thanks, Snow Dog.

That's a great thread ewest!

Happy birthday, Bytor!

HBD T!

I’m testing the American Feeder now. My two TH are 15 and 9 years old all original parts. Until my AF is at least that old it’s hard to fairly compare.

Not to hijack but my point is this cat-about the same size you mentioned-will eat about anything it wants. 6-9" BG are not out of reach...LMB up to 12-13" are a good meal. Those 12" size LMB are controlling excess BG, the ones that make it through are the ones that will achieve great sizes. Be mindful of the size and number of CC in the pond-especially at 1/3 acre.

Beautiful Pond and welcome to the forum. Several of the guys here are very knowledgeable and definitely can point you in the right direction or give some tips. Double digits bass seems like a great long term goal.

Hi PB community,

I’m interested learning what I can do to better manage the family pond (2-3 acres). I think it’s in good shape and very healthy, but I’d like to maximize fish size if possible, and possibly reduce the muck on the bottom and perhaps control the inevitable summer algae/vegetation.

I’ll start with a quick background

My grandpa built a pond 60-70 years ago in west central Louisiana and it’s turned into a very healthy largemouth and bream pond. It’s surrounded by a healthy baldcypress and longleaf pine forest. Louisiana irises line much of the bank, and there’s a small island in the middle with outreached shrubs and trees providing cover for pond residents. The depth is a gradient from 2ft to around 7ft near the dam. The dam has concrete spilllway.

I’d say angling pressure’s low-to-medium. We have friends who occasionally fish here, but we also have poachers and it’s work keeping people away. We’re in the process of restricting access to friends and invited guests only.

I regularly catch 1.5 to 3lbs bass, with the rare 4lbs fish. I’ve heard stories of folks pulling 6lbers over the last three decades, so I know they can grow bigger.


Management Goals

As mentioned earlier, I’d like to aim for double digit bass, or at the very least, 6-8lbers. I’d also like to control the summer algae and the muck/silt that covers the bottom. I’d prefer natural, and/or self-sustaining methods requiring as little human involvement as possible.

Current plan to increase fish size

-keeping as many 1-3lbs bass as the family can eat in order to increase available forage for everything above 3lbs.
-stock fathead minnows and bluegill more as a fattening snack (I’ll wait until I’ve removed 20-30 bass beforehand)

I’ve included some photos of the pond. I’ll share more later when I’m near my iPad.

Pond Photos

Nice report!

Any idea how long the 4lb bass was??

Noticed my first two clouds of bass fry today with the males hovering nearby. They must have hatched over the last few days as before that the males were guarding the eggs - last few days the males have been in area but off the nest.

Seemed like the bass spawned earlier than the remaining crappie this year - last week the crappie seemed to be in spawning mode and I caught one 10" and about 7 small crappie - since then no more crappie have hit.

I've pulled out 10 small bass so far this year. The bass seem to be doing pretty good - went bass fishing a few days ago with tube lure and caught 6 - a 4lb, 3lb, a couple in the 14" range and a couple 10" ones that I removed from the pond. I'd like to see them get chunkier as they are not super fat.

Start out with applying 2,000 pounds. although I'd really like to see you use regular ag lime due to the binder that is used to make the pelletized lime.

See: https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/fish-water/adding-agricultural-lime-to-fishponds/

If using the ag lime in the bags how many do think I need to start with

One of these methods

ag lime


or bag lime (not hydrated)

Happy belated birthday T !