Looking for some help here... We have a 10acre lake that we are primarily focused on growing trophy LMB. We are constantly battling FA in the lake. Any ideas how to break the cycle, and not have to constantly treat?

Couple bits of info:
- Pond is less than two years old
- Very heavy stocking of bait fish for the first year. Approx 75-1 BG to LMB
- Well fed with no springs/creeks coming in
- Feeding program for BG


Our water in the pond is pretty hard, and easily gets a bloom. However the bloom tends to switch to FA and water clears followed by a treatment. Bloom comes back and then the cycle starts again.


ANY IDEAS??

FA can be very challenging. I believe the main factors to concentrate on are...

1.) Eliminate/reduce shallow water,

2.) Use dyes (or muddy conditions) to reduce light penetrating to the bottoms, and

3.) Reduce/avoid excessive nutrients in the water.

It will help to remove any and all the FA mats that get to floating around. This will take the nutrients out of the pond that would otherwise sink back down and add to the next crop. Some popular ways of removing the algae involve aluminum yard rakes fitted with swim noodles for floatation and using ropes fitted with a lot of zip-ties and used to corral the FA to a pond end or cove so the rake can be more effective.

I can not suggest any chemical solutions as I have not needed that, but they exist and could be used in conjunction with the other options.

Can you have Tilapia in your state? Plenty of success stories involving Tilapia.

One thought comes to mind. Given the initial stocking ratio and an age of only two years, wouldn't the BG be sufficient forage without additional feed? You could reduce feed as one option until you have indications that the LMB need more forage to sustain growth.

Mother Nature will find a way to use the nutrients, in your case, they promote FA. One option is to plant more desirable submerged, emergent and marginal vegetation. As these plants take hold, they will reduce the nutrients available to the FA.

I second the TP suggestion. Turns FA into fish, YOY TP eaten by BG (which are eaten by LMB) and larger TP eaten directly by large LMB, especially when temps get colder & TP get sluggish before dying.

I've had good luck with TP at my BOW. LMB at 15 inches plus are massive, avg relative weight above 120%. I think the TP have something to do with that.

I don't know what type soil you have or if it even matters but it is common for any new pond around here to have severe FA problems the first 2 or 3 years. I don't understand why but mine did it too. The soil here is heavy yellow clay from top to about as deep as you want to dig. It has virtually no nutrients. You can't grow anything on it without fertilizing. I had some spread 3 years ago and it still just has a weed here and there but is mostly still bare. I've watched the same thing in other ponds I drive by. Seems like in 2 or 3 years the FA declines a lot on its own. I did use Cutrine the first year to keep it from covering my pond and dye the next 2 years but haven't had any trouble since. Other ponds do about the same with nothing done to them.

We (I) need some more information. 1. do you fertilize to get the initial spring bloom?. 2. Are you using a pond management company to monitor fertilization and FA control? 3. Do you have any Secchi disk readings? - weekly or bi-monthly readings are best. 4. Do you have any water nutrient chemistry test readings? Past 2 years indicate the bloom forms, water clears, and FA develops, then cycle repeats. 5. How often does this cycle occur in each of the past years?

Dense stocking of crayfish will help manage FA significantly and annual stocking of TP if legal in NC, but the crayfish are cheaper and will create a self sustaining population unlike TP. Also takes a few years for aquatic vegetation to get established - once it does, it helps compete for nutrients being used by FA. You can plant beneficial cultivars of pondweeds, sedges, rushes, lilies, ellgrass, etc. or wait to see what mother nature provides. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's an invasive species like coontail, etc. You can roll the dice or be proactive.

To reinforce what teehjaeh57 said, in most cases you will get plants naturally within a few years. My pond was almost barren of weeds in 2016 and 2017, which really hurt CNBG reproduction and hence LMB forage. I had stuff planted in summer 2017, some of which did okay but some which did not.

This year it's the chara (not planted) and American Pondweed (planted & spreading) which are the backbone of my BOW cover. Shocking in plant areas frequently turned up dozens or hundreds of YOY fish, mostly CNBG at a guess. Cattail is also there (unplanted) but is less important.

If you really want to get BG reproduction a big boost right away, planting might be worthwhile. Good plants like Am Pondweed crowd out opportunities for bad stuff to grow. But rest assured, unless you have a very unusual situation you will get plants one way or another!

Here is some more information from a SeScript I just got back:

pH: 8.3
DO: 8.5
Conductivity: 183
Alkalinity: 73.3
Hardness: 51.5
Turbidity: 4.8

Total Phosphorus : <10
Free Reactive Phos: <5
Total kjeldahl nitrogen: .6
Nitrates and Nitrites: <.02
Total Nitrogen: .6
Chlorophyll: <10

How about answers to the other questions?
1. do you fertilize to get the initial spring bloom?.
2. Are you using a pond management company to monitor fertilization and FA control?
3. Do you have any Secchi disk readings? - weekly or bi-monthly readings are best.
4. Do you have any water nutrient chemistry test readings? Past 2 years indicate the bloom forms, water clears, and FA develops, then cycle repeats. Tests indicate low nutrients. Are concentrations of nutrients (nitrates, nitrogen, phosphorus in ppm or ppb?
5. How often does this cycle occur in each of the past years?