Hey guys, I'm new to the board. I've got a 3-acre pond in Southern Missippippi that I've been working on for a while. I've done a ton of research on how to manage it, but there's a few nuances to my situation that are hard to find specific answers to. Hopefully some of you can give me some insight. If these should all be separate topics, let me know:


1) I have begun a fertilization program this year, and have had 2 algae blooms so far. The first time, I probably overfertilized, the visibility got to about 6", and the fishing totally shut down until it began to clear up. The second bloom, the fishing slowed down, just not as bad. Can I expect fishing to shutdown/slowdown on the upswing of every algae bloom?

2) My pond is spring-fed, and naturally very clear (6' or more in the summer). Should I still try to reach that 18-24" visibility window, or should I settle for something a little deeper than that? When I did get it to 6" as noted above. it cleared up to 48" in 8 days, so I am wondering if it might be really difficult to maintain that window when the pond really wants to be a lot clearer

3) I have had an unfertilized pond with an overpopulation problem since about 2013. I seem to be getting the bass population under control, and now I have started fertilizing. I have 2 related questions here: 1) How long should I expect to wait to see results of faster growth rates, and 2) At what point should I begin to increase my harvest rates? (For reference, I have been harvesting about 20 lbs/acre/year for the last couple of years to get the population down)

Welcome to Pond Boss.

I've never fertilized, so let's see what others say.

My gut response to question 1 is that various factors affect catch rates in the spring. Spawning would be one, and maybe reduced visibility due to natural or induced blooms.

You'll probably get asked more questions about fish details for question 3.

Thanks for the response. In regards to question 1, I am guessing that the bass got freaked out by the rapid change in visibility, but I am wondering, more or less, if this will continue or if they ever get used to algae blooms and it affects them less each time.

Ive also never fertilized but been around it. Question about clearing in 48 days. Is it a flow through pond?

Dave,
I don't think you would define it as a "flow through", though it is spring-fed at the deepest part (25') with a small constant runoff depending on water level. The pond is three acres, and I figure an average of 12' deep, so that's a volume of about 1.5 Million cubic feet, or 11.7 Million Gallons. I would estimate the typical exit flow rate at about 30 - 50 GPM, which is 43,200 - 72,000 Gal/Day, or .4-.6% of the total volume of the pond. If there is a rainstorm and it ratchets up to something crazy like 500 GPM, that's still only 6% of the volume in a day. Also, the spring source is on the same end of the pond as the runoff, so it's not like the entire pond is getting flow through it.