Went to my place yesterday . My main pond water is deep green. I knew that wasn't good. Been feeding about 2 seconds twice a day. I did a 2 second test throw and nothing came to feed. So I went to my small pond at the back of my property. When I tossed in feed, cats and GSF ate voraciously. Went to the creek and repeated. Fish fed well there also.

Went back to main pond and fished with a brown Stubby Steve for BG. Nothing. Then the cork went under. A bass broke the line in the knot. I've seen bass self training on the feed so that's not a surprise. But, never got one on the SS. All this tells me that the super cold temps generated a fish kill and mostly on bluegills. I doubt that many bass survived.

So, as soon as the water clears it will be stocking time again.

No good reason for a single species (BG) die-off vs LMB. Similar cold tolerance and DO profile.

ewest, I also doubt that all of the BG died. But if the pond was stocked with CNBG and the LMB were all Northern strain, a large population of the BG could have perished.

I'd suggest either running a seine through the pond to assess the fish population, only stock adult BG, or Rotenone it and start fresh.

I'm a little north of you and live beside my pond. So I really watched it close during this freeze over. I only saw one bluegill floating and that could have been from a GBH. I doubt it was from the freeze, but otters or some other predictor may have caused what you are seeing. I would wait till it warms up a little more and reassess. Sometimes we pond owners tend to over react a tad.

Trust me DD1 will not over react - he has been there and done the fish thing for a long time. Esshup - good point on CNBG but they can live in cold a little better than Fla LMB in my experience.

ewest, I agree on the CNBG part, and knowing the genetics of them, I know that they didn't die in another pond in Texas so I am wondering what is going on with DD1's pond. That is why I suggested running a seine through it first. BUT, if his pond has skinnier water than the other pond, it might have changed temp faster and gotten a bit colder too.

Also, DD1 is getting a wee bit older and I remember a tale about not buying green bananas, so I honestly don't know what he's thinking.

I expect it was not a single species die off. Seeing the bass surprised me. It’s still butt deep in turtles.

The water looks an unhealthy green. I’ve never seen this except in badly over stocked ponds with a DO crash. And, after the cormorant invasion a couple of years ago, I restocked but lightly. And, it is a lot deeper than the other, older pond. The fish in the creek are in about 3 ft of water and they ate pellets well.

I’m going back in a couple of days and do some more fishing. Or, at least, trying to fish. I might have gotten a hit from the only LMB left. I expect I’ll catch some fish from the small pond, about a mile away, and put them in a floating minnow bucket in the bigger pond.

The bottom line is that I’ve been hit in the deepest pond that should have been the healthiest.

Well, DD1, maybe now is the time to introduce some of our beloved, tough guy GSF to your big pond instead of those pansy BG.
I fished my little pond today for the first time this year. Water temp on the sunny side was 46 degrees, right at the shoreline. I landed 6 BG; the largest was 9.5". I caught 1 tiger trout of 16". Then I landed a scrappy 8.5" GSF. It out fought all those other fish, fins down, and glared at me while I unhooked and released him.
If you've ever fished in the salt water, say Baja California Sea of Cortez, and handled a finescale trigger fish, you know what that glare means! "Get you finger a little closer to my jaws, you rotten fisherman, and I'll show you what pain is!"

Dave, where did you get the CNBG? I've heard that Arkansas breeds are more cold tolerant than Gulf coast varieties. Mine did fine even in the forage pond where I expected disaster, and I think mine came from Arkansas.

Dave I have been seeing dead cnbg all over my pond and my water is pretty clear with a light green color. The large ones I do see have fungus and the lmb i am seeing look healthy. I think it is due to the cold spell, and like u I don't see much activity at the feeders. I am in that same green bananas situation. Sorry to hear about your pond.

4C, I am a huge fan of GSF. They will outfight a pansyass BG every time. My small pond, about 1/4 acre is essentially a gsf and cc pond. When I am able to stock again, I’ll start with trapped gsf and then buy bluegills, copper noses, bass, etc. to add to my currently toxic 1 acre pond.

Anth, I restocked a couple of years ago with both bg and CNBG. Bluegills from a local supplier and Al Hall brought me some CNBG hogs from his place in East Texas.

That restocking was due to cormorants.

"That restocking was due to cormorants."

I hereby propose that the next severe winter storm be targeted at the cormorants and leaves the fish alone!

Wow, that Al guy sounds like a keeper. I bet he brings you CNBG again.

Might have to build a little trip around that event....

Dave should ask him to bring some 2# ones.

A dozen minnows made it over night. That was a couple of days ago. I will go there to check on them tomorrow if life doesn’t get in the way.

Also, I did a one second test throw and some BG came to feed; not many, so I believe the water is ok and I didn’t have a 100% bg kill.

Starting over like it is 100%. I’ll start with too many fathead minnows. Then add bluegills. I’ll watch things to figure out what to do about predators.

Good to hear that you can restock safely, Dave. Sounds like a reasonable plan.

Minnows were in good shape after 3 days. So, I bought and stocked 7 pounds of fathead minnows. Some BG are still coming to pellets but not near enough. The fatheads ought to be able to get off some spawns due to BG shortage. I'll wait a little while to start BG restocking.

Some, but very few, BG came to pellets. I'll give the minnows a chance to pull off a first spawn. Then add more bluegills. Need to figure out something to tell me the status of bass prior to adding predators. Hybrid stripers haven't showed so I expect they are gone.

I have a barrel sized fish trap that I will use on my small pond. It is mostly stunted GSF. But they will be big enough to eat some of the fatheads to keep them from over spawning. I need to move some of the GSF anyway.

Some unknowns on what to do.

Dave it’s a shame you so far from me.... I need to thin the BG by thousands to allow my crappie to spawn..... last year there were no LMB or BCP that got to hatch due to major nest robbing

Pat, what type of panfish do you have? BG, CNBG, RES, GSF?

Anth.
Mutt BG, some res, CNBG and a few warmouth, but no GSF..... yount some?
Caught a LMB with a (guess) 5” BCP with just the tail sticking out it’s gullet

Thanks for the offer. I'm good, just curious. Have you considered stocking some HSB to control the excess BG?

Thought about them but since they are primarily open water fish they would hit the BCP harder