Grew up in Texas. My dad had a pond he never had to do anything with it. It had so many catfish, it was unbelievable. Fast forward - I retired & moved to Weatherford 2 years ago. Seasonal pond was empty, but rain filled up soon, plus I often keep water hose from my well on feeding it so it doesn't drop low. I stocked it by buying fish (FHM, BG, cc) plus catching some CC from someone else's pond ( which was overstocked) and putting them in my pond. Didn't see many fish except for 10 who would show up for feeding every night, I think it was the ten I caught from my friend's pond.

I Have a mass amount of american red ear sliders in my pond. Babies show up on my patio, driveway and in pool. ( I ordered turtle trap today).

Vegetation is often out of control. I have used granules - they didn't help. I have used Cutrin -plus ( doing 1/2 of pond at a time) - no help but I did lose 10 huge catfish all in same 24 hours. I also have a lot a frogs. I have restocked pond 3 times - with BG, FHM, CC and recently some LMB . Just stocked again on Saturday. I have also raked this pond numerous times.

I looked at aerator pumps but they cost more than what I wanted to spend. Do I need one if I run a water hose into it when not raining?

I was told by one fish vendor I had come out that my horse and steer and ducks were the problem. I have 9 ducks. 4 Horses and 1 steer never enter pond and prefer to drink out of tanks with floaters in them. I guess the water is cooler.

Another person told me it wasn't deep enough. I think the middle of pond may be 12-20 feet deep.

Another person wanted $1200/monthly to TRY and clean out vegetation.

Recently received a Texas permit for carp. Can't get them until fall because fish farm is not delivering now due to hot weather and long trip.

My Purpose for pond - just to let my grandson and neighbor kids fish for fun and actually catch something. The pond behind my place has no vegetation and is small, but full of LMB.
Another pond close by also has a lot of fish (variety) and hardly no vegetation. They both have cattle which get in pond. My husband thinks I just need to let it dry up because I am having so much trouble with it . HELP!

Michelle,

Welcome.

There is going to be a lot to learn, and it will not come overnight.

Start with small steps. Learn about your water quality first. If you have poor water conditions, fish will not live.

Next you will need to learn about balance. It is rarely achieved, but it is always a goal.

Your vegetation needs to be controlled, not eliminated. It is part of the process and provides benefits when is controlled to the right percentages.

Aeration is a great thing, when used appropriately.

There is so much more. Others will give you great reading references.

The best advise I can give is to slow down. Make small changes and see what mother nature does with those changes and gradually get the pond to where you would like it.


Again welcome, there is so much to learn, but the rewards are so worth it.

What kind of vegetation do you have? 12 to 20 feet deep seems reasonable.

I had coontail in my lake and it grew to the surface from as deep as 11 feet when my lake was at its worst. We put a bunch of grass carp in as the others from long ago had gotten huge, old, and many appeared to have died off. The carp didn't phase the coontail and the hatchery I got them from told me just as much but I wanted to at least give it a try anyways.

We ended up hiring an excavator to cut our dam open last year and then doze out the muck this summer. We also had all the trees and willows torn out from around the banks. Our lake is close to three acres and the man we hired happened to be the same guy who built it 40 years ago. I know that is an expensive alternative but so are weed killing treatments once your water gets overtaken in a big way. He did us pretty good though. Our final tally was a little over 10k but I imagine we could have been billed 20 to 30k from others.

Thank you. Will slow down. Thanks again.

Wow!!! I won’t be able to do all of that, but I have ordered turtle trap, changed fish food, and raked 1/2 leaving 1/2 with vegetable. No trees around pond.

I only have filamentous algae and american pond weed - at least so far.....

Leave the APW, keep working on the FA.

What esshup above said. Study on the liquid and granular cutrine plus products. Not ugly expensive. Maybe dye for light shading? I think it can be effective but not for everyone.

Michelle,

Only put in HALF the Grass Carp you are authorized at first. They will eat your APW. Wait two years before adding additional Grass Carp unless the first batch does not do ANY good the first year. Removing the extras might be harder than putting them in if you add too many the first year. Go with small changes, that way you can see the results of each change.