Where have all the fishies gone? - 10/17/08 01:22 PM
Here's my dilemma--either I'm the worlds worst fisherman or something is wrong. I need assistance on what to test to figure out what has happened to all of my stocked fish.
The basics of my pond:
1/3 acre, 100 by 140, 9 feet deep, woods on two sides, street on third side, houses on the fourth. One catch basin from the street-side swale drains in--nothing drains out.
I've been re-habbing this pond for my sons recreation (he's three) and hope to have big bass in it some day.
I've aerated it for the past two seasons. Bacterial treatments seem to have helped with the muck. I can tell as I get the waders on and walk around--I seem to have a much firmer bottom. I manually remove muck at low water conditions (moves up and down 9-12" yearly) and have been harvesting great garden soil.
The water is very clear--no sediment or algae even before using pond dye, unless of course I'm raking the bottom and pulling up the sediment. The pond dye seems to stay for quite a while. The main weed is duckweed, which shades the whole pond from May to October, except for around the aerator bubbles. Right now the duckweed has fallen to the bottom.
So I've aerated, dyed and bacteria-treated the water. I will think about a sonar treatment for the duckweed next spring.
I've stocked over the past two years fish in proportion to the size of the pond--25 bass, 50 bluegill, 25 catfish, 25 perch, and three or four gallons of minnows (I've even sunk some pallets for minnow reproduction and habitat) and some bullfrogs. There are plenty of bugs, smaller green frogs, tons of snails and some salamanders I've found. It seems to have all the things necessary to grow fish.
I have not found any evidence they are alive or dead. I tried coaxing them up with Fish Chow and still nothing. I have fished them with nary a nibble. It's been only two or three weeks since the duckweed sank allowing me to try to fish them or feed them fish chow.
Three of the aerator stones are in shallow water by my end--3-4 feet. The fourth stone is in the deep water at 7-8 feet. i think i have enough air.
As far as waterfowl, ducks love this pond, especially in the fall when the "teenage" immature mallards congregate in their little "gangs", their heads only half-green. We also have a couple pairs of wood ducks, little green heron (one or two). Egrets and great blue herons are nearby but don't come to our pond as it's hard to access it with the road and powerlines on one side and the trees and houses on the other sides. For the same reason canadian geese or swans can't get to the pond either. So it's limited to ducks and little green herons, and to my knowledge the only fish eaters are the little green herons.
So where are the fish? How do I know if the water can sustain them? I'm thinking I have to resort to a water test to be sure.
By the way, I have a small boat I can use to get to any part of the pond to look for fish and haven't seen even any dead ones. Are they just alive and down deep or did they just end up on the bottom dead?
Does anyone have any fish confirmation techniques I could try either this fall or next spring? Thanks in advance!
The basics of my pond:
1/3 acre, 100 by 140, 9 feet deep, woods on two sides, street on third side, houses on the fourth. One catch basin from the street-side swale drains in--nothing drains out.
I've been re-habbing this pond for my sons recreation (he's three) and hope to have big bass in it some day.
I've aerated it for the past two seasons. Bacterial treatments seem to have helped with the muck. I can tell as I get the waders on and walk around--I seem to have a much firmer bottom. I manually remove muck at low water conditions (moves up and down 9-12" yearly) and have been harvesting great garden soil.
The water is very clear--no sediment or algae even before using pond dye, unless of course I'm raking the bottom and pulling up the sediment. The pond dye seems to stay for quite a while. The main weed is duckweed, which shades the whole pond from May to October, except for around the aerator bubbles. Right now the duckweed has fallen to the bottom.
So I've aerated, dyed and bacteria-treated the water. I will think about a sonar treatment for the duckweed next spring.
I've stocked over the past two years fish in proportion to the size of the pond--25 bass, 50 bluegill, 25 catfish, 25 perch, and three or four gallons of minnows (I've even sunk some pallets for minnow reproduction and habitat) and some bullfrogs. There are plenty of bugs, smaller green frogs, tons of snails and some salamanders I've found. It seems to have all the things necessary to grow fish.
I have not found any evidence they are alive or dead. I tried coaxing them up with Fish Chow and still nothing. I have fished them with nary a nibble. It's been only two or three weeks since the duckweed sank allowing me to try to fish them or feed them fish chow.
Three of the aerator stones are in shallow water by my end--3-4 feet. The fourth stone is in the deep water at 7-8 feet. i think i have enough air.
As far as waterfowl, ducks love this pond, especially in the fall when the "teenage" immature mallards congregate in their little "gangs", their heads only half-green. We also have a couple pairs of wood ducks, little green heron (one or two). Egrets and great blue herons are nearby but don't come to our pond as it's hard to access it with the road and powerlines on one side and the trees and houses on the other sides. For the same reason canadian geese or swans can't get to the pond either. So it's limited to ducks and little green herons, and to my knowledge the only fish eaters are the little green herons.
So where are the fish? How do I know if the water can sustain them? I'm thinking I have to resort to a water test to be sure.
By the way, I have a small boat I can use to get to any part of the pond to look for fish and haven't seen even any dead ones. Are they just alive and down deep or did they just end up on the bottom dead?
Does anyone have any fish confirmation techniques I could try either this fall or next spring? Thanks in advance!
