Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond Depth

We just moved into a home with a 1 1/2 acre pond and are considering stocking it. The deepest part is approx. 7 feet, whereas most of the pond is 4-5 feet deep. It's been recommended that we stock 250 bluegill and 100 pounds of adult bass. Assuming all other factors are fine, is the pond deep enough?

First off. Welcome to the forum!!! I apologize that TomG and JHAP, our paid member greeters* failed to properly welcome you within seconds of your post!

Does the pond currently have fish in it? It could be deeper, but since your pond is in texas there is little danger of an ice problem which is the biggest reason for extra depth. Also too much plant cover may become a problem in water 4 feet deep depending on the clarity.

Without other fish in the pond, the mix ratio of bass to bluegill would leave about 99 starving bass----I assume the 100 POUNDS of bass was meant to be 100 bass fingerlings and not actually weight




*
All pay is in the form of member tolerance of bad jokes and thread hyjacking---No actual monies are paid!

Thanks for the quick response. We moved in in May and were catching bass fairly easily, probably about 1 1/2 pounds, which looked properly proportioned. We didn't fish much during the summer. Lately we've been unable to catch any bass, which has us a bit concerned, although we've seen no evidence of fish kill. There also is bluegill, which we've continued to catch.

The water has probably cooled considerably lately, so I would not be at all concerned with the slow down. Also since you have been catching bass, adding that many more without haveing a good suvey of the quantity and quality of the ENTIRE fish population, would be a real bad idea. Do you have any history of stocking, when it was built, submerged structure, etc about the pond from the previous owner/builder?

Unfortunately, we don't have anything. We did have a fishing biologist who works for Texoma Hatcheries come out for a consultation. He had asked us to harvest some bass so he could assess the population. So, I fished every day for a week or so without catching a single bass. I then fished for some bluegill just to be sure they were still in there, and caught some. The biologists view was that the colder weather slowed down the bass, and since I wasn't catching any, the population must not have been very sizeable. He is the one who recommended adding the 250 BG and 1000 pounds of bass. We're having the water tested at Texas A&M to be sure there's no issue there. I've been all over the web this morning trying to find something in the literature confirming that our depth is ok in Texas and am not finding a thing. I assumed this would be a topic that had been addressed on this blog, but I can't find anything here either, which seems a little strange. Once again, thanks for your help.

You may want to buy Bob Lusk's (the creator of this forum) book "The Perfect Pond...Want One?". Also here is a link to TP&WD. the link at the bottom of that site does not seem to work though.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/habitats/private_water/

Also you have twice now referred to the bass in pounds. When at comes to ponds an entire pond can only sustain a finite weight of fish called it's "carrying capacity". Say a pond can hold 100 pounds of fish, the fish might be 200 half pounders or 10 ten pounders.

So when you say 250 BG (bluegill) it really helps to also give us the length too like 250 2-4" BG or 250 5-7" BG.

I am positive the bass (LMB) are not referred to in POUNDS. In fact 1000 pounds of fish would be very close to the total weight your size pond could support.

I'm not very well versed in stocking numbers so I will leave that to the experts which will help out soon.

From what I've learned here, the best pond survey takes info into account from several sources. Ideally that would be info form seining, creel (catching), electro fishing, trapping, cast netting, etc. Then all this info for numbers, relative weights, species, age classes, etc is combined to give the best overall picture of the ponds health and diversity.

Thanks for the link. I actually had come across it, and you're right, the relevant one isn't working.

I actually have been on the phone this morning with a couple of local bookstores to see if I could one of Bob Lusk's other books, Basic Pond Management, today. I'll also look for the one you recommended.

I referred to the bass in pounds because that's how the biologist referred to them in his report. He did explain to me about the total carrying capacity of my pond, and the report otherwise is fairly comprehensive. What threw you, I'm sure, is I said 1000 pounds of bass, whereas the recommendation is for "225 adult copper nose bluegill" and "100 pounds feed trained bass." Sorry about the typo. We also received recommendations as to habitat, etc., which I'm also working on. I feel good about the recommendations, but again, I simply want to be certain that the pond is deep enough. In any event, thanks again for your interest and help.

Bobs books are available through the "Pond Boss Store" link in the upper left side of this page.

I have no idae who the advice came from but the rec's. on the CNBG sound good but the amount of bass seems way high and would most likely result in a stunting of bass.

What are your goals for the pond? Large bluegill? Large bass? Generally average sized fish for a balanced, self-sustaning pond?
The amount of time, energy, and funds you are willing/abel to provide for management?

These are all very relevant questions that go into providing the best plan to attain your goals.

The fact that you are here and seeking advice/opinions/suggestions shows you already know this so I'll sut up now and let much more knowledgable people than me help out now.

Rainman,

Lusk owns Texoma Hatchery so Argos is on the right track.

Regarding the depth, I would want to have a minimun depth of at least ten feet preferably 12. Right now if there is a bad drought you may lose your fish. If I was you and the money was available, I would be looking at hiring a dozer to come in and clean out and deepen the pond.

Chris, I did not know that! Thanks for telling me. I also never saw the hatchery name listed originally. Was the name added in an edit or am I just dense?

These are my reccomendations and they are based on several factors. First this pond has virtually no draw down. There is another pond above it and some springs that supply a constant source of fresh water at all times. 5-10 gallons of water flow directly through the pond every minute. Even with a maximum depth of 7-8 feet fish will do well. There is little threat of our current drought conditions drying up this pond.

I reccomended feed trained bass because they are catchable size when stocked and will do well in this environment. We can push the limits of a ponds carrying capacity when we stock fish like feed trained bass because they use less resources than an equally sized bass that is not feed trained.

I also reccomend stocking adult (5-7 inch) coppernose bluegill. Even with a population of exicting forage species additional bluegill will add a significant forage base to an already exicting population. These fish also will provide a genetic boost to forage species that are in this pond.

It is a part of a home owners association and little aquatic vegetation exists due to constant vegetation management by another company.

Thanks Chad! It makes a lot more sense to me now.

It's a shame about the lack of veggies too.

Argos, I don't think you'll get a better plan with these guys working it!

Going back to the original question, "Is the pond deep enough?" Yes, it is. For most small ponds in the south, almost all fish production takes place in the upper four feet of water. Deeper water than that is mostly for storage. Check out a fish hatchery, the most productive waters on the planet. Four feet deep. So, as long as the pond has a consistent supply of water and you take care of the water quality, Chad's recommendations are solid. 100 pounds of feed trained bass with 225 adult coppernose bluegill properly fed on top of the existing population will make for a fun pond.

In the great state of Texas where the wind blows and the temperature gets hot a pond will loose several feet of water to evaporation. As Bob said if you have a supply of water to keep the pond at a good level then the depth is enough.

One correction. The pond above is feeding plenty of water now. But, during the summer, the feed slowed to a trickle, and the water level dropped some, but not a lot. That was this year, our first summer with the pond. I've been told that the pond has been constant for at least the last several years, and so hopefully this is true. But, I remain a bit concerned about what could happen if we have a drought and feed from the pond above stops. This obviously is an issue with any pond, but in ours, we have less room for error. In any event, I'm convinced that our pond is deep enough for the bluegill and bass recommened to us. The only issue will be water supply. Regardless, I felt good enough to go forward and the bluegill and bass have been stocked and already are a lot of fun. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the pond level does will not drop measurably during the coming summers. Thanks again to everyone for their input.

Argos if you have made it through this summer with only a few feet of water loss then you are doing better than most. My pond has lost as much water this year as any since I have had my pond and many of the smaller ponds in my area are drying up. I have had no water flow into my pond since April. If you can make it through a year like this one you should do fine for the long haul.

Like Otto said about wind & heat in Texas..lots of evaporation. I remember also in planning the depth of my -yet to fill pond- that Otto said it will ususally be 2-3 feet below spillway in the normal years. So,IMHO in Texas without a spring, the depth should be at least 15-18 feet. That should get you by during droughts so your pond doesn't go dry & I have had 3 out of my 4 ponds in Denton County go dry during the 2005-2006 drought..du

Our tank that we just renovated was only 5' deep typically and very productive until the vegetation got out of control. That's the problem about shallow ponds- so stay on top of the vegetation!

We're experiencing the worst drought on record in our county (SE Texas), and so with the tanks down to about 2' deep, we decided to renovate.