Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations New Guy here...

Hello! Great Forum with alot of info! I have a pond that I believe was dug about 4 years ago. I have only looked at it once and took a few pictures. It appears treated and I only say this cause the water looked blueish-green. It has some lily pads and I have the picture below. I kind of want to stock trout but until mid October I won't know the depths and I'm guessing it's about a half acre pond but I really have no clue on sizing acres.

So...with the info above and the pic below...if i wanted to stock trout in the spring what do I have to look for in the pond depths and what kinda maintence does/will this pond need?

Thanks in advance and here's the pic...



Another view...

Welcome to the Pond Boss Forum. I'm from NW Ohio. To me the pond looks to be a dug out pond. Often these ponds are not spring fed. From what I see in the photo, I doubt your pond is spring fed due to what appears to be a somewhat low water level. A spring fed pond should stay pretty full during the summer. Another indication it is spring fed is if it has a constant outflow which would be caused by constant in-flowing water from a spring or small spring fed stream.

Without cold water constantly flowing into this pond during June,July and Aug trout will die in these months due to water becoming too warm (abave 70F). A pond, even a deep one, without incoming spring or well water will almost always become too warm and stratify during summer. This is esp true in your region. Colder water near bottom in a stratified pond will in almost all cases lose its dissolved oxygen thus forcing trout into upper oxygenated water that is too warm for them. Larger Trout could annually be stocked in this pond in late September, fed pellets and fished until early, mid June when they will then die due to heat oxygen problems. Larger trout are relatively low cost compared to other similar sized sportfish.

If the pond has no fish, it could be stocked with alternative species combinations such as largemouth bass bluegill, largemouth and hybrid bluegill. or smallmouth bass and yellow perch. If the pond has fish then it can usually be monitored, managed and or supplimentally stocked to produce a good fishery. Help will be available here for guiding you toward a better fishery.

Thanks Bill! I'm a bigtime fisherman and I was only being hopeful about the trout but I figured it wouldn't work. So I'm going to see what's in there, I have a color underwater video camera that I'll record and share the video if it's clear enough! That and fishing it I'll have the low-down on it by the end of October. Thanks again and great forum!!!!

Annual stocking in the fall of 25-50 trout (10-13") at around $2.50-3.00 ea is a fairly low cost way to have fun with trout each year. With regular feeding the trout can often grow (1"/mo) to 14"-16" by June. Several members have done this and it works well for them. Seach the old posts for information about diong this type of stocking.
The pond probaly has LM bass and bgill or hybgill.

Captain Don,

First, welcome to the forum.

As always, Bill is absolutely on target. I'm picking up twenty-five 10-12 inch rainbow trout tomorrow morning at $3.00 each (Zetts in Inwood, WV). At $3 each, that is at the top end of the usual price range.

Here is thread with lots of good info: Trout Anyone?

Here is a thread about the trout I put in two seasons ago. The Joy of Winter Trout

The new trout will go into our 0.7 acre pond. We'll feed until the pond ices over, or until the water gets below about 40 degrees. We'll start feeding again once the ice goes out. We'll try to fish them out in mid-April through May. If not, they will die when the water starts warming up.

They are great fun in the winter when the bass, bluegill and catfish are taking their winter naps. At least for us, they are actually more fun to feed than to catch. They are very acrobatic when feeding on floating pellets. They are also a great way to learn or teach fly fishing.

If you don't have other fish in the pond yet, the trout would be a fun way to get things started immediately. They are voracious eaters, so if you are going to be putting fingerlings in next spring, it would be best to wait until you get most of the trout out next spring.

Good luck,
Ken

Hello Captain Don and welcome to Pond Boss!

Captain Don, welcome to pond boss, great info here.
If you do decide to stock some trout in the fall a good variety is tiger trout, if they are available in your area.
In my experience they are more aggressive than brook or rainbow trout and would be easier to catch in the spring before the water warms too much.
Being in Mich. don't expect much growth over the winter, especially if your pond ices over.

welcome to the forum

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I run a Michigan Hunting and fishing site and have visited alot of other forums and it's hard to find ones as helpful and with good folks and info like you's! So now I have 2 forums to visit now!

So yeah...I will be planting trout as soon as I close on this house/property! Not only do I LOVE eating trout and fishing for them but I'll be ice fishing the pond and feeding them through the ice so they are big and fat come June...

Another question if I may...I'm assuming bass and bluegill are in there already. Would planting some Perch and maybe a few walleye be ok too? Also what do I feed the bass/bluegill and trout? Thanks Again!

Welcome Captain Don!
Looks like the Michigan contingent here on PB forum is growing by leaps and bounds. You will get so much help here. By the way, I am in SE Michigan as well. I live on a crappy man made lake that I am dedicated to restoring, making progress now after 6 years.

Thanks for the Welcome 2catmom! Love the signature!

Well I closed on the House November 20th!!!! Took me this long cause the house has been alot of work and I found out I can only get dial-up and Satelite Internet and trees need to be cut down before they can install the Satelite internet...

Previous owner stopped by and said there were bass, perch and gills in the pond and alot of them died one winter when it froze too much. He did say he didnt see any dead perch so I'm headed out in a few with minnows to see what i catch...

I did stock 25 Bluegills...so we'll see how the ice fishing goes!!!

Captain Don -- give us a report. Yellow perch are pretty tough when it comes to low winter D.O. The bass and bluegill probably start to go once you dip below 2 ppm. However, the perch can survive well under 1 ppm.

Always interesting to see what an uninvestigated pond turns up...

Ok no fish...although i have a Vexilar Flasher and it showed some fish looking at my bait...

I'm assuming 2ppm means Oxygen? I need info on that any links anyone?

Sorry, Cap. Yes, 2 ppm meaning dissolved oxygen (D) for short. When I read your background info, I just thought that I would mention that yellow perch are more tolerant of low dissolved oxygen over the winter than most other pond fish. If anything survived, it sure could be the perch.

See this link (Aquanic) and start at about pg 7.

http://www.aquanic.org/management%20prac...aterquality.pdf

Thanks Dave and ewest! I'll look into that more...

Any tips for catching what might be in my pond? Seems like all the fish that come up to my lure on my Vex Flasher look at my waxies and spikes but don't wanna bite!!!

I've heard it said that Tom G. has had good luck using a DuPont Spinner, no matter what time of year.

Seriously, it might be the color of the jig. I have terrible luck in my pond and in a local lake using green, but swap the jig to pink/red and the bites on.

I'd go for a rosie minnow hooked through the lip on a white jig-head, as light as you can get it. IF you have perch or calico crappie i'd also throw a light-setting polar tip-up with a shiner minnow (not roach-sized, but roach-colored) and see what comes of it. You might also just try a different depth. As small as that pond is, they might see your bait at a different depth, so they might not be buying it presented how you have it. Maybe the worms and maggots in your lake usually exist higher or lower under the ice.

Or, if white jigheads dont respond, try red or black...if they are restraining themselves from maggots, waxies and spikes, a small live minnow (rosie seems to do the trick) is the eightfold path for what i call winter Buddhist perch (refuse to bite the standard bait of choice, just seem to sit and meditate for hours at a time.....it's a peaceful protest against how cold you are in the shanty). same goes for crappie, although i have a hard time calling a papermouth a buddhist.

Thanks! I'll give that a try...I have alot of ice fishing equipment and tried it but some things you mentioned I didn't try...

So ice came and went and no fish caught. I put 29 bluegill in through the ice and when the ice melted there were 2 dead gills and the one small perch I planted. The one gill had dirt on it so I'm hoping the others aren't dead on the bottom. I see no fish when I look in from the dock and threw some bread out and nothing ate it...

So what do I do next? I want perch and gills to thrive. Is there a water testing kit I can buy and see what's going on? Also there are signs of muskrats...

My advice would be to drain it and dig it out deeper and start over. Seems like it might be too shallow to sustain fish populations in the winter.