Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Came looking for some help.

I'm currently going to school for a degree in aquaculture/fisheries, someone I know recently purchased a house with a four acre pond. Even though Ive learned quite a bit the more input the better. I was speaking with him and mentioned that I might know or know someone that could give him some advice to make his pond a little more productive. The pond has a healthy population of bluegill and minnows but the LMB are on average 1LB. He plans on purchasing a windmill aerator or water pump, making a tire reef, dropping Christmas tress, and adding pea gravel for bedding. If someone who has the knowledge could help me out on where to place these items it would help out.

Welcome to the forum Captain!

If your catch a lot of small 1# LMB, the pond is most likely way overpopulated with bass. At least that would be the odds on favorite for the problem.

Or there is an overharvest of larger bass. If it's a very young pond the bass may not be up to size yet.

I agree with Rainman but it's not always cut and dry like that.

FWIW, the picture in the link show the different depths in 1' increments with a max depth of 13-14 feet.

How old is the pond, and what is the submerged vegetation like (i.e. % of pond that has it)? Is that all the fish that are in the pond (Bluegills, minnows and LMB - what type of minnows are they?)?

I figured that there were too many LMB. The pond is at least 20yo and the owner before never fished it so I doubt its over fished. There really isn't any submerged vegetation, there is only some emergent grasses growing out from the banks about a foot out(not sure what it is). I haven't spent a lot of time at the pond but from what they tell me they have LMB, BG,Mosquitofish, few GSF, few Crappie, few gars, few grass carp, and some catfish(not sure what kind). If they would only let me borrow the electrofishing back packs from school I could give you more detail, but I dont think its going to happen anytime soon.

Does it flood. Why does he have gar?

No flow at all, he just purchased this place recently no telling where the gars came from.

And also my friend plans on dropping a few willow trees that are along the shore line along with sinking some bushes, his main concern is habitat and structure and where he should put all of this structure and aerator.

Aeration will depend on pond size and depths. You usually don't need to aerate anywhere under 6'. You might need multiple aeration stations depending on pond size and floor contour. Structure you will want in 4-6' of water and some around edges won't hurt, also in deeper water for winter cover. Basically there's no science to structure just put it where fish like the most (4-6' of water) then some in deep water for winter. Aeration is a far more complicated science there's websites through pondboss that offer lake mapping for free which will tell you exactley what you need for aeration..

Where'd you get the depth picture from?? Looks good but I don't understand it lol..

He initially did it on excel then I just converted it to a JPEG, its really busy. Im going to have to check out that mapping.

It is very unusual to have way too many small bass and also have a good BG/minnow forage base. Especially in the South.

I would bet that he has some conditioned bass and is only catching the smaller/dumber ones. I would put some 4 inch bluegills on hooks and see what happens.

[quote= there's websites through pondboss that offer lake mapping for free which will tell you exactley what you need for aeration.. [/quote]

I looked around the site and couldn't find this, can anyone point me in the right direction.

Where did the quote come from ?

Bluegillkiller

Send him a PM and ask. I do not know of anyone who does pond mapping for free. Nor do I know what mapping has to do with aeration. There are some aeration providers here who will look at a map of your pond and calculate (with some more info) the needs of a system for your pond.