Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Property

Just purchased a piece of property that has 4 ponds between .25 and 1.2 acres in size. Old ponds. Should I pay someone to rotenone and start fresh. Could have a grow out pond, a forage pond, and two 1 acre ponds for different species. It's not going to be fished much because it is on a golf course. Any ideas? What in the world would I do with the existing fish if I rotenone all of them.
thanks

Do you know the existing fish population? Maybe find that out first and see if a restart is necessary.

It's 10% work and 90% planning. Baby steps.

Doc, did you buy the whole golf course?

Going to start doing some fishing this weekend

fish em hard with a variety of different sized baits and you will get a good feel for their overal condition. Only start fresh if you want something different than what is currently in there.

We are definitely going to have to hear more about these ponds!!!

Sounds nice and should be fun!

Personally speaking, I hemmed and hawed and delayed implementing the nuclear option for 2 years. Then i decided to bite the bullet and breach the dam, rotenone the lake, dig out sediment to give me depth in shallow areas, build up the back of my levee 5:1, add structure, add contouring with dozers and track hoes, put landscape fabric and rock on the levee, add lots of lime to the lake bed, then add new fish. I'm SOOOO happy I did it. After one year of adding CNBG, RES, FHM, GSH plus AquaMax I'm catching fish bigger than I used to catch out of a 50-year-old lake. My bass were 2" apiece and added last June and now they are pushing a pound and look like footballs. For me, starting from scratch was the best thing to do.

As far as what to do with the fish once you rotenone them, here's what I did. My dirt contractor scooped most of them up with his track hoe and buried them in the levee. There were still bunches of fish left so I recommend doing this in November so the buzzards, coons and other varmints can clean house before major stench sets in. The buzzards would get so full off dead fish they couldn't fly without regurgitating a few first. They cleaned up the mess amazingly fast, though.