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

Some friends and I got together to rotenone a 1 acre pond today. It's a 1 acre pond, average depth is 5 feet. We added 5 gallons of rotenone to the water very slowly by adding the rotenone to the prop wash while trolling along the banks and up and down the pond. About 30 minutes after we started, we started seeing BG come up to the surface, this continued steadily and about 5 minutes later we caught several big catfish. We had the whole pond covered with people and dip nets. Overall it was a frenzy for about 30 minutes, then there was no more action. We had scooped up all of the fish that were on surface and there were no more coming up. My friend seems to think there are some adult LMB in there but we only caught a few of them, under 12 inches long. Total count was around, 350 bluegill, 5 big channel cats (10 lb average), 9 LMB under 12 inches. I was wondering if you guys think we should try again before restocking, if so, how would you do it next time. Any advice on rotenone would be greatly appreciated.

Wow that catfish looks like it's been eating good!

That CC was probably stuffing itself with small BG dying due to rotenone treatment. That often happens. Most pondowners are suprised at the lack of fish present after a rotenone treatment.

If the actual average-depth is 5', it is safe to presume that max-depths may be greater than 8'. If so, shallow surface-injection via prop-wash is often insufficient to target any deep holes, drain-tiles or pockets in which some fish may find refuge.
I've had several instances where retreats were required to get 'em all - especially the tilapia and plecostomus that inhabited one particular pond.
A weighted hose discharging above the bottom (don't stir up the mud!), followed by mid-depth and surface-injections are the best bet to cover all levels of the water-column. Any untreated zones provide an opportunity for fish-survival - and the fish WILL find such areas, post haste.

The way I get depths is to tie one jug to a rope and weight it with a chain. Then polk about 10 holes in the jug and let it go to the deepest area and jig it around as we move around the pond hitting all deep areas.

Weighted hose injecting deepest sections first (depth finder on boat helps), using a grid travel route. Do surface spray when wrapping up your application if you have overhanging branches/shrubs/trees in the water. You will probably see the fish you're looking for tomorrow...no matter how many netters you have on the application day, usually still a load floating the next day.

Thanks a bunch. Wade, you were right. I went back today, there was a load of them. Several adult LMB and CNBG. However, there was not 1 dead catfish. I'm thinking either the rotenone didn't get to them or we just caught the few big ones. I know catfish fry are one of the most vulnerable in BG infested water. Looking at the population and size of the fish, it was definitely overcrowded. I'm thinking I might just leave it like it is and restock, if a few catfish are somehow in there I don't think it will hurt anything. I hate to spend a ton of money to take out a few catfish that might be in there. What do you think?

Stock soon (after the rotenone wears off) before any possible CC can try and fill the pond with offspring.

good point and in this heat the rotenone is probably gone already. Test with fish in a trap to see if water ok now.

Thanks a bunch I'm going to get started