Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How does drought impact pond chemistry & fishery?

If, as Bob Lusk says, half of the pond volume is contained in the top 3 feet, what happens when the pond drops three feet? Or even more? What exactly should we do to mitigate bad impacts?

Last Fall I pulled over 60# of fish out of the pond... Remember carrying capacity? I didn't want to have issues.

I roughly calculate about 30% of our pond to be around 3ft deep most of the year, with what I call the main basin around 10ft deep. That 30% is now 0ft deep and is dry enough to walk on without getting your shoes muddy. So everything is condensed down to the basin that is 7ish foot deep. It doesn't look like it's going to get better this winter. I see no weather patterns (past or present) that indicates it will fill before spring. Been wondering about such things as what the two previous posters brought up. Not much I can or will do for chemistry but pulling fish sounds like a great idea. The last couple of fishing exhibitions have been grand slams with lots of bait fish present and healthy looking bass. Crappie were mostly small and not real easy to catch. Maybe I need to spend a couple of weekends pulling fish to get ready for winter?

We are in a serious drought. When it rains someday, I’ll be once again, restocking bluegills, red sunfish and fatheads. Bottom line is that my fish population is mostly gone due to cormorants(again) and drought. It’s about 2.5 acres and about 4 ft to 5 ft. low. Due to some nasty surgery I was unable to drop the lines that I have over it to exclude the birds.

My spring fed creek has stopped running and most fish are gone. Some left in deeper holes.

I have a small pond at the back of my place. It’s about 1/4 acre and looking pretty sad. Cormorants also hit it but I still have a pretty good GSF population. It’s a mile so I use a 4 wheeler . Cormorants got my last 5 catfish. Green sunfish are perfect for that pond. They don’t over spawn I don’t sweat an oxygen crash. It’s about 3 ft low.

Been here more than once. In a drought low ponds are good for wildlife but not for fish.

When life gives you lemons, time to make lemonade.

I know the drought is painful for our ponds.

However, now would be a good opportunity to:

1.) Add structure to the pond.

2.) Cut/spray/dig invasive plants around the pond such as willows on the banks or cattails.

3.) Re-grade the shorelines to repair prior erosion, or add rocks or gravel to prevent future erosion.

4.) Get an excavator on location to remove sediment or muck in spots that are usually impossible to reach.

I am sure others can think of many more ideas of things to improve at our ponds during these conditions!

In a drought, assuming you still have some water, watch your DO level, carrying capacity, and concentration of minerals, chemicals etc. (you have less water but still most of the other elements). Low water is good for concentrating forage fish for predators to eat.

Thanks to all respondents. Lots to think about!

I confidently expected LMB relative weights to be up considerably as prey fish, especially CNBG, were forced out of shallow habitat. That probably happened at first, but then the supply of bite size prey, say 3 to 6 inches, was soon exhausted. Now only the giants and the YOY dominate the CNBG population, so I want to stock more soon. Of course, this idea may be limited by diminished carrying capacity of low water!

Probably the number one priority, outside of rain dancing, is to remove more LMB. Taken out 200 so far this year, but considering the drought I likely need to remove at least twice that.

You do have one major advantage - your upstream forage pond!

I think you should decide which size bass you are going to target for max forage availability.

Put limited CNBG broodstock in the forage pond. When the size of their YOY is distributed around the optimum forage size for your targeted bass, then flush them down to your main pond.

(I assume your forage pond is currently almost dry. However, based on relative volumes, I think you could pump from the main pond to fill the forage pond, and only barely lower the level of your main pond?)

Hadn't even considered that course of action. But in truth, could fill forage pond while lowering main BOW only an inch or two. Will definitely look at this option, thanks!

dave, you described my 2 acre pond almost to a tee! Except I believe I am 5+ feet low! I walked around the shoreline yesterday and saw huge cnbg smawning colony nests I never knew existed! Though they were empty of fish I am seeing thousands of fry along the banks. Am also seeing several little schools of 6-8 inch lmb around the banks. I am still running aeriation 24 hours a day. Water clarity is holding at around 20 inch and a beautiful green color from a algae bloom. I believe I survived the HEAT but don't know about the low water. I too have caught several 12-14 inch lmb and they are FAT! I assume preyfish are grouped up and easy to catch. But...I have still noticed several lmb feeding on pellets twice a day also!!