Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose On Mutt Pond

Beautiful dog! Now my wife wants one...

Get her one! We are having a great time with Cocoa. Only 15 weeks old so everything is a new experience for her. Been spending time training her and she is a quick learner. No big problems....if you don't count the big house plant she shredded!

Just reward her with praise and a treat everytime she chases a goose or GBH. You might have to demonstrate the practice the first couple times.

That's the plan Bill. So far, she seems to be really enjoying being trained and catches on fast. I hope she catches on as fast once the geese, GBH, etc show up cause this old man chasing geese to demonstrate will not be a great example!

I bet she will catch on real quick. Pretty dog.

I bought a yellow lab a few years ago, with hopes of training him to be a duck/goose dog. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the breeding or "want to". The only thing he'll retrieve is his teddy bear when we get home and let him in the house. He doesnt even like the water...lol. Luckily, we only see an occassional crane, egret, or GBH, because none of the dogs pay much attention to them.

Well the winter has been interesting to say the least. Had a few days -30F+. Ice was 18 inches plus. My AirMax aeration opened a hole though when we had 15 inches of snow on top of that! The ice went out a couple weeks back and approximately half the pond is covered in FA mats. What a mess! I sprayed some areas with Cutrine Plus yesterday and today but I suspect the water temp is too cold to really have much impact. I ordered a pool noodle to strap on my weed rake to give it some buoyancy so I can toss it out and try to get most of this crap off. I also ordered some copper sulfate crystals for follow-up treatment. Anybody else seeing a lot more FA this spring than usual?

The good news is fish hitting the surface everywhere and no signs of any winter killed!

Seems my FA took off a bit early this year too Bill. I was lazy about putting in the pond dye but it looks like it has stopped the new floating mats since the dye went in. Think I got it before it got bad enough to need spraying. I don't mind a little around the edge to give FHM and other critters something to hides in.

Poppy,

We've considered pond dye but are concerned what it will do to the bottom of the food chain.

This is the most FA we've ever had by far. My bride and I are working on getting the mats removed and will follow up with a copper sulfate treatment. I think I've read here that Alum might help. Anybody have any experience with using Alum to fight FA?

My youngest son and a couple of his buddies went fishing a couple nights ago in between thunderstorms. My son's buddy, Justin, caught this little smallie. What do you guys think. Could this be a recruit from a 2016 or 2017 spawn?

Tell him good job Bill! Bet it is a recruit

Thanks Pat. I will tell him.

I'm not sure this is a recruit. Maybe just a male? It does not look gravid in the photo. SMB in our pond face a lot of competition from LMB and WE at the dinner table so I expect slower growth than a pond with only SMB as the top predator.

My bride and I stocked a couple of grass carp today. Last summer we were seeing more Small pondweed, Potamogeton pusillus, than we would like to see and, to a lesser extent, Floating leaf pondweed, Potamogeton natans. I only stocked 2 GC in our half acre because I don’t want these plants completely gone, just would like to keep them under control some. I figure we can always stock more this fall or next spring, if required, to get the level of control we want. Since I was at Keystone anyway, I also picked up 5 pounds of GSH in an effort to bolster our limited population of them.

On a side note, while raking FA, I accidentally caught a papershell craw (PSC) with a tail that was covered with berry. My bride also caught one a week or so ago. Looks like at least some of the little guys are still surviving.

I also ordered some advanced size WE for ladder stocking this fall. The plan is to harvest a bunch of LMB this summer to make room for the WE in the predator base for the fall stocking.

IMO two GC could after 2 years easily eliminate all your tasty GC preferred pondweeds in your half acre. After this year keep a close eye on the amount of plants present. Keep us advised about your results with those two GC once they reach 24"+. Hopefully you have added the correct amount.

Thanks for the input Bill! I really struggled with what the right number of GC to stock would be. Maybe the answer in a half acre is 0 if the goal is not to wipe out all vegetation! It will at least be an interesting experiment. The pond also has, hybrid lilies, pickerelweed, duck potato, eel grass, creeping rush, hardstem bullrush and a little of a few others. Maybe I will gain some insight as to what vegetation the GC prefer and can provide some info back here.

If the GC really start to get out of hand, I have read that they are good eating....

So I resumed feeding Optimal BG chow a couple three nights ago after a long cold winter. I was greeted with an enthusiastic response but my perception is the BG population has taken a heavy hit since last fall. Plenty of larger brood stock but very limited numbers of BG 4 inches or less. Could be more will show up in the next few weeks as they get back into the routine or maybe that reinforces the plan to remove some LMB? I'm sure the SMB and WE are also applying pressure to that size class BG. Any thoughts? I did see one CC about 3 pounds at feeding time but he seemed more interested in the BG than the pellets. No sign of YP but that is not unusual for us when we first start feeding again and I am not throwing chow in the area of the pond they seem to prefer.

Just to follow up on this...I applied the copper sulfate to fight the FA. Due to recent surgery, my application options were limited. I went with 1 pound of CS per gallon of hot water in a pump sprayer. 7 pounds of CS total in our .5 to .6 acre puddle. I am hooked! Absolutely incredible results. After a week or so, we were FA free! We are starting to see some signs the FA is trying to come back, so I will hit it with a lighter dose. I'm thinking it will be a monthly activity thru the summer. I used hot water to make the CS dissolve easier as well as helping the mixture disperse more in the cooler pond water.

Anybody have any thoughts or experience as to whether adding a surfactant to a copper sulfate solution used in a spray application would make it even more effective?

Try a lesser concentration of CS. I think 1 pound in 5 gallons will give about the same results. Try it and report back.

Thanks for the feedback Bill! Just to be sure, so are you thinking 1.5 to 2 pounds of CS total in a .5 acre? That would be great! I just ordered 50 more pounds. At that rate, I will have a good supply for a very long time! I've found that about 7 to 8 gallons of the spray lets me get good coverage all the way around the pond. What do you think about adding surfactant? I'm thinking it can't hurt?

Bill C,

I've been giving this a little more thought. I will go with 4 ounces (by weight) of CS per gallon (roughly your recommended dose (if I understand your input correctly) and 1 ounce of Cygnet (surfactant) as my next maintenance dose. Heck, if it is not effective, I can always hit it again. Maybe we can all learn something.

Thanks again for the input!

Well I'm happy to report that the BG population appears to be healthy. More seem to show up every evening. I am now feeding twice the amount of Optimal BG than I did last year and they still clean it up almost as fast as I throw it in! Also nice to see an occasional YP and a couple smaller CC coming to the table for a snack.

We have not had much of a chance to work on harvest this summer but I hit the bait shop for some shiners and here are a few my bride caught last night. They look like nice plump healthy fish to my inexperienced eyes.

We caught a couple more LMB and CC yesterday of varying sizes. Interesting to me is that all the fish we are catching are recruits. The CC must have been more successful spawning than I originally thought.

That’s good I guess...... mine haven’t yet or the fry got et up before I’ve seen em. I hope my CC and BC don’t ever spawn