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#520628 05/06/20 08:49 PM
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The title is only partly a joke. The pond is approx ⅛ of my whole property and has become a HUGE part of my life.

Before we bought the house I posted here about possibly becoming a pond owner. Everyone here was super helpful and I can’t thank you enough.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=506613

In the fall I put in some aeration and again this forum really helped me a lot!
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=512954

Here are my year one experiences, as well as my thoughts, observations, and some questions as I move into the second season of pond ownership.

Nobody said there’d be spiders!

When you think about it, it’s obvious. Of course there would be spiders around a pond. I just wasn’t mentally prepared for it. I purchased a little boat to help cleanup vegetation along the banks, scoop out algae, and pull up lily pads. At first I was just dumping this stuff in the boat with me. I was really focusing on the task at hand. Then I suddenly realized the boat was crawling with spiders. I almost jumped overboard. What I do now is take a bunch of 5 gal buckets with me and dump stuff into them. I drilled a dozen or so ½” holes in the bottom of each bucket for water to drain, and the buckets somewhat localize the spider activity within the boat. Ugh. Spiders.

Algae, Algae, Algae,

Last summer and fall, I scooped algae by hand. A lot of algae, all the algae. Because I’m now scooping it into 5 gal buckets I can say that I scooped about 80gal of packed algae last year. It would grow into a thick carpet on top of the water. That’s where the spiders like to party. I actually prefer the carpet growth to how it’s growing this year. Last year I could start scooping and it would just keep coming up out of the water, strongly connected mats of the stuff. This year it just sort of collects on things like ropes and plants. When I try to scoop it, it’s not really connected to anything. I’ll get some in the net and the rest just disperses in the water making it turbid and gross.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

What the hell, algae. Pull it together! I’ve done some stuff to try and combat algae, so I’m wondering if this isn’t somehow my fault. Maybe instead of getting rid of the algea I’ve just made it more difficult to handle. For example, In addition to putting in aeration (starting last fall), and removing actual truck loads of dead/dying vegetation from in and around the pond,

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

I used a very minimal amount of copper sulfate that the previous owners had left behind. This is the first chemical I’ve used since taking ownership last August. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this stuff now, since I can’t really scoop it. I don’t want to add more chemicals if I don’t have to.



Super Phragmites

By the end of the season last year you couldn’t even see the shallow end of the pond due to the Phragmites. I physically removed all of it and hit it twice this year with glyphosate. This is the second chemical I’ve used in the pond. Is it supposed to look, I dunno, “dead”, after you poison it? Because the stuff that’s growing doesn’t seem fazed at all. I hit it the first time w/ the minimum recommended dilution and hit it the second time w/ the maximum. I went through the whole gallon bottle on this little pond. It hasn’t really gotten any taller since I sprayed it a week ago, but it also doesn’t look dead. I’m worried about this stuff.

Leaves, my new enemy.

I’m in the middle of the woods with mature trees right up to the banks of this pond. Just a fact, nothing I can do about it. I can just picture the last 30 years of leaves rotting on the bottom of this pond. I’m sure it’s a big contributor to my algae problem. I spent a week, raking leaves from where the banks meet the edge vegetation of the pond. It’s been years since this has been done, if ever. I didn’t do anything last fall as the leaves fell into the pond. I’d like to say I didn’t know any better, but that’s not really true. I just hadn’t quite stepped up to the challenge. I’m really trying hard to believe that this fall I’ll be a better person and keep them raked/scooped out as they fall. How long does your average dead leaf float? A week? I’m hoping that a weekly cleanup will work so I’m not out there every night.


Fishies.

We’ve got LMB. They seemed to be more active last fall than they are right now. Truthfully I’m not much of a fisherman so my assessment here isn’t worth much. The other day I was working along the bank when the sun caught the surface of the pond just right and could see down into the pond a few feet. I was FLOORED by how many fish I saw. I had to look them up to know now that they are Bluegill. Standing in one spot I easily counted 60+.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
It’s probably normal to have this many fish. I just didn’t expect it. A good friend of mine said that mid-sized BG compete with the LMB for food and i t would be smart to get rid of some of them. It’s ridiculous how quickly you can catch them w/ a live worm. They don’t seem to be interested in anything else. I tried hot dogs, bread and powerbait. So far I’ve removed 16 of them.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Also, in the interest of providing more LMB food, adding forage fish to help with algae (maybe?), and keep mosquitoes at bay, I plan to order 5lbs of Golden Shiners.

Well, that’s been my experience thus far. If anyone has any questions, I’d love to answer them, and if anyone has any tips, I’d love to read them!

Last edited by The New Jerry; 05/06/20 10:24 PM.

Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.
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My first thought is that, if bass are your goal, don’t cull bluegills. They have a symbiotic relationship with bass. Only bluegills can spawn enough to feed bass and only bass can control bluegill numbers.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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New Jerry,
Don't give up you are doing great! That mountain of dead vegetation is really victory staring you in the face. Pulling hundreds of pounds of nutrients out of the pond means you are winning! Think of the 3-5 acre ponds where you can't begin to rake and manually remove that without a weed cutter boat. I too have mature trees around the pond and get a heavy load of oak leaves every fall (more blow on the ice in the winter). IT is back bracking to rake every spring but I get some sense of relief through the back pain knowing that every nasty heavy shovel load of dripping snotty algae and oak leaves is money saved on chemicals and a healthier nutrient balance. I rake as far as I can reach all the way around several times in the spring (though I have to wait till YP eggs are hatched and now the american toads have billions of egg strands and soon black 'toadpoles' all in the shallows - wait till they are out)

The toadpoles eat algae and I think the crayfish are working on some of the vegetation because by the time the water warms up the shallows look nice and sandy again. I know there is probably 2 feet of nasty black oak leaves in the middle on the bottom in the relative an-oxic zone as I have pulled some up with my aerator. They will have to stay there.

I prefer raking the shallow algae rather than chemicals. You may want to try pulling a drag device (weighted box spring?) with a rope through the deep and try to disturb the deep sediment and remove as much as possible. Getting air under the piles of leaves helps and stripping the top layer of muck off speeds up that process of getting oxygen to it.

You could research if seasonal stocking of tilapia would work for you (legal?)

Otherwise I have not found a way to capture the leaves before they sink. They float a day or two and then I keep thinking if I had a big floating rope 'boom' like they use to clean up oil slicks I could gather those leave and tow them to shore. Maybe fine bird netting across the downwind side of the pond staked about 6" under the water level might work to capture them before they sink?

Your fish look great, carry on, love the pictures!

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Originally Posted by Dave Davidson1
My first thought is that, if bass are your goal, don’t cull bluegills. They have a symbiotic relationship with bass. Only bluegills can spawn enough to feed bass and only bass can control bluegill numbers.

Dave, this was also my thought. The fish in this pond haven't been messed with on over 15 years, why would I start now? My friend convinced me to do a bunch of reading. Here's just one article that supports his recommendation. My pond is definitely on the second row.

https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/private-pond-management/table5/


Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.
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Originally Posted by canyoncreek
New Jerry,
Don't give up you are doing great! That mountain of dead vegetation is really victory staring you in the face.

Thank you very much for the encouragement!

Originally Posted by canyoncreek
The toadpoles eat algae

I have so many frogs and tadpoles. I have to be very careful not to scoop them up and toss them with the algae. I was out fishing today and noticed the algae is getting worse pretty quickly frown

Originally Posted by canyoncreek
You may want to try pulling a drag device (weighted box spring?)

This is my kind of innovation!
I will, one day, rig something up with a trash pump to try and remove some of the muck. It will be a few seasons before I get to that.

Originally Posted by canyoncreek
I keep thinking if I had a big floating rope 'boom' like they use to clean up oil slicks I could gather those leave and tow them to shore.

Now you've got me thinking about this too.

Thanks!


Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.
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Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.
Joined: May 2019
Posts: 35
Likes: 1
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It's officially spring and things are looking pretty good! I'm choosing to not think about the leak for a moment. whistle

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

I dumped 100 4"+ Golden Shiners in a few weeks ago. I haven't seen any since then, and this guy likes to hang out in the exact spot I put them in. I guess that was expensive fish food, ha.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Most of the phragmites went brown and I could pull them out with a rake fairly easily. The few that remain will get another dose of shoreklear-plus very soon.

The previous owner left some salt of endothall behind. I read up on that a little and decided to broadcast a bit of that from the shoreline. It didn't kill all the algae, but is cleared the water up quite a bit. The remaining algae is growing in clumps and I can scoop that out. I ordered a bale of barely straw to mess around with. That stuff isn't easy to come by!

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

I marked up my little tackle box with inch markings up to 12". The bass are just a bit bigger than that. I'll need to get a yard stick out there.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.
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That's a gorgeous body of water, I'm super jealous. Judging by how steep the banks are, I'm guessing the previous owners planned on it filling up more?


"In the age of information, ignorance is a choice." - Donny Miller
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Thank you! The water level is a little over a foot lower than the overflow. I think the original purpose was a sediment basin for neighborhood construction, but I'm not certain.


Lots to learn. ~4200sqft pond LMB BG.

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