Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New pond owner, where to start?

Was out at the property again today. Lots of minnows seen. Also saw a bird (maybe the size of a duck, black and white head) dive bombing three times for something out near the middle of the pond. Fished for a while, no luck. Water is really clear for a farm pond I think. My 6 year old son found 4 salamanders in just a few minutes. I've been told that they need pretty clean water to survive?

Where are you located?

Near Columbus, OH

Nice that you have salamanders and clean water! We don't see many salamanders, but there was a large bullfrog on the sidewalk right outside our house this morning, about 40 yards from the closest water.

I’m wondering if our pond would be a good candidate for bringing in one of those dredging companies that sucks up the muck using a pump instead of a full drain and mechanical dredging.

Cleaning out pond muck is not my area of expertise, but I would think that leaf/organic muck would be much less dense and compacted than silt infill brought in during high water events.

If my "assumption" is correct, then your material may be amenable to removal by pumping. Do you have a good place to pump the sloppy mess?

Do you have a trash pump? You might be able to perform a test by running your suction hose down in the muck without your intake screen and see what you can pump onto the bank.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I was at the new property Yesterday and the kids went off doing their thing and next thing I know they said they had "found" some minnows. I had them show me and near the pond intake (there's a water retention pond up from our pond at the nearby high school which when full overflows into our pond) there were tens maybe hundreds of thousands of minnows. Any idea why they were all bunched up here at this end of the pond in the shallows like this? It almost looked like they were trying to swim "upstream". Also, what species of minnow was this? They were mostly in the 2-4" range with a couple I saw that might have gone 5" or 6". We had recently had some rain so there was a small amount of water flowing from the upper pond to our pond.

They almost look like Golden Shiners by the way the lateral line dips, but the mouth seems wrong. Maybe the water quality in the pond had degraded so much that they are looking to get to a source of better water quality?

First of all you are clearly ahead of most new pond owners - you know what questions to ask and have already produced more information than most experienced pond owners could do -
I have bought and owned a number of properties with ponds. Certainly not as informed as many experts on here but here is my advice - One....... do not over think it. Much of it is common sense - you clearly have too many trees around the pond that not only affect the water but also the ability to fish the place. Two ..... my advice is to pony up the money and get someone like Bob Lusk or someone he refers to come look at your pond and give you a game plan. You can spend a lot of $$ trying to figure it all out yourself or spend less money to have an expert come look at it - good luck to you

Well said Tim