Well I have waited patiently to see my grass carp and bass roaming the shores after the long hard winter.

Today I have come to the conclusion that a massive fish kill occurred.

Exhibit A: The pond was completely frozen over for 6-8 weeks except for one area. This was a small area where a stream enters the mainly spring fed pond. During this time I saw several of my hybrid sunfish congregating in this area presumably for air

Exhibit B: After ice out the pond reached full pool eclipsing the dam and merged with the wetlands stream that the outflow normally feeds (Which later becomes a river supplying a large local reservoir) that runs behind the dam.

Exhibit C: Pondweed has returned in all its glory with 50-60% coveragewhereas three months after the introduction of the grass carp coverage was 10-15%.

Exhibit D: Small fish are abound in the pond and the only larger fish I have seen are a small group of 20 SMB and some 4-5" BG presumably the fish I had seen congregating by stream inlet. At no other time have some many small fish been available and visible in the pond. It looks like their stalkers are gone.


The problem is I only saw one dead fish and it was an intermediate size BG in April which I thought could of been a GBH casualty.

The fact that the pond reached flood stage after ice out leads me to believe that any floaters were sent over the dam and into the stream.

It pains me that two years of work have been undone, but at the same time I am very optimistic as I stocked the pond before joining Pond Boss.

My LMB did not have an adequate forage base and there was really no way those fish were going to thrive. Tomorrow Rainman will arrive with 10lbs of FHM and GSH which will be split between my two forage ponds. I am now thinking I need to pick up some Northern strain BG as well this fall.

Most importantly I need to add aeration to prevent winter fish kill. How can I do this in an affordable manner for a .66-.75 acre pond? The deepest section of the pond is 8-10 feet.

I'm now thinking that perhaps I should setup a SMB and YP pond instead which the FHM and GSH should help. I have access to three excellent LMB/BG ponds within 10 minutes of my house perhaps I should embrace the fish kill and creat a SMB fishery. CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES...