Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Pondweed?

I didn't get any tilapia this year. I never had pondweed when I had tilapia though but I don't think they are effective at eliminating it. I did have grasscarp which I haven't seen for two years. GC supposedly like pondweed. I feel that GC and tilapia compliment each other on what they eat. I'm not sure if my GC went out my overflow pipe or died. The owner of a fishfarm told me this weekend that Cutrine plus kills them...the same guy also told me that Reward kills FA and that I should stock 8 GC and they will take care of the FA. He said I probably killed my GC with Cutrine. I was a bit surprised because I have only used about 1 gallon per treatment a few times per year beginning in 2004, and one of those years I didn't use any and another year I only did 1 treatment. I think I've used maybe 14 gallons of Cutrine Plus since the pond was built.

I spent about 4 hours on Friday night raking most of it out. I found lots of interesting creatures: Dragonfly larva at different stages, tadpoles, bluegill and bass minnows, about a dozen mussels and a few "bugs" and worms I didn't reconize. I was happy to find there were no snails or leaches.

I ended up with about a 3' wide 1' tall windrow around the pond. After it dried overnight I mowed over it with my lawn mower a few times. I do not recommend this as now my yard and mower both stink pretty bad.

Saturday morning, everything had settled so I hit most of the border with a mix of Cutrine and Reward and a couple of ounces of Aquashade to make it easier to see where I was spraying. I also mixed up a batch for my cattails and hit a few small patches of crabgrass growing in the rocks. By Sunday, the pondweed was brown and the cattails and grass were bleached. Very fast acting.

I got the latest issue of PB on Thursday but didn't take time to open until Sunday...too bad because Bob had me covered in one of the articles.

I shut of my automatic feeder but threw out a few pellets by hand just to see how the fish would respond yesterday evening. The BG fed but the LMB, HSB, and CC did not. Could this be because all the critters that were hiding in the pondweed are now exposed for easy pickings?

Also, about 10 of the larger gizzard shad were going crazy foraging in the areas the pondweed was raked from.