12. Don't allow weeds especially densly growing weeds,to become too abundant or over abundant. Too many weeds provide too many hiding places for small fish. They allow too much BG recruitment. A real high percentage of small fish (2"-5") ties up too much fish biomass (high percentage of the carrying capacity) in small BG vs large BG.
Weeds should definately be a concern when they cover more than 30% of the total pond area. Fewer weeds such as 5%-15% are definitely better than 25%-30% for growing big BG. Whenever weeds get near this 22-30% abundance one should begin manual thinning or spot treatments. The type of weed also plays a part here. Weeds that are sparse have more open spaces for bass or predators to hunt through and are better than dense and more compact growing weeds. A greater percentage of sparse widely spaced weeds can be tolerated compared to densely growing weeds. Examples of densely growing weeds are water milfoil, Elodea, curly leaf pondweed, coontail. Examples of sparse weeds are various shoreline emergent weeds, shallow growing weeds, reed beds, and water lilies.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/17/22 08:23 PM.
