Hello to all,
I live near Cleveland, OH, and we too had a dreadful winter. Our pond is very small in comparison to what I have been reading on this board. I is about 80 x 60 and about 12- 15'in the center. I kept our aerator on all winter except when the air line got moisture in it and froze. We will be rearranging it this spring. Needless to say, the pond froze over - when the bubbler stopped working. I was so worried about our fish. This is the first winter we have fish in the pond.

The ice finally all melted on March 20th! The above statement means that there were no floating ice chunks or ice under layers of ice. We lost about 12 - 14 bluegills. I was down by the pond on April 2nd. - a beautiful 70 degree blue sky day ( you appreciate days like that - when you live in Northern OH ), the fish were out - all of them!! I saw the 2 big lmb by the dock - the golden koi by the east end of the pond, and about 90 blue gills. I also spotted a couple of smb at the other end of the pond. I am so happy that most of the fish made it through this long, cold, snowy winter. I even found various sizes of spawn from the bluegills around the edges of the pond. There were large bullfrog tadpoles out too. Tonight I heard the first of the spring peepers. Would someone please let us know when we should start feeding our fish? I know that most say the water temp must be about 50 degrees, but where do you throw in the thermometer at? At the shallows, or perhaps about 3' in the deeper water? My son and I were going to throw in some golden shiners this Sunday, if the weather stays nice. Is it too soon to do this?

Thanks for your advise and I wish everyone a happy spring and an early summer. Kay

Kay