Frank, you mentioned the bushy pondweed being a nuisance, I couldn't agree more! It is a pretty invasive plant at my pond. And I am not a fan of the plant even though I can see where a small amount of it might be beneficial but from my experience with it there is no way you can have a small amount of it. Another thing I have noticed is for some reason this year it seems to have become a problem in many ponds. I have not noticed many comments on it here till this year. I plan of spot treating but have been holding off till I found and repaired my leak in the aeration system. I found the leak yesterday afternoon. As a side note. When I discussed treating the BPW with Todd Overton, he told me that if I were to treat a larger sized area like a qtr of the pond, I could still kill off fish and he did not think the bottom diffusers would help in that situation. But I am thinking the aeration is better than not having it when it comes to spot treating. I have been talking with Al for designing a spay system to use when treating of killing off the BPW. He has been very helpful. Warm water temps and treating BPW can kill off the fish. That sucks because the stuff is so invasive.
Bushy Pond weed took over my RES/SMB pond last year. I would estimate 40-50% coverage. Put 4 grass carp in the 1 acre pond last fall. Most of it is gone today. I don't know if the grass carp did it in, the FA got the upper hand or just conditions were not conducive to it this year. Or a combination of the above. But at least to date it is in remission. I can still retrieve it on my hook when fishing so it is still there to some degree. But all around the bank where it was thick to the surface is gone. I can see out into the water now and can't see any of it.
I'm starting to wish I had only put in 3 GC per acre rather than the 4.
Last year I had dyed the pond heavily early in the season, thinking I could keep the FA and BPW in regression. The BPW had been somewhat bad the year before but not covered the pond like last year. Well I think what I did was suppress the FA and that let the BPW go gangbusters. Bob Lusk had been up that year for my get together and showed us that the FA was competing with the BPW as the FA was covering some of it and shading it out. Well when I suppressed the FA the BPW had nothing holding it back. This year I have a little FA around the banks but nothing serious. I don't mind a little around the edges as it gives the YOY fry some refuge area.
When a person controls one thing, sometimes something else worse takes its place.
