Hey y'all. There's a pond on my dad's property, maybe a hair shy of an acre. It used to be well kept with bluegill, shellcracker, largemouth bass, and white crappie. Eventually while I was in school it was taken over by duckweed. Apparently everything but crappie and (inexplicably present) warmouth died. These two species somehow survived and established large, stunted populations. When I finished school I had time to mess with the pond. I dealt with the duckweed, started culling out the warmouth and crappie. I added bluegill, redbreast, fliers, a few bass and my absolute favorite fish the redfin pickerel.
I have been fascinated by redfin since I was a kid hearing stories about it. What literature that exists on this woefully understudied fish states that they require running water to reproduce. I introduced 40 sexually mature redfin pickerel into the pond. I have only seen 2 of these adults since last summer when I introduced them. However I have seen multiple juvenile redfin pickerel in the shallows. They did in fact reproduce within this isolated pond.
I am here to hopefully learn about pond management and share what knowledge I have acquired from my obsession with this (again) woefully understudied fish.
