Hey all, I've been lurking and asking a few questions but thought I should introduce my lake and what's been happening.
The lake is just about 6 acres total, it was surrounded by swamps and I always thought it was a swamp from afar but looked a little different, one day my son and I made our way to it and went in with the hip waders and found very clear water that was cold. I always called it the dead lake because there was no duck activity...turns out there was just nothing to attract them - which is good in the long run. So it's partially spring fed and has two or three small feeder trickles that dry up mid july depending on rain.
So the first year we snorkelled and only found minnows, we put about 500 Sunfish and 100 bass in it and they winter killed, the next winter the otters bore a hole in the dam and drained it so I let it dry up mostly and them excavated the over burden off it down to a clay gravel, I was on a time schedule with the equipment so I could only skiff off most of the beaver stuff and couldnt go very deep. Average depth is 6 feet, a few spots 8 to 10 feet and a couple of shallowish spots 3 to 4 feet.
The work was finished the end of July and it started to fill with the help of an upper swamp, I checked the DO of the upper swamp and it was about 1ppm, by the time it hit my lake about 40 yards away and 30 feet or drop it was 7ppm.
The lake sustained 7 to 8ppm DO right through until ice up, PH was great. It gets great wind action.
STOCKING.
August 2023 We put about 4000 Pumpkinseed sunfish in it in august with only 2 visible floaters which I suspect was from transporting.
August 2023 10,000 FHM and Dace at the same time with FHM spaws noticeable within a couple of weeks with many schools of spawn lining the rim of the lake.
August 2023 2 x LMB about 3 inches long just because.
Jan 2024 200 x speckled trout
Feb 2024 about 50,000 FHM and dace
Feb 2024 100 Common shiners
Ill be stocking 16 inch rainbows in the spring and fingerling LMB as well if I dont end up with a winter kill.
Dissolved Oxygen before ice up 7 to 8ppm, DO last week about 2 to 3ppm (although my test kit is old and has been frozen a few times so not sure of the reliability of the kit now).
I love video work so I drop 4x gopros in the water often to try to find fish with no luck, we also ice fish with no luck this year so I was worried that I had a winter kill, but I just found the trout and the large pumpkins seeds as well as smaller ones so I'm pretty happy.
SOLAR AERATION.
2 x bubblers 3 feet under the surface, only a small area has been kept open because of lack of sunlight, ice is 16 to 18 inches thick but I do see large flowing formations of zooplankton floating along and there are virtually no weeds in the lake. Lots of bugs and copepods zipping around in front of the camera.
Ive bought most of the components to aerate a good portion of the lake that will be ready for next season.
I didnt expect much to happen with this being a new lake but it seems to be doing well....so far. Im hoping with the longer days now and better light penetration that there is enough DO to carry what I have for the next 2 months or so..
