Pond Mgmt 101

I just received a call from ODWC staff and it appears that the fish kill that I reported recently was actually almost a complete wipe out of fish. The shock boat checked the lake today and it appeared to be a desert. The algae bloom is back and the lake is ready to crash again. The lake may need to be drained, dredged and refilled. If that is done then,normally, fresh brush piles are added and other improvements are done.
The powers to be will have to make the decision to drain it. I will keep you posted.

The fish that we did not see dead must have sunk, rotted and added to the nutrient load:(:(

That is very sad to hear.

It will take at least a year or more to complete the project, I expect.:(

We have 3 options if I want to stock my pond.

1) Call a commercial fish farmer and order your fish.

2) Get them from your state wildlife department

3) Purchase a 12 volt aerator from Academy, Bass Pro, etc, preferably a dual airstone unit which costs around $20.00 - $25.00. A Lawn tractor or motor cycle battery costs around $30.00 but will provide years of service keeping your minnows alive when you need to transport them to the lake. Finally a large ice chest or a 30 - 55 gallon barrel which costs around $10.00 or free from a friend. This barrel, pump and battery will allow you to take your minnows or fish any where you wish to fish and will provide years of service. It is a great investment.

Now the fun part. Take the grandkids or neighbor kids to an area lake or pond with a box of worms and your transport tank which is filled with lake water. Let the kids catch all the sunfish they can catch which, hopefully, will be 40- 50. Put these in your new pond and wait a year for the spawning explosion of Spring and Summer. You can certainly add several dozen fathead minnows from the local bait shop for minimal expense too. If you will wait the 1 full growing season before you add any predatory bass then the number of baitfish in the pond will be almost beyond comprehension. When the bass are added in the fall they will go bananas with this smorgasbord of food. It will be like Golden Corral's Friday night buffet:)I would suggest you add around 15 12" LM bass/ surface acre to the pond. This suggestion is NOT in stone. If you stock an adult bluegill female she will produce,conservitably, 100,000 eggs in 1 season. Now multiply that by 25 or so. Hmmm 2.5 million offspring and most will survive because the predators have not been stocked. The fatheads will have similar results.It is mind boggling as to the numbers.

Today 3 perch traps are hitting the coppernosed bluegill pond in Canadian County that I have written about previously. The brood pond needs to be harvested or add some predators. This pond will be producing a stocking for a new 2 acre pond near by in a couple of hours. We should get at least 1 spawn this summer from the coppernose and by Spring all of those fish will be mature and ready to spawn. The fat heads will be stocked by October and ready to spawn in April. The buffet line will be ready by next September and the bass stock will have good growth coming out of the shoot.

Best of all, you have a pond stocked with an excellant chance of survival and a good investment in a tranport tank system which can later be used to help one of your buddies stock their pond. Your a hero:D

Minnow,minnow in the pond, oh where have thou gone????:(:confused: In mid to late July in small minnow ponds that may be sheltered from the breeze the minnows seem to dissappear from the radar. Why?? Geez during the Spring,early summer, fall and winter we could trap loads of them. What has happened? Did the die from a fish kill because of low dissolved oxygen??? What is wrong?

Let's contemplate this for a moment. The minnows NORMALLY eat plankton and microscopic organisms. WArm weather promotes the organisms growth and reproduction, but cool weather the growth slows down and there is less of them. HMMMM, could this be the answer. During warm weather the living is easy and there is plenty of food. Cool to cold weather there is not much to feed on until something smells strange, new and "lets go see if we can eat this" comes along. Smells good, but I can't quite get to it unless I swim into this black cylinder. OHHH BOY, I'M IN! Life is good again.:D and all my buddies are with me too.

UUUHHHHH OOOOOOOOOO:mad: If this has happened to you in your bait pond then this is probably why. I think you can get your bait in the traps until mid June then you may had best hold some ina stock tank for summer fishing.

Yeaterday i tried to trap rosy reds in a pond for restocking purposes and only caught 4-6 dozen adults. This was a small number but sufficient to stock a 2 acre pond since the females were ready to spawn. I estimate that there are enough females to spawn next month to produce at least 1,000 or more minnows to enter next Spring spawning season. The 1,000 minnows should contain at least 400 mature females in the Spring to generate ,conservatively 10,000 offspring in the first spawn(8 gallons) and they will spawn at least 5-6 times,therefore, an exponential number of minnows.

[QUOTE=cricket george;874520]Minnow,minnow in the pond, oh where have thou gone????:(:confused:

:):):)

Last weekend an acquaintance that supplies me with herbicides had a pond that needed stocked. I invited him to come with me to the 10 acre Canadian Co lake and catch some bass while the perch traps were doing their job. I had also placed a couple of minnow traps in another pond to harvest some rosie reds that I had stocked earlier this spring. The orange firerball was quickly slipping below the horizon when we poured 128 copper nosed bluegills into the new pond along with 4-5 dozen rosies. The rosies were ready to spawn again and one coppernosed appeared ready to spawn too. In 1 year this pond should have over 1 million perch and minnows in it and be ready for the bass. We will again venture to the 10 acre lake and harvest 25 approx 14" bass to transfer to the new pond. These bass will think they have hit the Golden Corral buffet line when they see forage available to them. We did well on our bass fishing and i caught a 12" hybrid sunfish that was as big as a large salad plate. The hybrid fought like a bass and took a 7" black worm. I easily lipped the fish and released it to be caught another day. Silly????? maybe, but then we have harvested another hybrid that weighted 1 pound 12 ounces. The state record is 1#14 ozs. I have seen,in hand, a hybrid that I think was 2 pounds. We released the fish because we did not have a scale with us that could confirm the weight. The fish will be caught again and be bigger. I would love to add this fish to my other Oklahoma state record fish a yellow bass/white bass hybrid which was caught in the Kiamichi River in the early 90's.:)

HMMMMM, I may have found the answer to where the minnows went in the heat of the summer. The answer was right in front of me and I missed it, I think. My problem,concern, question or whatever was thrown out to several ODWC biologists today to see if anyone had experienced this problem. Well glory be!! One of the fellas had this problem last week and found a solution. His bait pond water had similar conditions as mine and he added a pool noodle to float the trap at the surface and a weight to anchor it in place. He loaded the trap with minnows and went fishing. I will try this out and see if it works, it should. Hmmmm, isn't that similar to when the dingy lake water gets hot, like right now, and the crappie go super shallow because the deeper water may be anoxic (without oxygen). Yes, I may have learned something today too. I will experiment with my bait pond and report back soon. I am betting it will answer my question.

George, your expertise in this field never fails to amaze me...... :)

Stink .............:D Thank you. We may need to share a boat seat this Fall. I gotta place down South that is comfortable, warm when it is cold and cool when it is warm and a coupla steaks in the frig. A cord of seasoned hickory and oak to grill dem steaks on.:)

As you know I have good relations with acouple of top fisheries guys. One in particular, and we chat 7 days a week in the evening.

I looked at your construction site last night and it brought back memories. You might need a couple of days off to decompress and head South to Hugo and drag ripper with ya for a boys weekend out. I'll have the minnows!

Be good:)

Weeeeeelllllllll, I think the mystery of the minnows disappearing from my bait pond is solved. They went super shallow. I had a tip from one of the ODWC biologists that had a similar problem. He floated his minnow trap at the surface and loaded his traps. Well you tried it again recently and he loaded them again. I will try this myself this week and see what happens. I expect it will work.:)

The nights have been great for sleeping and the morning are superb for doing yard work.

But the pond water is cooling off and with that comes more dissolved oxygen for the fish in ponds that have an excessive amount of organic compounds. The D.O. going up will reduce the risk of any more fish kills for the year. Fall fishing is picking up already too. The time period from now until almost Thanksgiving should be one of stable weather and slowly cooling water. Labor day is almost behind us and the crowds will be off the lake. It is now our time to enjoy Mother Nature's best fishing time,IMHO. It will soon be time to see Mother Nature's paint brush at work. The monarch butterflies have started their annual fall migration to Mexico approx 2 weeks ago.

LRippers, Stink, Reaper - Its time to get to work jerkin jaws.:D

The rain and cooler temperatures are cooling the lakes and ponds down. The water,as it cools, becomes heavier and sinks to the bottom causing a stirring effect. This stirring or blending also may cause organic matter to come to the surface and cloud the water. This natural action signals the coming of winter

Many people have cattails in their pond and want a safe spray to control them. There is 1 spray that can be used to safely to eliminate cattails. This spray will not harm the fish or the zooplankton. It is called "RODEO" by Mansanto. It will take probably 2 applications to effectively kill them. The plants need to be actively growing to allow the poison to be sucked into the plant. The poison travels to the roots and kills the rhisomes. If there is some overspray on the water it will not harm anything. This will kill any plant that is above the water surface. You should be able to get this product at Estes Chemical Co in OKC,Enid, or Paris Tx. You may have to explain what the chemical is designed to do as there may be a generic name for the product. Many times this is the case.
Mix according to directions and apply by pump up sprayer.

Hey this is Bill Lowery in Guthrie. We had talked on the phone last week. He is what I am dealing with. I am a avid Duck hunter and have hunted at Langston lake Since I was a Kid. This year though we have hit a snag! The person that usually handles the Duck blind drawing is a professor by the name of Dr. Hedge and he informed me this year that he has past everything to a Mr. Oliver(The lake is run by Langston University) anyway upon contacting Mr. Oliver he stated that there would be no more Duck Hunting at the lake. I contacted Dr. Hedge and he contacted the Vice President and now the President is taking it before her council. I asked if the public could speak or attend the meeting and the Vice Presidents aid stated no that it was a closed meeting! Is there anyone at Langston that you could contact to find out if we are just following Calf. Senator Pelosi's radical mentality. I know that they had shooting's on campus this year. But none of the facilty or students hunt at Langston. I feel that we the hunters are not getting a fair say in this matter. I am trying to get intouch with the DU President in Guthrie as well. Any help would be appreciated. I know this is short fused the meeting is Friday. Thank you for your time. Best regards William H. Lowery Jr. USN Ret.

Bill- I am past president of Yukon DU and I have several friends that are avid duck hunters. I am also aware of the mentality of Langston University and the town too. I have a friend that works at Langston and has for several years. I was going to contact him tomorrow on a different topic and I will ask him about this subject and be in touch.

When adding habitat, be it cedar trees, oak trees, PVC trees or condos or bamboo buckets, think of how you are going to fish it once it is installed in the pond or lake. Many years ago I build a pond and wanted to fish it for bass primarily. I enjoyed fishing plastic worms so I laid my oak and hickory trees in such a way that I could pull my plastic worms thru the branches and rarely get hung. I have grown older and now enjoy panfishing more. I am going to rethink my strategy for adding fresh cover or habitat to my old tired pond.
I harvested some bamboo today and am in the process of making boo buckets. I will sink them off the dock in approx 16 FOW. I know that the crappie will probably have their belly on the bottom this winter because the pond is only 16' at the dam and off the dock. I have placed a couple of brush piles near the dock but I am going to add the boo buckets near them so that there is more open cover to allow the crappie, bluegill and redear to suspend over during the transition periods and summer.
Strategically placing cover in ponds in accordance to the way you fish can increase your enjoyment and add valuable protection for the spawn to reduce predation and allow time to grow.

A bacterial infection can sometimes appear in a pond with poor water quality. How often you ask? I do not know. What caused it? I have my suspicions. My 1/4th acre minnow pond is in trouble. I am not able to harvest many minnows in my traps. The ones that I am getting have red spots on them. I have been advised by the best pond specialist in the state that this could be the root of my problem, a bacterial infection.
The pond is located in a wind protected area and is heavily used by cattle for drinking. My suspicion is that the lack of sufficient aeration from mother nature, extremely warm water from the hot summer and excess nutrients from the cattle have created an environment which is prime for an infection to develop. The cold of winter may cause it to go dormant or might kill it. I bet that the infection will go dormant to reappear next spring. In the meantime my harvest of minnows is virtually nil compared to the past year and a half. I will focus this fall on trying to figure out what happened. The infection can be killed out but it could be expensive. Is it worth spending alot of money to save a bunch of minnows? Probably not.
Tetracycline is an anti-bacterial additive that is commonly used in watering containers for chickens and other animals. It is very effective on bacterial problems. It has worked well for me when I have had other problems with the holding of an excessive number of fish. It should work fine in this situation, but treat a 1/4 acre pond, I don't think so.
I will be addressing this issue immediately and will post the result as soon as we figure out the best approach. My guess currently is to locate another pond that has good wind action, few cattle using it for watering and restock with rosies.:(

There is a second problem that may enter your minnow pond A virus that causes the minnows to start bleeding internally, it appears. The minnows have red spots, as if bleeding, that appear around the head and gill area. The virus must run its course before any of the minnows can show signs of improvement. Some of the minnows may die.

The virus is called viral hemorrahaging septicemia virus. The virus has caused havoc in the Northeast part of the country. Cornell University has done extensive research on this problem. Thousands of fish have died in the Great Lakes area. The ability to stop the spread of the virus is minimal, it appears. The recommendations are similar to stopping the spread of zebra mussels. Drain and wash out your boat and do not tranport bait fish to other waters. This may be what hit my minnow pond and seemingly killed off most of my rosies. I have some rosies left and I am going to monitor the pond to see if they bounce back next year.I trapped and transferred some of my rosies into my 300 gallon holding tank in OKC that had these symptoms. Recently I netted some and inspected them and they were free of the hemorrahaged spots. I do not know if the cold weather put the possible virus in remission or it just ran its course. Next summer if the pond is again full of rosies then I guess the virus ran its course and the minnows will be OK. I hope so. In the mean time I will trap rosies in other ponds that I stocked this year.

Yesterday I performed a fall survey of the 10 acre canyon lake near Hinton,Okla. A shock boat was brought in from our wildlife department and we determined the condition or health of the lake. We netted 28 LM bass from 4" to 14"and 2 black crappie that averaged 13.5". What did this tell us? The results told us that: 1) There is very little reproduction that is surviving to adulthood because there are too many bass. 2) There is not enough fishing pressure to remove some of the bass. 3) We found no sign of any small crappie again too many bass. Their appears to be no recruitment/reproduction of crappie. Everything is being canabilized by the adults.

What is missing from this equation? Where are the forage fish aka perch? AAHHHH, good question. THIS is the underlying problem as I have previously discussed. NO forage fish/food fish = stunted fish or fish that are "stuck" at 1 length. If the viewer has been following my posts will recall that I have been trapping copper nosed bluegill throughout this summer and stocking them in this pond. Yesterday I trapped 146 CN bluegill and released them in the lake. This brings a total of approx. 836 CN bluegill, 7 adult pairs of redear, and 10 pairs of adult northern bluegill into the lake.

We have harvested approx 385 LM bass from the pond in the last 2 years. The goal is to remove 200 bass/year so we are close and the year is not over.

The electro fishing survey clearly showed us that the CN bluegill are reproducing as we found small clouds of 1/2" fry in the shallows. They appear to be from a September spawn. Our plan is working, we are moving forward,
and we will reach our goal within 2 years.

The water was cold and the fish were deep as it took some time for the fish to float up. We are going to reshock this lake in the spring when the water is warmer and see if we can locate any small crappie. Due to the cold water we were not able to shock up any channel cats. It is my understanding that the lake contains some very large channels cats in the 10 - 15 pound range. We will see.

The 2010 plan is too continue trapping and stocking CN bluegill until we can clearly find evidence of small bluegill in the shallows of various lengths. When we see lots and lots of small bluegill then we will discontinue the stocking program. We will continue to harvest 200 bass/year.

Viewers can see that this project is labor intensive and requires dedication to reach our goal. The pond owners and I will prevail. I hope that in several years I can crawl into my tube and start catching bass AND CN bluegill of various lengths and know that I was able to make a difference.

In closing, I wish to thank Mr. John Stahl, ODWC Senior Fisheries Supervisor, for his guidance,patience and friendship in this project. His dedication to helping Oklahoma sportsmen is unnoticed by all but a few. His work ethic is strong and he is a proud man yet humble. He was presented with a plaque this year from the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation for his service to the sportsmen and sportswomen of Oklahoma. A job well done. He has over 30 years of service.

Stay tuned, in a couple of days, I will post the results of the fall electro - fishing survey of the the Piedmont lake project that we completed late yesterday.

The Piedmont survey was quite revealing. We had suspected that there were alot of large bluegill and redear in the lake. The results showed that the lake was full of bluegills and redears averaging 8 -9". We found a few green sunfish and 17 LM bass. The largest bass was 9.5". We did not locate any crappie probably because the water was so cold and they were too deep and out of range. Same with the channel cats.

Ok, so what does this information tell us.

1) We are overloaded with bluegill and redear.

2) The recruitment of the sunfish is marginal at best because the young are being cannibalized by the adults.

3) The bass population is almost non existant and the young appear to be food for the adults.

4) Since we did not locate any crappie of any size, I assume that they are in the same shape. Little or no recruitment because of cannibalization of the young.

Now what do we do?

1) We fish down the bluegill and redear.

2) Start stocking some larger bass from the Hinton Lake and not harvest any bass.

3) Transfer alot more redear from this pond to the Hinton Lake to build up the population there and help control the snail population.

4)Since there is no habitat in this pond to protect the fry we stocked the pond with hornwort. Hornwort is a common native pond weed that can be purchased at PETSMART or other pet stores. This weed free floats and reproduces by breaking into pieces. I took 1/3 trash bag of weed and broke it into approx 4" segments and tossed it into the pond. The weed will disperse throughout the pond and will slowly grow over the winter. Next Fall we should see the effect of this planting. This will also help in taking up excess nutrients which will rob some of the algae of food and help clear the water.
It is expected that in 2 years there will be a vibrant growth of hornwort around the pond and all the various fry will have a place to hide and grow. We should then see various sizes of fish being caught in 3 years.

5) We may plant waterwillow in the pond around the edges also to provide hiding places.

In Spring of 2010 we will probably electro-fish both this pond and the Hinton lake to see what crappie,catfish and bass that we may have missed look like. We will remove any carp that we find and dispose of them.
We will continue stocking coppernose bluegill in the Hinton lake and adult redear until we see lots of small CN in the shallows. We probably will set perch traps in the Hinton lake shallows to see what we can trap. This is just to monitor the progress from this years stocking.

The owner of the Piedmont pond and I are considering having a childrens fishing clinic in the Spring to give some terminally ill children a day of fun and removing alot of big perch:)

The two lake owners and myself deeply appreciate the assistance of Mr. John Stahl, ODWC* senior fisheries supervisor, and Mr. Keith Thomas, ODWC* fisheries biologist, for their help and guidance this year.

* Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Greetings to ALL - It is time to determine this years program for the 2 lakes.

The Piedmont Lake as you recall had some hornwort aka coontail stocked in it last fall to provide cover for this years spawn. The plan this year will be to add additional coontail to the pond. A pond should have around 20% coverage of aquatic vegetation to provide cover for the small fry and aquatic insects too, such as mayfly,damsel fly and dragon fly larvae. There will be additional insects that will appear over time. In a couple weeks the bluegill and redear should start showing up in the shallows and we will begin to trap and catch them for transfer to the Hinton Lake. Some time in April we will bring the shock boat back in and harvest a significant number of the mature (8.5-9") bluegill and redear to tranfer in addition to what we have already transported to Hinton. My goal is 150 at least mature sunfish so they can spawn in the Hinton Lake and cause an explosion of food for the bass and crappie. 2010 and 2011 should produce some growth on the bass and crappie and a sustainable population of sunfish. I hope to see some small bass this Fall being caught in the Hinton Lake.

In early April the Hinton Lake will see the shocker boat again too. The goal will be to remove at least 100 LMB that exceed 12" and transferred to the Piedmont Lake. We are swapping fish. In addition another 100 LMB will be caught and eaten or transferred to Piedmont. Hey ! No play makes George a VERY DULL boy.:( We also want to better evaluate the contents of the Hinton Lake. We understand that the lake contains channel cats exceeding 10#+. If we can raise them with "Sparky" we will, otherwise and evening of limblining will be in order:)

Stay tuned for our progress.

Another large lake near Antlers has appeared on the horizon. I will be helping the manager in March with a sunfish trapping weekend to transfer fish out of my personal pond into his 25 acre lake. More on that later.

Jerk some jaws...........its time:D

George, how much of a hurt does a massive quantity of perch have on the bass and crappie eggs maturing?

Please rephrase that. Are you asking if the perch will eat some of the bass & crappie eggs?

Yes, im asking if having a large population of perch in a body of water hurts the bass and crappie population? I've always heard that perch make a feast out of fish eggs. I guess it wouldn't just be bass and crappie, any fish eggs are fair game for em. Im asking because you sound like you have studied all of this and know what your talking about.

Hotrod2 - Thank you for the compliment. The bluegill will effect the bass spawn because the warm water temps during the bass spawn stimulate the bluegill. Bluegill start to actively feed at 60 degs and the bass spawn around 62 degs. The bluegill pester the bass to the point where he gets agitated and chases them. The bass goes after the bluegill and some bluegill run in the back door and eat some eggs. The bass returns and chases the robber bluegill out of the nest.

The crappie spawn at a lower temp and the bluegill are not active enough due to the cooler water temp to effective prey on the crappie eggs.

Does this answer your question?

Yes, I appreciate the info..

You are welcome

I met with the land manager for the owner of the 22.5 acre lake at Antlers over the weekend. We placed 2 perch traps in my personal pond and harvested some mature bluegill which were transfered into the new lake. The lake was a picture perfect setting and drop dead gorgeous. Later I caught some mature redear to add to the stocking. In all there approx 27 mature fish to be added. The goal is to stock 200 to 250 mature sunfish before this years spawn. The lake will also be stocked with 2500 3" fingerling channel cats.
Last year the lake received 125 pounds of fathead minnows. I anticipate that after those minnows spawned last year there should be,conseratively, 500 pounds in the lake. The perch should produce approx 7.5 million offspring this year if the 200 are stocked. There will be some mortality for certain, so lets say that the survival rate is 50%, then we have 3 million to spawn in 2011. I am being conservative on the # of females. The real explosion in population will be in 2011 on the minnows and bluegill. The channels will be large enough in the Fall of 2010 to start preying on the minnows and bluegill fry so they will healthy and well fed.
50 LMB will be stocked in the Spring of 2011,hopefully, before they spawn. Those bass will feel like they have died and gone to bass heaven. It will be the Golden Corral buffet line on Friday night for them. Their numbers will grow as they spawn and the adults will grow quickly because of all the forage.

This pond should be balanced from the start and should be an outstanding fishery for the owner. The land manager is a young enthusiastic person who wants to do right for the owner and be proud of his accomplishments. He is a person who will go far and I look forward to working with him. He also loves to catfish which is one of my passions too.

I will update everyone on the progress of this project as time goes by.

Hey George, thanks for the great info you provide...very educational. Do you ever use pellets or other substances to control weed growth?? If so, what do you reccomend for a 15 acre lake with about three foot visibility? Thanks again...Mark

Mark - Thank you for the accolades. What would I do about a pond with 3' visibility? HHHHHHHMMMMMMMM, I probably would suggest a bucket of crickets, 1 long pole, a bowl of my favorite pipe tobacco, a grandson and a warm afternoon. OOHH Sorry I am daydreaming again.:)

Depending on the percentage of weed coverage on the lake MAYBE 1 grass carp/5 acres. The suggestion depends on the type of weed that is in the lake. Grass carp do not eat all types of pond weed. If the pond has 20% or less coverage of aquatic vegetation then I would suggest you leave the pond alone. The fish population needs a certain amount of vegetation to allow the newly hatched fry to hide in, as well as, provide a home for damsel fly, mayfly, dragon fly larvae etc. This vegetation provides a foundation for the food chain needed by your sunfish and bass.

You might spot treat an area with copper sulfate crystals broadcast around your dock area if the concern is in that area.

I stocked some hornwart/coontail this fall in a 3 acre pond west of Piedmont in order to provide cover for the fry because the 8" - 9" bluegill were canabilizing their young and we were not seeing any recruitment. We are tweeking this pond to fill a needed niche.

I hope I have answered your question. It has been a long time since you have posted anything. Are you coming to the March 27th meeting?

Hi George. We have a problem on our pond with Primrose growing around the pond, which makes it difficult to fish. The primrose grows to about 6' out from bank, all the way around the pond. Any suggestions on controlling it? I don't want to get rid of all of it, because it does seem to provide good cover for the bait fish and fry. Any suggestions will be most appreciated. I enjoy reading your posts very much. They provide valuable information for us pond owners. Keep it up! Jeff

Jeff - I would suggest RODEO by Mansanto Co. The chemical is similar to ROUNDUP. Rodeo is approved for pond applications as it will not harm the biomass in the pond. RODEO is a total kill chemical which has to be applied to emergant plants. What I am telling you is that if you spray it on the pond surface and it does not come in contact with the plant then it will not kill it. This chemical works well on cattails although it may take 2 applications.

ROUNDUP can be used too but you must be careful and prevent much overspray. If this does not completely answer your question or if you have other questions let me know.

George, thank you for the info and yes you have anwered my concerns, This is my dad's lake which I used to actively manage, been away so long that I could not remember what I had used in the past. Put grass carp in in 93 and may have 1 or 2 left is all. Of course they are huge, I have about 70% undesirable grass coverage,,,can't recall what exactly, The lake is about 50 years old but an excellent fishery. Big lmb, big channels, big blue gill, and, until 2007, big crappie. Not sure where the crappie got off to. maybe they were eaten by the other bigger predators? Anyway, thought I should try to get a handle on it again before it gets away from me. Unfortunately, work dictates that I will miss the March get together, but, I would really enjoy meeting you as well as the others on this site and will make every effort to attend the next one. I think 3 carp and some pellets will do some good for the lake and sincere thanks, once again, for the knowledge you share. Take care. P.S. Not that you need it, but you have an open invitation to fish this lake if you're ever in the Newcastle area.lol

Mark - I just might take you up on your offer to fish your lake. Thank you.

I do have a concern with the 70% weed coverage of the lake. I suspect that whatever grass carp you have in the lake they are huge and need to be removed if possible. They have outlasted their usefulness. Time to restock. Please send me a PM with your cell#. I would like some further details on the weeds and I may want to increase the number of grass carp to be stocked.

Kudos to Crappie George for the help in setting our 15 acre lake back on the right path. Also to John Stahl for the weed I.D. If you are not sure if this man knows his stuff...well, he does, it's as simple as that. George, thanks for the tour of your little slice of heaven, and all the best to you and yours. HOPE TO SEE YOU AND THE REST ON THE 27TH!

Mark - I am glad that I could be a help with your concern. That is one heck of a lake you have there. When you are ready to stock some of the other ponds on your family's place with minnows let me know. I have several ponds to trap minnows from. If you wish to do this then we need to do it by May so that you will have the full benefit of all the spawns.

It was a pleasure working with you and Leo's BBQ was great too.

My little piece of heaven is certainly tucked away in plain sight. I sprayed the food plots today to rid them of the invasive grasses. If you think I know my stuff on farm ponds, you haven't seen nothing yet when it comes to nutrition and food plots for wildlife. I have ordered something for you and I expect it should be here by the 27th.

Be good

Hey, I am new to the site and noticed this thread. I'm hoping you can give me some advice. Built a good size bait pond last year and was muddy from get go. We put gypsum in it and cleared immediately, but the level dropped killing all vegetation and when pond filled back up it was muddy and been that way since last September. I saw where you reccomended hay and was wandering if it would work in this situation and how to distribute it. Also, we are hopefully finishing up on our big pond today and wandering if there is anything special we should do before it begins to fill besides putting brush in it. A buddy told me that the Noble Foundation will put salt blocks in there new ponds to help with keeping the water clear. Have you heard of this and does is work, are there any disadvantages of doind it?

Thanks

Timber - I have never heard of putting salt blocks in any ponds before. I would not put salt in the pond,period. I do not have enough information about your pond to assist you. How many surface acres is it? Have you planted grass around the edge for erosion control? Did you have a contractor just build you a pond? Did you have your soil inspected to see if it contained sufficient amount of clay to seal the bottom and then have the pond staked?
????? Why did the pond go dry??? Pond bottom leaking?????
Not knowing the size of the pond I cannot reccomend how many bales of hay to add to assist in clearing.

Please answer these questions and provide me with any additional information that you can and I will try to help.