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We finally got all our running around done and fixing to hit the farm hard. I've been reading about pond management and was curious about a couple things. I read something about lime. I haven't had it tested yet but how important is lime? I know I'll fertilize it, that's a given. You can see the bottom in 3 FOW so I know it's not healthy. I assume it has something to to with the PH. I'd just rather not have to put a bunch of lime it it.
Yep.....lime is used to adjust the ph. Go to your local Soil Conservation office for you county.....they have free booklets on pond management. I have five ponds on my place and they have been a big help to me. The MS State Extension Service has also.
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Mdwfp holds pond management workshops
Yep....what G and KnightShadow10 said. Also go to Pond Boss.com. That's ALL they do. EVERYTHING you'd ever what to know about a pond, everything.....the answer is there. They will also respond to emails, etc. You'll find that a pond can be toooo fertile also. Go there and you'll get answers. Good luck....'raisin' a pond can be fun! Enjoy.
thanks I plan on going thursday to a seminar at Tourcotte
When I built my lake, the Missouri Dept. of Conservation was a huge help. They provided me with several publications on how to manage a lake. Very insightful.
Thanks, yeh, Ima hit the local guys up. WEant bass n bream. Everything I've been reading is you stock the bream first, then later on, stock the bass. Kinda wanting Coppernose and Redears
When mine first filled up, I stocked fathead minnows. I put 4 pounds per acre. They reproduce about 6-7 times a year. I had a pond full of minnows after the first year. That started my food base. The second year, I stocked channel cats and blue gills. They adapted very well. I began feeding them every evening shortly after stocking. The catfish were as long as my index finger when I stocked them. They weighed 1 1/2 to 2 pounds their first year. After the cats and bream had a year in the lake, I stocked LM bass. The lake was so full of minnows at this point that you could almost walk across the water on them. The bass were the size of my little finger when stocked. The next year, they were already a pound. They sure thinned out the minnows though. I then stocked black crappie. Made sure I had a good food base and predator base to control the crappie.
You done it right Speck.. my folks stocked their pond 14 years ago with bass, bluegill and hybrids. The gills & hybrids (and big) have been a blast for 13 years, but the bass fishing was horrible, weed thru literally 50 one 1/2 to 1lb bass for a decent 3 lb fish or up. He restocked this year put in more gills and hybrids and says he added 5,000lbs?? of minners... Bass are growing like weeds from what I hear.. :-)
how big of a lake do you have Speck? Mines about an acre and a tenth right now. This summer, I'm doing to get someone in there and expand it a little. Make it a little deeper in the shallow end and pull the one shoreline back some. want to add another couple 10ths of an acre or so
BTW, are fathead minnows when we use for crappie fishing? I've read about stocking them in ponds but wasn't sure if they were the same thing we get at the bait store
Don, my lake is a little over 4 surface acres. The deepest part is about 32-35 feet. Usually bait shops sell shiners. You don't want to stock them in your pond because they will grow to be full size shad. Fathead minnows only grow to about 3-4 inches and spawn 6-7 times a year. Yes, you can use them for crappie fishing as well and crappie LOVE them!!!! Before I stocked the bass, I never bought minnows for bait. I'd go to the lake the evening before going fishing, put out a minnow trap with a half a piece of bread in it. The next morning, the trap would be slap full of minnows!!! Dump about half in a minnow bucket and pour the rest back into the lake.
DD....this is a touchy subject, but IF you decide to do grass carp to control excess vegetation, IF you do, DO NOT over do it. For example: If "experts" tell you that one per acre is what's needed, and in 3-5 years it'll be well balanced, DON'T put in 5 per acre to get it done quicker. It is a process that MOST folks greatly over do. My little 1 A. pond has ONE grass carp in it, and it does just fine. He got to be about 3 feet long and I took him out and put a 10" replacement in. Smaller fish eat more than the larger fish do in this regard....or so I'm told. A friend had a beautiful 5 acre lake that got 'weedy'. Conservation guys told him to put in 4-5 grass carp. He put in 15...wanted it done in a hurry!! In less than 3 years they had eaten all the vegetation around the shore line and the lake began to silt in dramatically. He almost lost it!!! Just a friendly FYI..
This ones only bout 8-81/2 foot deep near the dam. Most of it is 3-5 foot deep but dows have a 1/5 or so acre shallow end. 1-1/2 foot deep. It's real clear so it needs some help. Ima test the PH this weekend with my pool kit. Not much vegitation at all. Just some around the edges. Some kinda grass.