"POND BUMS", FISHING FOR FUN !!!!!

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Comment by Jim Gronaw on October 17, 2013 at 5:58pm

A couple more pond images and what they have...

Ten acre public lake that has small daily fee to fish, all must be released. Good gills, bass and crappies.

Local bass pond that has a resurgence of quality gills, 4 miles from the house.

Two- acre secluded pond with the standard mix, 8-9 inch gills.

Same pond, clear water, lots of crappie.

Nice red ears in this 2 acre public gem 6 miles from home.

I caught my largest Maryland red ear in this tiny private pond that a church acquaintance let's me fish...biggest green sunfish, too.

Great times and great places to fish, all beautiful in their own way!

Comment by Tony Livingston on October 17, 2013 at 5:57pm

The word balance gets used pretty often when the subject of ponds comes up. But I'm here to tell you, I have seen some tremendous fish come from unbalanced ponds.....many times, an unbalanced pond will encourage tremendous growth of one species, while other species will suffer.

Matter of fact, it's a classic management strategy where BG are concerned. Whether the pond is managed or not, oftentimes a BOW that produces giant lepomids will be full of stunted, smaller Largemouths........unbalanced can sometimes work in a pondmeister's favor.

Comment by jim cosgrove on October 17, 2013 at 5:54pm

it is a unique place.especially where i live.a small lake and 4 or 5 ponds and sloughs.they will be stocking trout soon and not little ones.they got a couple 8 pounders last year and they winter over so you can fish as long as there is no ice.the grass carp are something to see.vegetarians for the most part but you do hook one once in a while.the really big ones tails gotta be a foot wide.notice i said hook and not catch.you gotta break em off or loose a 30 dollar fly line.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on October 17, 2013 at 5:32pm

Wow, Jim...that sounds like great fishing!

Comment by jim cosgrove on October 17, 2013 at 5:27pm

i belong to a club .actually a nature preserve that allows paying members fish the stocked ponds and small lakes.in fact most of the membership fees go to fish stocking.this area is what remains of the Illinois central's sand pits used by their steam locomotives to sand the tracks for traction when they start up.improvements were made during ww2 by german prisoners as it was used as a pow camp.nothing like free labor to improve the grounds,these ponds are all sand bottom and very fertile by nature and full of ducks and geese that nest there,they tried poison ,etc to kill the weeds.did more harm than good.the answer which has been has been a great success.hybrid grass carp.they cannot reproduce so no problems with that.they are like aquatic goats.and they are freaking huge.60+ pounds some of them are! we have had to thin them out a few times as some years there are no weeds at all.that was worrying people until some beavers moved in a couple years ago now we got nothing but structure and the bass population has exploded and the sunfish ,crappie and perch are all getting bigger.things are back in balance somewhat and the water looks great.ever hook a 40 pound carp on a 5wt fly rod?

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on October 17, 2013 at 5:18pm

I use the analogy of an aquarium, Tiny, because most people are familiar with them. Having kept many different aquariums through the years, the one word that always holds true is BALANCE.

Ponds are a network of interwoven elements, which together create a balance. Any element in the system that gets out of balance will affect all the other ones....often with disastrous results.

Understand the balance, work to keep it healthy and you are rewarded with an active, living biotope. But it is rarely simple and it IS work.

Comment by Tony Livingston on October 17, 2013 at 5:07pm

That's the thing about a pond. Many folks have the attitude that you dig a hole, stock it with fish, maybe throw in a handful of feed now and then, and 'voila....instant big fish.

I wish.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on October 17, 2013 at 4:53pm

Nice comments, Adam; almost a mini-course on pond improvement.
Very sorry about the pond, Allen.

Comment by Adam Rink on October 17, 2013 at 4:29pm

Pertaining to Allen's comment about possibly killing the algae to fix the problem with stunted bluegill, it can be a long process just about any way you go about it. My family's pond sits in between my grandpa's and great uncle's property, which meet behind my parent's property. It's between 1/4 and 1/3 acre. Eight or so years ago a 6" bluegill was a big fish for the pond. This is about the time I started to get serious about fishing. At this time my great uncle also fed the Canada Geese and on any given day there would be 20-30, or more, geese on the pond or on banks so the pond was very muddy and stained.

The way we went about increasing bluegill size was for two years or so we took every bluegill under about 4" out of the pond. We would have no problem catching 20-30 in an hour or so. After 100's of these small fish were removed and the geese feeding stopped (and the geese hunting started in surrounding corn fields) the average fish and water clarity began improving. Last year we finally had bluegills breaking the 9" mark, and this year a bluegill broke the 10" mark. Water visibility is now 3' plus, usually better now that only couple pairs of geese regularly visit each year. I don't know if the increased water clarity helped the process or not, but without all the geese, it sure is a nicer pond.

As far as the algae problem, when our pond got cleaner, it did start to have a lot of algae, which I don't consider a bad thing until it gets out of control. The algae boosts dissolved oxygen and offers fish cover, especially for my pond, since its pretty featureless. We did have to treat the algae this year since it covered about half the surface area. We only used the recommended portions over time and left some untreated. As Tony mentioned, if too much is used at once, when it starts to decompose, the lower O2 levels due to the absence of the algae coupled with the bacteria using the O2 present in the decomposition process, it can cause extensive fish kill.

Comment by Tony Livingston on October 17, 2013 at 3:06pm

Most algaecides are not toxic to the species you have listed as being present, provided they are applied at the proper rate and dosage. What CAN happen however, is a severe lack of dissolved oxygen in the water, caused by the dead and dying plants affected by the algaecide. Aquatic plants produce oxygen in the presence of sunlight, and take up oxygen at night, or overcast conditions. Fish need this oxygen in order to survive....kill off the oxygen producing plants, and the fish suffer...then,  the dead plants begin to decompose, a process that requires even more O2 to complete.

Not a good equation. That's why most algaecides advise treating only part of the pond at a time, then waiting a couple weeks before treating any more.

Of course, like Leo said, the wrong chemical can do far more harm than good.

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