Your Fishing Pond - THE DIRTY TRUTH!

We were so excited to have an already stocked fishing pond on our homestead when we moved here! But little did we know that owning a pond is a lot of work and will require maintenance on a yearly basis. Keeping trees away from your banks, monitoring the parasite load on your fish, keeping the water weeds at bay, etc.

Owning a pond can be fun and enjoyable. But like anything, if you want the pond to provide food for your family, there will be work and maintenance involved.

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[WesleyAPEX]

Having a pond is easy if you stock the right fish and create the proper ecosystem. It’ll sustain itself. Stock lots of variety of forage, minnows, bluegill and frogs, then put turtles in there to eat the vegetation and put bass in to maintain the baitfish population and the turtles will eat the dead fish and the frogs will eat the bugs. Birds can obviously come and go but they serve a purpose too. I would recommend putting turtles in there for the plants. Do NOT stock carp to eat plants because they’ll take over the pond and overpopulate. They also stir the pond bottom up so much that they make it muddy

[possumfarms]

I have a simple solution for you - a big long heavy steel cable! I grew up with a circular fishing pond and we owned a couple of other ponds on farming property. Every few years we would drag this big long cable out to the pond and uncoil it. Then we would pull it around the shoreline and connect the two ends together on the tractor so it is a big circle of cable laying in the pond with the two ends up on shore connected to the tractor. Then we pull the tractor away from the pond causing the cable to drag across the floor of the pond and uproot all the vegetation and drag it all up on shore in a big pile...


It makes a real mess, it's stinky (especially if you have skunk weed!) but it culls a lot of the vegetation out of the pond in one big swoop. After it dries for a few days, you just come back with the front end loader, pick up all the vegetation and put it in your compost heap. With all the fish poop and rotting vegetation, the compost heap will love it! Your plants and garden will too!


It's easy, cheap and doesn't require chemicals! You just have to do it every few years to keep things in check. It's just a big long heavy cable with loops on the end to connect to the tractor... Simple - just the way I like things.


We have been doing this since 1962 - it works!



Good luck! From Possum Farms - Chappell Hill, Texas.

[howdychick]

Those "lillies" and "water grass" are a blessing. That is what will naturally filter and clarify your water. It also keeps algae in check because they are combating for those nutrients. Your pond is going through a stabilization process. The vegetation is over grown a bit, but like all things in nature, when there's an abundance of something, a natural predator will show up and bring the numbers back down. The fishing line getting caught is indeed a pain, but one way to combat this is on the side you most fish or gather around the water, spread 1" - 2" gravel a couple of inches thick to cover the nutrient rich soil a few feet back in the water. The vegetation won't be able to grow on that side, making realling your catch in, a whole lot less of a hassel, but leave the plants in the rest of the edges to continue to filter your water and create oxygen for your fish. Just don't go in and take it all out. Nature will send in your backup. Give it a chance. Cheers!

[BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

Actually only poorly designed ponds require a lot of maintenance. Our goal is always zero maintenance.
If you haven't learned the plant choking your pond yet, it is called watershield. Cheers!

[ori]

I use a pond dye twice a year to keep the sun light from reaching so deep. Works like a charm. Grass carp are fantastic also.

[OFFGRIDwithDOUGSTACY]

we have been here 6 years and never have done a thing and it is rocking =)
But I will not let any trees grow on the banks
like anything, every homestead is different

[MrSnapy]

That's actually really helpful for the fish and it means its a thriving eco system. Removing all the weeds may make it look better or easier to enjoy but not for the fish. My uncle has catfish ponds in S Ga I will tell you what he does. Just burn an old mattress they will be a bunch of springs left after the fire. Cut out a section with wire cutters then tie it to a rope. Throw it in and simply remove a section of weeds to allow fishing access. Leaving the rest to help maintain a healthy food chain in the pond. Cover like this give many bonuses like cleaning the water naturally and giving small fish refuge from bigger fish.

I have seen many people wanting a crystal clear pond like I said it may look nice but the fish will not thrive. Its algae and the very bottom of a healthy food chain. It also gives them cover for the sun. In other words I would pick a dingy weed filled pond to fish any day over a clear one. This looks like a perfectly healthy pond to me just needs a section cleared out to allow access.

[jameslumley]

My pond has never had these problems. The builder said the secret to not have weed problems is too have fairly steep sides and deepness. I have good clay bottom and am planting trees around the pond for natural effect. I have worms too because of lots of birds. Thanks for the tips on redear sunfish. I wish I could get some lily pads. Not all ponds are a lot of maintenance. Mine is practically none. The secret is how it is constructed in the first place.

[AusJackal]

The clay to fix leaks is bentonite.. you don't need to break the dam/walls to drain it.. you can install a syphon...

[teel]

Not all ponds are high maintenance. For those pond lilies take either an old mattress spring or fence panel, fish a rope (by boat) from one end of the pond to the other, hook it to a tractor and drag a swath from one end of the pond to the other.

[caz]

First: i didn't read all the comments before posting this. I breed snails for commercial aquariums and have often watched them devastate the flora of an aquarium. It's possible your lily-pad explosion is a direct result of the red-eared sunfish's impact on the snail population. It may not seem possible that the snails could consume that much bio-mass but normally they eat the base of plants, severing the photosynthesizing leafy parts from the roots. Resulting in plant death and overgrowth control. These processes normally ebb and flow between states such as- lots of snails (and the accompanying larva) to a state of lily-pad bloom, which in turn provides the food for the cycle to repeat. I'm not saying the introduction of the fish was the cause, simply suggesting it's possible. With the decline of the snail population the red-ears will most likely seek out a new food source and the snails will rebound to an extent. Eventually a state of snail to pad equilibrium might be reached. My suggestion at this point would be slow manual removal of pads. My reasoning: the pads may provide food and protection to the snails. Allowing them to rebound slowly and reach a happy medium sooner than the natural process would allow. Hope this helps.

[theoldguy]

I don't have a pond. I asked a friend who's dad used to. His suggestion was grass carp and turtles will eat out the grass and lily pads. It might give you a better eco system. And yes, cut the trees back.
Interesting about the grubs and the tribulations....makes one appreciate the multitude of issues.

[jennystancliff]

Get canoe, get garden rake, paddle and get busy brother. Or swim and pull. ROUNDUP IS NEVER OPTION PEOPLE. God bless you all. Love you guys

[waynetadlock]

Lesson from lagoons...(2:55). Too many trees, {even tall weeds}, too close- make it really hard for natural winds to whip up and aerate the water. The shade is great for fishing in the heat, but please allow the air to flow. Creeks are often heavily forested, but there's moving water there. Still water needs air incorporated into it. Thanks. <><

[AlexRides]

My uncle had a pond when I was growing up. I remember him spending Sundays after church (if football wasn't on) out in his pond in waders pulling lilies and other weeds by the roots to keep it cleaned out.

[jamesdennis]

loved growing up on a property with a pond...didnt realize how lucky i was as a child until now.

[weslow]

I've done research to fix one of my old ponds as well, the cheapest and easiest way. (Not digging it out) It's hard to get good information. From what I've read: Start by adding a beneficial bacteria that will decompose the muck on the bottom. You also need to aerate, so the bacteria can perform properly. Also get some grass carp and maybe dye the water to keep plant growth down. Not only will the tree roots break the side walls, but the dead leaves will add nutrients that are unwanted, also why the plants are growing, the nitrogen. (Livestock is the worst for this contamination). Get the trees back to keep out extra nutrients, also keep in mind that plants are important to use up extra nutrients that will pollute the water and fill up pond. Caused from plants, dead animals, animal manure, and also fish excretions. You also might have a problem with too many fish in that small of a pond. There is a certain number of fish you should have per square foot or acre that is acceptable. Anything over that will cause the pond to fill with nutrients, and then not support animal life and only plant life, then fill in.

[Countryprepper]

I know some people put grass carp fish in their ponds to keep the vegetation down. Don't know if that would work for your situation or not, but worth looking into.

[oldhippyhomesteaders]

We just started turning out huge built in pool into a pond letting it go all natural good info thanks prepper pam

[davidschmidt]

Thank you definitely help keep things into perspective....it's just fill it up and put fish in!