# New House with Pond....



## bassmanmark (May 17, 2005)

Just bought a new house with a pond that is half on my property. It was a man made pond that has a small stream running into it on my neighbors property and on my property had a dam on it. Back in 2006 they had a flood and it blew through the dam and now just runs out pretty slowly. It also has a 1ft in diameter pipe that funnels water in it to a small retaining pond that is also on my property. A sample bass from it...







There is that crazy junk algae that seems to rise after a storm but I can usually make most of that muck blow through my end by moving some of it through what use to be the dam. It also has pretty nice blue gill as well. Every fish seems to be crazy fat. I just added 9 3+lbers from another pond. But I really think it may be fine without anything else...The only thing that is very strange is that there is absolutley no cover. I through in about 15 to 20 foot long rocks but nothing else. I was wondering if I should damn it back up. That would reintroduce a whole rock line and wood that was in the water before that dam broke through. Thoughts. Also it seems like I have a good hatch of bass from every year...5 inchers...8 inchers...12 inchers and up.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Sounds like you've aquired a pond in its prime. Stay on top of it, and you'll have an awsome lake to fish for many many years to come 

I'de recommend using Cutrine Plus for the algae that you're dealing with, add a little more structure and you're good to go.


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## Big Joshy (Apr 26, 2004)

your bass are so healthy because of the sparse cover. They have no problem catching their pray because it has nowhere to hide. However you might want to consider removing some of the 10-12" bass to prevent overcrowding and stunting. I beleive the odnr suggests 10 bass per acre per year in this size. Im no expert but everything ive read points to the fact that underharvest of bass in established pond can hurt it as much as overharvest. If your seeing lots of smaller baitfish size gills you should be fine for now, but when you see lots of small bass and few smaller gills you might be in line for a stunted bass population. which is fine if you want tropy gills. 

As long as the fish are that fat and healthy though I wouldn't do anything too drastic.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Congrats on the new pond. It looks like you have some kind of filamentous algae. Fishman gave good advice. Keep in mind that ponds with a lot of flow through don't hold chemicals long so you may need more applications than others. If the water coming in is cool, it may promote the algae later in the season than other ponds too. The good news is that ponds with fresh water coming in all the time usually have very good water quality depending on the water source. I have a friend with a 1.5 acre pond that is constantly fed by two 8" tiles coming from ag fields. He grows some nice healthy fish but is constantly battling weeds.


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## bassmanmark (May 17, 2005)

Turns out that my kids are taking so long to set a hook that taking out 10 to 12 bass will not be a problem. Same with the bluegill so I guess it will work itself out. The other question I have is a moral one. I have the deep end and it seems like I have way more bass on my end. Should I dam it back up? It will only put a rock line in and give me about 3ft more on each side. On the other end it will add an insane amount of water. It will probably double the amount of water they have now...I can't want to do it. Also they have about 6 geese on their side and I have none...and man am I glad about that...the geese had babies but the red tail hawks are taking care of that problem. 14 babies...7 left...only 7 more to take away.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

As far as the dam goes, your soil and water dept. would be a good (and usually free) place to start consultation on the dam repair. My county was very helpful in the planning stages of my pond. I also think you should involve your neighbors if it's affecting their property simply because it's the right thing to do. I would wait to involve the neighbors after the soil and water dept. visits and gives you their recommendations.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

> Turns out that my kids are taking so long to set a hook that taking out 10 to 12 bass will not be a problem


haha, I got a kick out of that! That's something only us pond nerds would understand  

You definitally want to contact Soil and Water in your county before you start any projects like you're suggesting!


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