# Cat tails...



## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

So I just moved and acquired a pond. It has bass, crappie, rock bass, and blue gill in it. There are cat tails all around it. Should I try to remove them all or leave them in for the fish? Btw I don't really care what what the pond looks like I just want a good fishing hole with a healthy population of fish


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## ostbucks98 (Apr 14, 2004)

I would leave them personally

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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Leave what you can, but you&#8217;ll have to clean spots out to fish, I would assume. Nothing a few minutes with a hand sickle or machete won&#8217;t take care of.


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

Ok that's what I was going to do, thanks


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Yes, they'll need cut at least yearly.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

if you want them emoved permanently, you have to go in and yank out by hand and get the roots, most folks use a back hoe to get them out permanently, they can be a reall pain in the rump to remove but if you can clear part of the area and leave some, thats probably ok and I personally like some in a pond but have seen many ponds where they have completely taken over.

Check out the forums on pondboss.com and you can get lots of hood ideas on what works best for our area in removal

Salmonid


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## jwm86_09 (Feb 2, 2011)

The catttails can be sprayed with a Glyphosate product 4-6 times a year then manually removed after they are dead. Then they will not come back. You can also just spray some of them to get rid of them and keep them trimmed back for good fish habitat.


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## dugworm (May 23, 2008)

I keep areas of cattails around my pond. The cattails provide bird habitat as well as a home for bullfrogs, snakes, turtles, etc... I like open areas as well as it makes it a lot easier to cast and catch fish!


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Cattails are very nutrient hungry and can severly reduce the fertility of a pond which in turn reduces fish growth. Muskrats love cattails and their burrowing can cause issues but small amount of cattails, controlled to less than 1/4 of the bank can provide beneficial habitat both above and below the water. They can spread at rates of up to 10' per year in extreme cases so yearly control is necessary. A combination of Diquat, Glysophate and a proper surfactant will yield nearly instant results (mostly from the Diquat) but will require periodic retreating for full control. The only sure way to completely eliminate them is by digging them out with an excavator.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Alec9371 said:


> So I just moved and acquired a pond. It has bass, crappie, rock bass, and blue gill in it. There are cat tails all around it. Should I try to remove them all or leave them in for the fish? Btw I don't really care what what the pond looks like I just want a good fishing hole with a healthy population of fish


Great info on this thread. If you like them, let'em grow. Pulling them out is a lot worse than pulling weeds. And I don't know if its "chiggers" that hide in the cattail leaves, but they will get you.

Personally, I don't like cattails and spray them every other year. I use old Christmas trees and large tree branches for structure.


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

Thanks for all the info, is it worth the work to pull them out?


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

No. Cut occasionally or spray.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

M.Magis said:


> No. Cut occasionally or spray.


Alec, thats probably the best info you'll get on cattails. I know some people like them but once they get ahead of you, you're in for a fight.


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

Ok thanks ill get my Friday the 13th on with them! 


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## [email protected] (Jul 5, 2006)

a county road crew person told me it was agaist the law to kill,cut,spray,or remove the cattails.
has anyone heard this or seen it writen some where.
my thought is if its on my land what right do they have to tell me i can not do any of the above..


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

[email protected] said:


> a county road crew person told me it was agaist the law to kill,cut,spray,or remove the cattails.
> has anyone heard this or seen it writen some where.
> my thought is if its on my land what right do they have to tell me i can not do any of the above..


No, thats not true at all.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

^^^ EXACTLY^^^ Don't let them b.s. you [email protected] .net... There is a cattail killer out there that is very effictive (Rodeo). Buddy, you need a shorter "stage name". Or if you don't mind, can I call you moose? JK.


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## [email protected] (Jul 5, 2006)

thank you for the answer... i thought that had to be a big story.
i new i wasn't going to listen to it anyway.


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## [email protected] (Jul 5, 2006)

moose was what i had been useing for years. then one day i had to reregister and
thats when everthing i had in there was gone and when itried to re use moose it came back saying some one else was useing that. wam here come recemoose instead. so yes call me anything u want execpt late for supper or fiahing.
moose


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> a county road crew person told me it was agaist the law to kill,cut,spray,or remove the cattails.
> has anyone heard this or seen it writen some where.
> my thought is if its on my land what right do they have to tell me i can not do any of the above..


Your pond, your cattails, private property (not an endangered species)...There is other structure to use... I've got those little itchy bites on my back and chest right now from helping a friend with his cattails.

Good luck with those rascals!


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## [email protected] (Jul 5, 2006)

ouch,were you spraying or pulling them out ?
I"m thinking about spraying when all the brids leve..
moose


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

Ok, so I got a guy that will dig them out with a excavator but I'm worried about harming the fish. How bad is this for the fish 


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## [email protected] (Jul 5, 2006)

i have done sum digging around my pond, did not hurt any fish.
cattails will ony grow in shallow water like o- to three feet. if don't get the roots they come back.. the are a pest only thing there good for is the birds nest in them,and water snakes like to sun then selves.
burn baby burn ababy.might work ?
moose


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

[email protected] said:


> i have done sum digging around my pond, did not hurt any fish.
> cattails will ony grow in shallow water like o- to three feet. if don't get the roots they come back.. the are a pest only thing there good for is the birds nest in them,and water snakes like to sun then selves.
> burn baby burn ababy.might work ?
> moose


Thanks! I'll get that done!


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> ouch,were you spraying or pulling them out ?
> I"m thinking about spraying when all the brids leve..
> moose


Just sprayed a little.....But wading through them is where the "bugs"got me. I've got some small ones coming up around my pond right now and their on the hit list in 4 weeks.

Good luck with yours.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Alec9371 said:


> Ok, so I got a guy that will dig them out with a excavator but I'm worried about harming the fish. How bad is this for the fish
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Make sure your excavator guy can "smooth" your pond bank up when he's done. One question, where is he going to dump all the cattails?


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

When I purchased the house we are now 5 years ago the pond was taken over by cattails, duckweed, watermeal and other weeds.

I borrowed a friends mini excavator and bug them out where I could reach and then hired a guy with a long reach backhoe to get what I couldn't get to with the smaller equipment.

What few we didn't dig out were killed off by the Sonar we put in to kill the duckweed and watermeal.

I fortunately have enough property that we dug a huge deep hole on the back of the property and buried all of the cattails.


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

Lundy said:


> When I purchased the house we are now 5 years ago the pond was taken over by cattails, duckweed, watermeal and other weeds.
> 
> I borrowed a friends mini excavator and bug them out where I could reach and then hired a guy with a long reach backhoe to get what I couldn't get to with the smaller equipment.
> 
> ...


Did this effect the fish at all? I'm afraid of harming the fish in my pond


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Every change has effects. The net effect of removing an overabundance of cattails should improve fish growth.

There are always exceptions though...say you have extremely high nutrient load and the cattails are taking up some of these nutrients preventing DO crashes.

Spraying and killing a large amount of cattails that end up as dead matter on the bottom of the pond can eat up O2 as well.

(The above two are probably extremes for example)


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## Alec9371 (May 15, 2013)

[email protected] said:


> Every change has effects. The net effect of removing an overabundance of cattails should improve fish growth.
> 
> There are always exceptions though...say you have extremely high nutrient load and the cattails are taking up some of these nutrients preventing DO crashes.
> 
> ...


Ok thanks I'm new to this and really want to have a healthy pond!


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Alec9371 said:


> Did this effect the fish at all? I'm afraid of harming the fish in my pond
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


No negative effect on the fish at all, pond is in much better shape today that previously but I have also added aerators, and worked on other weed and organic layer removal. I also have a lot of water over 10ft deep in the pond. I don't know if digging in a shallower pond would have any effect of not but I doubt that it would.

I did not want to chemically kill everything and have all of the the dead decaying vegetation in the pond. I have more than enough of a organic layer without adding to it.

The root systems on the cat tails is pretty amazing. Tough plants for sure.

One funny note about the removal. When I was digging the bass had a blast eating everything that I was displacing while digging. They stayed close and chowed down. One scoop freaked me out, I was swinging the bucket in to dump it and a catfish, 5lbs, was in the bucket splashing around. Scared me at first until I realized what was happening. I don't think I could ever catch a catfish with a mini excavator bucket again if I tried.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Lundy, Any more coming up? Your pics look like early spirng. Glad you had a good deep place to bury them. I can't get near a catfish anound my pond (even on the riding mower). I rodeo every other year just to keep them out.

Great looking pond!


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

hang loose,

This pond was a mess when we purchased this house 5 years ago.

4years ago we dug out the cattails and started other remedy options like the aeration.

After we dug out the cattails we applied Sonar to the pond, one time, 4 years ago, to kill the duckweed and watermeal. These were both VERY bad. The sonar eliminated the problem and took care of ALL other weed growth including any stray cat tails. We have had one or two spring up over the last couple of years but we just pull them out when we see them in the spring. They have not been a problem at all. Other weeds are constantly popping up and you have to stay on top of them or they can spread fast. 

As you can see this pond needed some help.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Lundy, those are amazing before and after pics... Nice job!


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