# fertilizing



## Alwsfishin (Apr 5, 2004)

Hey PondF brother moved into this place late last fall. He used aquashade in april. I'm coaching him on how to turn the lake around. All the bass are 8" to 14". The shallows are clear water, I feel we should fertilize and add cover in the form of brushpiles possibly an aerator also.
The bluegill fishing is not hat good either. He's caught one sauger also, its a couple miles from the Ohio river. Also some crappie.
It 18+' deep roughly 1.5 acres. Next year will manage the weeds instead of wiping them all out.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Fertilizer is rarely recommended in Ohio.

Can you elaborate on what the pond has been treated with to manage the weeds, besides Aquashade?

How deep can you see?


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

I think the pond looks great. Can't see a cattail either.


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## Alwsfishin (Apr 5, 2004)

Hello PF my bro tried to register to discuss this with you, he's having trouble with that. He's coming up to Berea this weekend for a visit we'll figure it out and get back. 
Thanks hang loose, it's a beautiful place.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

man you,ve got a dream come true for most of us. thats a beautiful pond. the only reason i could think of that would cause the size sish problem, is its either being fished to death or its just way over stocked with gills, and maby even bass also.

we get to fish this little 4 acre pond in tenn about 1 or 2 times a year. its way underfished. we took about 2 hrs of fishing for bass with rubber worms. i caught 10 bass between about 14 to 18 in long with a couple of nice 3 lbers. and 2 great big gills. my nephew caught i think 12 bass about the same size and about 10 small ones he threw back. and we only fished 3 spots. we both fished one corner of the dam and caught a few and i hooked this one about 5 lbner, he got me in some brush and got off. we went across the dam and came across some stickups, and i stopped. my nephew went on to the other corner of the dam. and thats all the places we fished. on the upper end the beaver has cut some trees in the pond. if we had got there its untelling just how many bass we could have caught.

you just need to figure out if you have to many people sneaking in and taking all the good fish, or if it really needs thinned out. but once you get the balence back you should have some awesome fishing.
sherman


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Alwsfishin, I'm guessing that it was probably overstocked with bass and understocked with bluegill from the start. 

Pretty much all the stocking plans from the DNR, Extension office, fish farms etc. were not focused on growing big fish but growing fish for the family table. 10" bass were considered harvestable and the goal of these plans was produce a lot of 10" bass. 

As goals have changed with the priority of sportfishing/larger fish, stocking and managment plans have evolved, especially over the last 10-15 years. 1.5 acres is pretty big and it is likely that a lot, maybe a couple of hundred small catchable size bass will need to be remove to promote good growth in those that remain. Adding a few hundred midsize bluegill may help too. Hard to say from my office seat.

Be careful in your research and if possible focus on information available from similar areas/climates as it will be the most applicable.

Sherman, that pond you speak of sounds pretty awesome to me. Maybe not up to TN standards but most Ohioans would be very happy with it. Great catch rates and good size. I think threadfin shad are an option down there...pretty good forage option that I wish we had up here.


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## Alwsfishin (Apr 5, 2004)

PondF...Im sorry he hasn't posted here yet. He's a stay home dad with 3 boys under 8 yrs. He's out of town for awhile so I don't expect to chime in for a couple weeks.
He's also interested in adding Tilapia in the spring. 
Whats your opinion on adding brushpiles, there is nowhere for the baitfish to hang out. They probably get all eatin before they growup to be good forage for the bass as well as bgill fishing. The lake wasn't treated with anything but the aqua-shade unless that comes with a herbicide added and he didn't tell me.
Next year no aqua-shade, its deep enough that there should only be weeds around the shoreline. We'll either try to control them manually or spot treat them which can be tough if theres circulation. 
Thanks for your help!


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

For what it's worth, my opinion is that brush as in dense fine brush (cover) can provide similar protection as dense weeds but it's not as good as moderately dense weeds as is doesn't grow as much food for the small fish living within. Fine brush like christmas trees or similar fine limbed bushes are short lived, needing to be replaced every few years. a rule of thumb is about 10% of the pond should have dense cover, so that's like 6500 sq. ft. for 1.5 acres which is several hundred Christmas trees worth. This amount would, IMO, be impractical to replace on a semi-regular basis so they are effective cover The large branches last a little longer basically evolving into structure rather than cover which can be counter productive to helping the small fish grow to a larger size...the point of adding cover.

I think managed weed beds would be better suited for reaching the goal of increasing forage survival and size. Plants would likely provide cover perpetually. The plant or plants would need to be carefully selected as many can become a nuisance or not be aesthetically pleasing to the owner (or owner's spouse). If there are grass carp already present, establishing live plants may prove very difficult as they tend to at least uproot submerged plant if not eat them.

Artificial weeds are another option that would be better than brush but not as good as live. These are expensive for pond scale in the square footage needed for 1.5 acres.


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