private pond
- Thread starter jordan
- Start date
CILhunter
New member
As some have said, check with your DNR or Ag Extension Service for recommended ratios.
My grandfather, many years ago, built a 1.5 acre pond, about 10 feet deep in the center, with a soft bottom - sounds about like your setup, to use to water cattle. My dad and I have maintained it, and now my dad has built a house on the hill overlooking the pond. It has been stocked with bass, bluegill and catfish, and few grass carp to keep the weeds down. It has good populations of each now, and we routinely eat our catch. My kids and nieces/nephews love to spend the afternoon obtaining dinner, and then eating it. Good times are had by all.
My grandfather, many years ago, built a 1.5 acre pond, about 10 feet deep in the center, with a soft bottom - sounds about like your setup, to use to water cattle. My dad and I have maintained it, and now my dad has built a house on the hill overlooking the pond. It has been stocked with bass, bluegill and catfish, and few grass carp to keep the weeds down. It has good populations of each now, and we routinely eat our catch. My kids and nieces/nephews love to spend the afternoon obtaining dinner, and then eating it. Good times are had by all.
Possibly no fish in it because it winter kills everything that tries. 6-8 foot deep and no weed growth with 2-3' of ice on it some winters in NW Iowa will kill off everything in it every few years from low dissolved oxygen levels. I wouldn't go to too much effort or expense to try to make something happen that mother nature may be already saying isn't going to work. Easier to knock on doors and find another pond to fish !
Steiny
Well-known member
I think that you will have trouble keeping fish in that pond being only 6' to 8' deep also, due to reasons stated about winter kill during freeze over and lack of oxygen.
Weeds can be controlled with chemicals.
Oxygen issue could be helped with an aireator, or you could have someone come in and dip it out deeper. As is, you'll probably wind up with a bunch of stunted bluegills.
If you can get the pond straightened out by one of the above mentohods, For species, it's hard to beat hybrid bluegills and a few largemouth bass for midwestern farm ponds. Hybrids run about $0.25 - $0.50 each, start with 2-300. Don't need many bass, just hand catch a few somewhere close and haul them in a bucket. A dozen will soon have the place stocked with all you need.
Weeds can be controlled with chemicals.
Oxygen issue could be helped with an aireator, or you could have someone come in and dip it out deeper. As is, you'll probably wind up with a bunch of stunted bluegills.
If you can get the pond straightened out by one of the above mentohods, For species, it's hard to beat hybrid bluegills and a few largemouth bass for midwestern farm ponds. Hybrids run about $0.25 - $0.50 each, start with 2-300. Don't need many bass, just hand catch a few somewhere close and haul them in a bucket. A dozen will soon have the place stocked with all you need.
