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Strategies for
Pond Management
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
Got a pond that doesn't quite live up to your expectations? Whether your purpose is for irrigation, livestock watering or recreation, it's smart to develop strategies that help you accomplish your goals. Although Texas boasts more than 800,000 private ponds, very few are properly managed, or even managed at all.
"I'd say less than 10 percent—maybe even less than 5 percent—are managed," says veteran fisheries biologist Bob Lusk, who runs Texoma Hatchery pond consulting service and offers sage technical advice to subscribers of his bimonthly Pond Boss magazine. "Most ponds in Texas are stock ponds. They are simply there to provide water for livestock. That's their main purpose. This kind of pond exists moreso to catch water than to manage it."
But the trend in Texas these days is a pond for recreation. Lusk says the first step in recreational pond management is to decide what kind of recreation is desired. Ponds can be managed for fishing, swimming, wildlife attraction and aesthetics.
"A person who wants to attract water fowl or wildlife manages differently than a pond to swim in, and differently than someone whose goal is for fish and recreation," says Lusk.
A good fishing pond, for example, must be managed like a vegetable garden: It must be seeded (or stocked) properly, limed and fertilized correctly, weeded now and then, and harvested in the correct numbers and on an appropriate timetable.
"One assumption you can make is that nature's going to stock most ponds," says Lusk. "If you want to manage for fish, you first need to see what fish exist. You can do that several ways. You can catch them, hire a professional to come out and analyze and tell you what's there. Based on what you find, you can turn it into a fishing pond. That may mean stocking. It may not. It may mean harvesting to make more room, stocking some bait fish, or feeding some existing fish. You want the cleanest, healthiest water possible, and a healthy community of plants and fish."
In his 25-year career, Lusk has consulted close to 7,000 clients, and has worked on 2,000 different ponds.
Fish are not growing
Lusk says the number one question he gets across the board is, "My fish are not growing like they should. What do I do?"
"When fish aren't growing, it's usually because they are overcrowded and there's not enough food. The solution is easy. Under crowd them and add food," he says.
The second most frequently asked question is: "My pond is full of vegetation. How do I fix it?" Lusk says there are basically three kinds of aquatic plants: floating, emerged, and submerged plants.
"You have to learn how to contend with the plants that you have. If more than 40 to 50 percent of your pond is covered with aquatic plants, it's a biological problem. Fifteen to 50 percent presents a fishing problem. Once you identify the plants, there are several ways to deal with them. There are physical ways. There are biological methods, such as triploid grass carp. The carp are controversial, but you have to think of them as a tool. You pick the right tool for the right application. And there are EPA-approved aquatic herbicides. Some are less toxic than others. You have to be a smart consumer.
"Chemicals are a temporary fix to the symptom of a problem," he continues. "I only use chemicals that break down quickly in water, if I chose them. And they have to have a specific purpose. If you manage the balance of your fishery—keep it in balance with the right number of predators and prey and a healthy but not overwhelming number of native aquatic plants, everything works. Water has a magic ability to cleanse itself."
No two ponds are ever exactly alike. Even ponds in the same watershed and built very close to each other can be very different in appearance, and differences in watershed and soil characteristics are particular to each pond. Water quality factors such as temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness and dissolved oxygen affect fish health and production. These factors are rarely constant in a pond. Temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH will change or cycle each day and alkalinity can change over longer periods of time.
Lusk says muddy water does not affect the fishes' flavor.
"Flavor is affected by what's growing in the pond. Certain kinds of plants—for instance, a heavy load of blue green algae—contribute more to the flavor of fish. What a fish eats and what lives in the water with it impact taste," he says.
For more tips and information from pond professionals, visit www.pond-boss.com.
Additional information and publications on ponds, pond management, and species selection and stocking is available from the Texas Cooperative Extension. Log-on to wildlife.tamu.edu/publications/TAEXPonds/213b.pdf to download a free publication entitled "Management of Recreational Fish Ponds in Texas." by Joe T. Lock, Extension Fisheries specialist. Also, your local USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Office can provide assistance in design, layout and monitoring construction of ponds.
Stop that leak!
Bob Lusk says leaky ponds are the toughest problem he encounters.
"Job # 1 is to find the leak. Water takes the path of least resistance. Where it comes out is never where it comes from. It might be a spot that's a fractured rock formation or a gravel vein that's not as big around as a garden hose, and it can drain a pond in three weeks," he explains.
Once the leak is found, the pond consultant notes several options for fixing it. One is bentonite. Another is lining it with good clay-based materials from the site. Plastic liners are a more expensive option, but sometime, in a rocky area like Mason and Menard counties where there is no clay until 20 feet deep, and much of the Hill Country, it may be the only choice, he says.
"We only borrow water. It always moves. Whether it's flowing in and leaching through soils, or it flows in and out through a pipe, or flows in and evaporates, we have the honor of taking care of it while we borrow it," he observes.
