Pond vegetation

[Beerkat]

My dad's mini ranch has a small pond that's over flowing in vegetation. Despite it's size, there's bass and catfish in it but the vegetation makes it hard to fish. What can i do to keep it clean?
And would cleaning it up hurt the fish population?

[JhuntsAlot]

A buddy of mine owns and operates a land clearing business and he made an attachment for his skid steer that can rake out vegetation near the shore like that. Pretty cool deal and he has cleaned several ponds with it.


J

[BrianL]

It won't hurt but you need to do it slowly, and know what chemical to use and what you are trying to kill. Not all algaecides and herbicides are fish safe. If those are pictures from this year there is too much vegetation to do it all at once.

https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/

Also the plants aren't your real problem, it is the overabundance of nutrients in the water and shallow water. If the nutrients are there, something else will grow back..... Unless you spend the money on something like Sonar.

[rsquared]

i use sonar rtu in my small pond
it works pretty well

[Beerkat]

I took those this past weekend. So simply pulling/raking the vegetation is best?

[byler11]

Floating stuff is Water hyacinth. It will take over the whole pond and is an invasive plant. Use a topical treatment to kill.

[gander]

On a pond that small I would get a buddy out there with me and get a seine net and scoop it all out myself into a pile and then burn it. Or give two local high school age kids a seine net and a $100 bill and tell them to get after it. Shouldn't take more than a day.

[DUKFVR]

Rodeo should work ,but like stated, don't do it all at once.

[Muskles]

I would get that stuff off ASAP. I let my tank get taken over this year and I'm starting to loose fish. I have the same vine and algae as you. Usually I treat it as soon as it starts growing in the spring, but things didn't work out that way this year. The vine will grow quickly now with the warmer weather.

[El Viejo]

I believe there is a non-breeding species of carp that you can put in there and they'll clean it up. Don't know much more about them than that. I'm sure pond specialists can tell you more.

[mudkat]

you need to act fast on the hyacinth it will have the whole pond covered this year. grass carp won’t work on it they don’t eat it. pull out what you can and it’s a lot of work and then spray and you’ll have to keep after it they drop seeds and they will continue to pop back up for a few years.
who ever brought that over here should be burned at the stake

[RMW]

Aquastrike

[rocky]

That’s not hyacinths. Pennywort.

[rjtkdplus]

I put 5 Triploid grass carp in my 1.5-2 acre pond 3 years ago. I know I have at least 2 left, I see them almost every morning. They’re probably 30 lbs each now. Pondweed used to take over every summer to the point we couldn’t fish. No problem with weeds since I got them. The state approved me for 20 but I decided to start with 5 and go up if needed, never needed more.

[Patton]

I believe there is a non-breeding species of carp that you can put in there and they'll clean it up. Don't know much more about them than that. I'm sure pond specialists can tell you more.

A good friend and fellow TBHr put these ‘sterile’ grass carp in his pond over 10yrs ago and they are still keeping the vegetation down- way more than desired. He wouldn’t ever do it again.