Five Things YOU Need to Do Before it Warms Up

In a few months, temperatures will rise and fish will become more active again. That means it's time to get your pond ready for the warm season before it comes. Proper preparation is key to maintaining a healthy, thriving fishery and ensuring your pond is ready for maximum productivity. With the right pond management strategy, your pond can be ready to flourish this summer.

At Aquatic Environmental Services, we're here to help you every step of the way. From aeration to habitat installation, our expert biologists and technicians are here to help ensure your lake management dreams come true.

Read on to hear about the top five things you must do to prepare your pond for maximum success this summer.

1. Get Your Bottom-Diffused Aerators Running

Bottom-diffused aeration systems are essential for maintaining proper oxygen levels throughout your pond. These systems help circulate water, prevent stratification, and promote a healthy environment for fish. This ensures that your pond can operate at full capacity. As the warm season approaches, it's important to have a technician:

Inspect your aerators for any signs of wear or damage around the diffuser heads.
Clean diffuser heads and check for blockages.
Turn on your aerators to ensure they're running efficiently before the temperatures rise.

Having a functioning bottom diffused aeration system is one of the best things you can do for your pond, but being haphazard about maintaining one will often do more harm than good. Intermittent or altogether inoperable bottom diffused aeration systems will allow your pond to stratify as the temperature's rise. This places additional stress on your fish and possibly leads to harmful algal growth.

Avoiding Pond Stratification

Many pond owners will turn aeration systems off during the winter, as the water will not stratify once the temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. To prevent the need for a break-in procedure as water temperatures get warmer, it is advisable to turn bottom diffusers back on before water increases beyond this threshold.

Although one can turn their diffusers on later, it will be necessary to perform a break-in to prevent oxygen crashes that could lead to fish kills!
As always, if you have any questions about aeration, our biologists are always happy to help you make your pond a place free from worry!

2. Ensure Fish Feeders Are in Operable Condition

Fish feeders play a vital role in maintaining healthy fish populations by providing consistent nutrition. Fish stocking plans will always work best when they are accompanied by a feeding regime; to make sure your fish are fed and thriving over the summer:

Check the condition of your feeders and ensure they are functioning properly.
Refill feeders with high-quality fish food that meets the dietary needs of your fish. (Give us a call! We'll help you determine which food best fits the needs of your fish)
Adjust feeding schedules to align with the increased activity levels of fish during warmer months.

Properly maintained feeders will ensure your fish have the energy they need to grow and thrive. Ponds stocked with feed-trained bass should already have feeders set up, but almost all fish species can benefit from a well-adjusted feeding schedule. Whether you are looking to grow giant bass, or have awesome bream catch rates, a feeding plan will help you get there.

3.Habitat Management to Enhance Forage Fish Survivability

Creating habitat in your pond isn't just a way to improve catch rates, but in many cases vital for proper fish survivability, especially after working to build a fish stocking plan. Installing structures like brush piles, artificial habitat, or vegetation provides cover and refuge for smaller fish, helping them evade predators and maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Consider:

Adding diverse types of habitat to support a range of fish species.
Placing habitat in strategic locations where forage fish are most active.

Dense Habitat

Dense habitat structures such as our Texas Angler Pyramids, or Mossback Root Wad Kits make great habitat additions for forage fish, being preferred by most smaller fish like bluegill, redear sunfish, minnows and shiners. If you have plenty of dense evergreens near your pond, cutting a few of them into the water can often provide fantastic habitat for baitfish!

Sparse Habitat

Thinner, more open habitat can provide great ambush points for larger predators such as your bass. Bass often prefer to sit on structures to ambush prey, and larger habitat such as those in Mossback's trophy tree line are some of the best!

Our experts can design and install habitat structures tailored to your pond's unique needs, ensuring long-term success for your fishery. We can work with your individual pond characteristics to design a habitat plan that works for your budget and your lake management goals.

4. Schedule a Spring Electrofishing Survey for Your Pond

A spring electrofishing survey is one of the best tools for assessing the current state of your pond's fish population. This survey helps identify:

The size and health of your predator and forage fish populations.
Potential imbalances or overpopulation issues.
Recommendations for spring forage stocking to enhance your fishery.

Electrofishing is the single best way to gain insight into your pond's productivity and balance. This non-invasive survey method helps plan how to best stock both forage fish and predators in the summer months to meet your goals.

What to Expect

During an electrofishing survey, our electrofishing technician will use high voltage and strategic pathing to systematically stun fish around your lake, which will be collected and sampled. These fish are generally unharmed and can be either released back into the pond or harvested if necessary to bring the fishery back towards a balanced state.

5. Plan Your Spring Forage Stocking

Stocking forage fish in the spring provides your predators with ample nutrition and helps support a balanced fishery. Based on the results of your electrofishing survey, we can:

Choose the right forage species for your pond, such as bluegill, threadfin shad, or fathead minnows.
Monitor the success of your stocking efforts throughout the season.

And it's not just a matter of what you stock, but also how much of each species you stock. Through years of experience, we have developed hundreds of unique stocking plans for all kinds of lakes, and we're excited to help you meet your lake management goals through specifically tailored planning!