Last year a local non managed pond suffered a fish kill upon our first downpour of rain in the monsoon season.

I was certain the pond was done for. The banks were littered with lots of small bluegill/Green Sunfish,some Bass and a few large Koi that had been stocked by someone.

I go there just last week,and I see a nesting area with what appears to be a bunch of potato chip size Sunfish on it. Further along the bank I spot some 7-8 inch LMB.

So how did these fish not die in the fishkill? Could the fishkill actually been beneficial? It did away with A LOT of the Bluegill in the pond,which were unusually small,and likely not going to get any bigger.

How long before this pond regenerates its self to where it was prior to the fishkill? I ask this because prior to the fishkill,I was catching 2-4 pound bass out of this non managed pond.

Sometimes it does help to bring down the population of the fish to prevent an overrun of smaller fish. "Only the strong survive".

A local pond had a huge fishkill 2 years ago and we all thought it was done for. Well the following winter a Smallmouth too big to get through a 6" hole was caught, the following summer 5-6lb LM were taken. It seems that the kill wiped out all the shallow (10' and less) fish, but fish that were deeper survived (that's the current hypothesis). I know some bucket biologists stocked it as well.

So maybe some fish managed to stay low (on a spring perhaps?) and survived it.