Guys I'm thinking about building a 3 to 5 acre bass pond and when I get done I'm planning on putting lily pads in it, because I love fishing in and around lily pads. Anyone have any info on pads in ponds good or bad. I don't want to ruin my fishery by having lily pads take completely over. Thanks for any info. Lunker

Our 7 acre lake was starting to get taken over by algae a few years ago.  We talked to the State Wildlife and Parks and the recommended buying grass carp.  So we bought whatever number they recommended and put them in that lake.  Wasn't long before the lake was back to normal....and the carp got huge!  Lily pads could be something different though, but you'll still want to make sure you have a good supply of bottom feeders.  Small lakes and ponds can quickly become taken over by algae and pads and all that.

One other thing we do if if there is ever a huge algae bloom, we toss calicum? sulfate around some of the main algae concentrations.  Its kind of like putting salt on your driveway in the winter to melt the ice.  You can pick up big buckets of the stuff at Tractor Supply.

I am not sure, but I would think that bottom depth would have something to do with weed growth. On most of the lakes I fish the wedds tend to end on the edge of a steep drop-off. Hope this helps.

Not sure where you are but you might need to worry about winter kill.

It can be a huge problem in the north. What happens is in the summer you get a huge growth of algae, milfoil, lilly pads, whatever and in the fall it all dies.

Winter rolls around and the pond freezes over. Now all these dead plants are at the bottom of the pond sucking up all the oxygen in the water as they decompose. This can be very bad for your fish.

My uncle has had a pond for years and never had a problem untill a few years back.  Had a HUGE bloom of algae in the summer. When the pond thawed in the spring he had a HUGE bloom of dead fish. I would guess almost every fish in the pond died.

Thanks guys. I'm in Arkansas around Russellville and I plan on making it appox 12 to 15 ft deep. From what I've read pads grow to about 3 ft so deeper than that I hope I'm OK. The dead pad do concern me because in Lake Dardanelle (where I do alot of fishing) There are pads in a few areas and I always notice floating pads or dead ones washed up. My pond won't have the current that this lake does (its a river lake) so i wonder if the dead pads will take oxygen away insted of adding it. I know the shade will help a lot because it gets some kinda hot here in the middle of summer.

grass carp are great to control algea but crawfish do the trick as well + their excellent for the bass. My dads friend has a smallmouth pound that we have pulled state records from but they dont count because their hand feed. too bad because theres 8 pounders in it. He uses crawfish and has never had a problem.

Make shure you stock shiners and fatheads and most inportant is the bluegills.

If you don't have to worry about the lake freezing over for prolonged periods of time, I wouldn't worry about the dead pads. The live ones will provide plenty of oxygen. Even if you have a freeze over, as long as it doesn't last it shouldn't be a problem.

 

There are place on the internet you can find out about ponds ie. google searches also I would talk to some of your local officials.  I have no doubt they have assisted many people about pond building and the do's and don'ts.  Heck, there may even be some tax benefits or grants available to help.  If you look hard enough you can find out this type of information.