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Month: March 2021

Pruning around the pond: vegetation control is important for lake maintenance

By Matt Ward

There are many aspects to aquatic vegetation and we’ll explore several of them over time with this blog, but here we want to focus on management and control of pond weeds.

Pond weeds control options 22

With everyone receiving their spring pond stocking, it is important to not neglect the vegetation, which may prevent pond managers from getting the most out of their stockings in the year to come. 

Certainly, not all vegetation is a detriment to a healthy fishery and moderate amounts of growth are to be encouraged in some situations. Desirable growth will not detract from your lake’s aesthetics, and will also absorb excess nutrients, reduce erosion, and allow you to effectively fish the lake.

Vegetation in the right amounts can also give small fish a place to grow up and avoid over-predation, and even provide bass with quality ambush points for efficient feeding.

The rest of the time, some form of vegetation management will be in order to maintain the fishery and the overall function of the lake. It’s a good idea to make vegetation management part of your overall pond management and maintenance activities.

Why Manage Vegetation Growth?

Of course there are always functional and aesthetic reasons to control vegetation growth on ponds and lakes. Many good resources are online to help you identify vegetation and learn how to control it, such as Texas A&M’s AgriLife Extension AquaPlant site.

But in a broader sense, control of pond weeds boils down to extending the life of a pond or lake by slowing the aging process (the technical term is eutrophication).

In short, lakes fill up over time with plants and sediment, so controlling vegetation means slowing the fill-in process. This is a long-term benefit of vegetation control but there are many more immediate benefits to good vegetation management.

Dense vegetation growth will actually allow your baitfish to escape predation and make your bass go hungry. A fresh pond stocking of bluegill could very well hide in dense vegetation, preventing your bass from benefiting from the effort.

Healthy bass fisheries usually only have 10% to 15% vegetation coverage. Vegetation should be controlled when coverage hits or exceeds 20% coverage. The right amount of vegetation is especially helpful to fishermen as it will help them easily identify the “fishy” areas of the lake since vegetation provides a simple visual cue for fishermen to target.

Too much vegetation can put too much demand on your dissolved oxygen levels, especially during warm weather or in the presence of a healthy fish population.

Certainly, plants produce oxygen during sunny weather and during the day, but at night and in cloudy weather, plants use oxygen just like all other living organisms. If dissolved oxygen levels fall too far, a fish kill could result.

This kind of kill is especially likely when dealing with floating plants like hyacinth or duckweed, which can literally smother a pond. Interestingly, studies done on dense stands of vegetation have found oxygen levels to be near zero in the heart of the vegetative stand – meaning there can actually be too dense of growth to allow fish to live inside that stand even when the lake in general is perfectly habitable to fish.

Apart from biological reasons to control pond weeds, excess growth can block recreational access, preventing fishermen from having clear casting lanes from the shore or from accessing various portions of a waterbody by boat.

Vegetation can also prevent effective fishing when fishermen spend more time cleaning pond weeds from their lures than actually fishing. This is, of course, particularly frustrating to young anglers.

Begin with the Outcome in Mind

Most discussions on vegetation devolve into management methodology, but never forget that determining the desired outcome is certainly the first step in determining the best strategy to manage your vegetation.

In fishery management we are always encouraged to pursue integrated pest management strategies for best results. Once growth of pond weeds has reached the management threshold (growth exceeds desired level), we want to generally consider three options for management: mechanical, biological, chemical.

Mechanical

If the amount of vegetation that is growing is light or you need to quickly remove growth from a particular area, mechanical control may be the best management option.

Most of the time this would involve raking up vegetation around a dock, removing a few plants that grow up in the wrong location around a lake, or perhaps clearing pond weeds from around a water intake.

In some situations, mechanical harvesters could be employed to remove larger stands of vegetation to open up water and remove some biomass. In general, mechanical removal is labor intensive and results are short lived.

Biological

Next, biological control should be considered.

Triploid grass carp have particular vegetation preferences that should be considered, but in general, these sterile vegetation-eating fish can provide general and non-specific control of vegetation growth.

When stocked at the right level, some vegetation can persist while the bulk of the vegetation stand is reduced. In general, grass carp will take a couple of years to reach their management potential and then may persist in a given water body for up to around 15 years.

It should be known that in certain situations, grass carp will exceed their management objective and need to be removed after introduction in some waters. Excess grass carp prevent all forms of vegetation growth and may muddy the water.

Note that triploid grass carp stocking requires permitting in the state of Texas and must be planned for in advance.

Tilapia offer a second form of biological control. Tilapia are omnivores and do eat plants, but tilapia really shine in their ability to control algae growth.

Each water body is different, but at high densities, algae control has been consistently achieved in a variety of water bodies. Be sure to follow state rules on stocking tilapia, but at the moment no stocking permit is required in Texas.

Do note that tilapia will compete with sunfish to a degree and ultimately reduce your lake’s sunfish carrying capacity.

Tilapia provide a decent alternative forage for bass, but check with your biologist to consider the impact tilapia will have to your water body before stocking. Do note that tilapia are tropical fish that can survive some mild Texas winters (especially in southern Texas), though they generally require annual stockings for their populations to be maintained.

Chemical

In most cases, chemical control will be required to achieve the desired level of vegetation control.

There are a lot of factors to consider in how to approach managing vegetation and algae with chemistry and we will go into this in more detail next week.

Until then, go check on your lakes and ponds and see if you can begin to identify vegetation issues before they start to get out of hand. This is the time of year we can actually get a jump on pond weeds before they get out of control.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management proudly puts more than two decades of experience to work for you. Our team includes biologists, technicians and other professionals with deep expertise in pond and lake management services.

Check us out if you are considering building a lake, looking for pond stocking services, to buy fish for a pond, or getting professional pond management and maintenance or fishery management. Our services include lake design, pond construction, pond renovation, pond water testing, electrofishing, pond stocking, control of pond weeds, and pond liming and fertilizing. Let us help you build your dream pond that will delight your family and friends for generations to come.

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Matt Ward is a Fishery Biologist for Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management. He has a Master of Science in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University and has worked in fisheries management in Texas for 15 years.  He brings a passion for good science and an interdisciplinary approach to the natural sciences to help property managers steward their aquatic resources and achieve management objectives.

2021 can be an epic fishing year if you win one of our free electrofishing surveys

By Lochow Ranch

Time is quickly running out to register to win a free way to gauge your Texas pond or lake’s fish population!

There is just over a week remaining to enter our contest. You might be one of five people to snag a free electrofishing survey for Texas ponds from Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management.

The contest is open to Texas pond owners who want to turn their lakes into an angler’s paradise. Knowing the number and size of species present in your fishing hole, as well as the amount of forage fish available to them, is key to making your pond exceptional.

Electrofishing is safe and effective and a standard way biologists determine fish populations – and it does not harm the fish.

Lochow Ranch uses a custom electrofishing boat with state-of-the-art systems to briefly stun fish in your pond with a mild electrical current. Our experts then examine the fish to determine species, size, health and other characteristics.

A completed survey will give you a clear picture of the fish population in your pond and you will then know exactly what needs to be done to turn it into your dream pond for fantastic fishing.

It’s an important first step in pond and lake maintenance, along with exploring the right way to feed your fish, what sort of pond stocking is best, and options to control pond weeds.

To enter to win a free electrofishing survey, just fill out the entry form before March 31, 2021.

If you are one of five lucky entrants whose name is drawn at random, we’ll conduct an electrofishing survey of your pond this season. You will be well on your way to enjoying your new fishing paradise!

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management proudly puts more than two decades of experience to work for you. Our team includes biologists, technicians and other professionals with deep expertise in pond and lake management services.

Check us out if you are considering building a lake, looking for pond stocking services, buying fish for a pond, or getting professional pond management and maintenance or fishery management. Our services include lake design, pond construction, pond renovation, pond water testing, electrofishing, pond stocking, control of pond weeds, and pond lime and fertilizer application. Let us help you build your dream pond that will delight your family and friends for generations to come.

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Bang for the Buck: Building a premier fishery with pelleted food

By Matt Ward

Fisheries at their most fundamental are a combination of habitat, fish, and people.

The perfect blend of these three ingredients should create a healthy system with plenty and bigger fish for fishermen to target.

Many factors go into creating a successful fishery, but likely the single most efficient step toward improving an angler experience is a fish feeding program.

High Points

After 15 years of doing this job, I already know that some of your eyes are glazing over as the image of little brown pellets of feed flying out over your pond fails to inspire.

But try a few of these facts on for size:

Did you know that when you feed fish with a quality feed their conversion factor can be upward of two pounds of fish food to grow a pound of fish?

Compare that to forage fish, for which bass must consume 10 pounds to generate one pound of body weight.

As for cost, quality fish food can be fairly expensive compared to some other animal feeds. But considering our conversion rates, we can usually grow forage like bluegill for around $2 per pound, which is much less expensive than purchasing bluegill from a hatchery.

In the end quality fish food is about 20 times more efficient than fish stocking when it comes to feeding fish in an established fishery.

Why Does the Type of Feed I Use Matter?

Different fish have different nutrition requirements.

Catfish can often be efficiently grown on relatively inexpensive low protein feed. Higher order predators or insectivores generally thrive on higher protein feed.

At Lochow Ranch, most of our pond management and lake management services and products focus on feeding largemouth, hybrid striped bass, bluegill, and trout, all great choices when pond stocking.

We manufacture a custom feed specially formulated for accelerated fish growth in intensively managed lakes. This feed blend approximates natural foods for target fish.

Testing indicates that quality feed, though more costly than the cheap stuff, will generally grow more fish per dollar spent. In the end, this means that if your goal is growth, you are better off feeding a lesser amount of quality feed than to settle for a bottom shelf bargain.

How Do I Feed?

The key to a successful fish feeding program is consistency.

If you can visit your pond multiple times per day, every day, hand feeding will easily accomplish your purposes of feeding the fish.

For the rest of us, this means using an automatic fish feeder. A quality fish feeder should hold an appropriate amount of feed to allow you to avoid having to constantly fill it. The feeder also should keep the feed dry and work consistently for years with limited repairs.

That being said, even the best feeders will occasionally have issues and require maintenance. Be sure to check your feeder’s operation each time you fill it. Filling and maintaining feeders is standard fare for all of our regular maintenance accounts.

How Much and How Often to Feed

This is a highly subjective decision.

A good biologist will weigh fish density, time of year, type of fish, daylight hours, and a budget to determine how much and how often to feed.  A conversation with a good biologist should help you determine the amount that is appropriate for your pond or lake.

A few general principles apply: First, feed during daylight hours. Feeding during the day avoids allowing predators to grab a quick meal under the cover of darkness.

Fishermen generally visit ponds and lakes during the day so daylight feeding also will encourage the fish to be active when fishermen can most easily target them.

Second, spread feedings out over the day. Fish are similar to us in that they can only digest so much at a time. Feeding multiple times per day is better than all at once.

Third, you should expect your fish to eat more during the warmer months of the year than the cold. Feeding can be turned down during the winter. The one exception to this rule is trout. Trout can feed steadily all winter long.

What About Waste?

If you have fed fish for long, you are no doubt familiar with the occasional sight of a little leftover feed sitting at the edge of the lake.

Most lake owners are immediately concerned about this wasted feed.

But let’s dive into a few other things to consider.

First, know that fish have moods. Being cold blooded, they won’t feed evenly every day of the year. Occasional bits of leftover food are to be expected.

Sometimes fish experience delayed feedings, waiting 15 minutes or more before hitting the feed. Other times leftover feed might indicate that predators are terrorizing your fish. Keep a close eye on the feeders at feeding time and look for birds or otters that might learn to hang around the feeder.

In the vast majority of cases of leftover feed, marginal vegetation and algae is trapping the feed and fish just can’t get to that feed.

Effective management of pond weeds will reduce the growth and most of the time the fish will start cleaning up the remnants. If these reasons are explored and you are getting consistent waste, it’s time to turn down the feedings.

Turn the feeders down slightly and monitor excess feed to find the proper levels.  Make sure to give your fish a couple of weeks to adjust to new feeding levels.  Of course, on the flipside, if your fish are eating all the applied feed you can likely increase feeding levels to boost your fish production.

Fish Follow Food

In the end, fishing requires fish.

The more fish your lake contains, the more fish you will be able to catch when you fish.

If you remember nothing else, remember that fish food is the most cost-effective method we have at boosting the productivity of a given pond or lake. Establish a good feeding program as part of your fishery management and pond stocking plans and your fishing will improve.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management proudly puts more than two decades of experience to work for you. Our team includes biologists, technicians and other professionals with deep expertise in pond and lake management services.

Check us out if you are considering building a lake, looking for pond stocking services, to buy fish for a pond, or getting professional pond management and maintenance or fishery management. Our services include lake design, pond construction, pond renovation, pond water testing, electrofishing, pond stocking, control of pond weeds, and pond liming and fertilizing. Let us help you build your dream pond that will delight your family and friends for generations to come.

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Matt Ward is a Fishery Biologist for Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management. He has a Master of Science in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University and has worked in fisheries management in Texas for 15 years.  He brings a passion for good science and an interdisciplinary approach to the natural sciences to help property managers steward their aquatic resources and achieve management objectives.

Love your lake? Let’s learn what lurks there

By Matt Ward

In order to accomplish great things, we have to take an honest look at where we are and decide on where we want to go.

This is no less true of lake and pond management than it is of life.

Knowing how things are in your pond at any point in time is the only way to be sure of what fishery management steps need to be taken and how a fishery is progressing over time.

Maybe you are planning pond stocking, wondering how pond weeds are affecting your fish, thinking about adding bass or trout, or wondering if you need to add forage fish.

electrofishing services for pond management

The right first step is to assess the current fish population in terms of numbers, types and size.

Multiple assessment tools have been developed over time including gill nets, hoop nets, seining, pole and line, and electrofishing.

All of these methods have a place and have been developed to move fishery analysis from the “yarn” to science. Each of the first four methods are generally biased to a specific type or size of fish, making general assessment difficult.

Electrofishing is the closest thing we have to a broad-spectrum fishery analysis tool. Electrofishing is somewhat biased toward shallow water fisheries, but generally offers the most complete analysis of the widest variety of fish in a given pond or lake.

That’s why we are giving away five free electrofishing surveys to lucky Texas pond owners. There is no better way to learn what lurks in your lake.

What is electrofishing?

Electrofishing involves the application of specific current to a given water body with the goal of temporarily stunning fish in order to safely collect them. Sampled fish are netted and analyzed as needed to assess the fishery.

After analysis, fish are safely returned to the water to swim away unharmed. Equipment to conduct this work is quite sophisticated and requires extensive experience to maximize sampling efficiency and minimize risk to fish. Desired current varies in each fishery, just as conductivity of waters varies across the country.

Electrofishing Arkansas Louisiana Texas Oklahoma

Our electrofishing equipment is optimized for scaled fish and involves a gas generator, which is connected to a rheostat that allows us to cycle between DC/AC, various electrical frequencies, and a wide variety of applied voltages.

These settings are combined with a variety of telemetry equipment that allows us to track amp pulls and the load on our generator at any given point in time. In addition to varying settings on the rheostat, we have a variety of different hardware settings we can use to manipulate our anodes and cathode to optimize our equipment to a given water body.

Electrofishing involves applying very powerful current to water and as such involves significant risk. This risk is managed by crew training and safety policies that ensure the safety of our customers and ourselves.

Be sure to pay attention to safety instructions given prior to an electrofishing survey.

What information is collected?

Sampled fish are recorded for species and relative abundance. Next, the relative size distribution of all species is recorded. Specific gamefish are then measured and weighed to determine their relative body condition. This data is recorded and plotted against standards that have been set in scientific literature.

In addition to these direct observations, every decent fishery manager should be making many secondary observations that are critical to developing management strategies.

These include aquatic vegetation, non-living cover, water temperature, clarity, depths, predator signs, and access. All fishery assessments should also include a basic water quality analysis to check for buffering capacity and nutrient loading.

What information is gleaned from this data?

Fisheries managers use this information to understand the general species composition of a particular fishery.

Combining that with relative size data, managers are able to provide a good understanding of the forage availability for various gamefish. Gamefish data allows for an understanding of the size structure of a population and the relative health of gamefish of various sizes.

Ultimately, this data is used to determine the predator-to-prey ratios and general forage availability. In short, we find out what your fish are eating and if they have enough to eat; if you have enough fish in your lake to enjoy the fishing; if you are getting hit by predators; and the list goes on.

This information allows us to figure out what the best fish to stock would be and how many of those fish could be stocked. This kind of analysis can easily save a pond owner many thousands of dollars per acre that could be wasted by stocking “blind.”

When To Shock

The best time to shock a lake is when you need to understand the state of that fishery.

This can really be done most any time of the year with one general exception. Hot weather is hard on fish, so generally we try to avoid shocking most lakes in the heat of summer (but even this rule has exceptions).

In a perfect world, we shock all lakes annually in the fall to understand trends. The fall is preferred because standard fish data is also collected in the fall giving the best possible picture of the state of a given fishery.

That being said, we shock throughout most of the year to assess loss to predation, the strength of a spawn, fish loss due to a flood, and to conduct selective harvest.

There are also specialty shocking events that can serve specific purposes. My favorite is the pre-spawn shock for largemouth bass. Because largemouth bass females peak in weight and move shallow just before the spawn, this is the best time of year to go looking for trophies!

Final Thoughts

Electrofishing is a very safe method for sampling fish by stunning fish for short periods of time while data is collected. Check out our video of the process here.

Note that fish can occasionally be killed by the stress of electrical shock or by getting hit by the electrofishing boat’s propeller, but this loss is very rare.

Efficiency does vary though, and it should be noted that standard professional electrofishing is highly effective on scaled fish that inhabit shallow water and somewhat less effective on deep water denizens such as crappie or scaleless fish such as catfish.

All in all, if you love your lake, schedule an electrofishing survey and find out how to make your fishery shine.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management proudly puts more than two decades of experience to work for you. Our team includes biologists, technicians and other professionals with deep expertise in pond and lake management services.

Check us out if you are considering building a lake, looking for pond stocking services, to buy fish for a pond, or getting professional pond management and maintenance or fishery management. Our services include lake design, pond construction, pond renovation, pond water testing, electrofishing, pond stocking, control of pond weeds, and pond liming and fertilizing. Let us help you build your dream pond that will delight your family and friends for generations to come.

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Matt Ward is a Fishery Biologist for Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management. He has a Master of Science in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University and has worked in fisheries management in Texas for 15 years.  He brings a passion for good science and an interdisciplinary approach to the natural sciences to help property managers steward their aquatic resources and achieve management objectives.

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