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Our project with Bassmaster: Electrofishing in action

August 31, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

In episode 2 of our Bassmaster project, we find out what lurks in the depths of “Lake Y.”

You can see an electrofishing survey in action as we categorize the fish population of the anonymous 56-acre creek-fed lake in Alabama.

Click here to check out episode 2 of our video series with Bassmaster, “The Lake Y Project.”

Bassmaster pond management 08

Lochow Ranch president John Jones chats with James Hall, editor-in-chief of Bassmaster Magazine, to discuss the species, sizes and weights of fish found during the survey.

Electrofishing briefly shocks and paralyzes fish and allows for a lake management inventory of the population to be created.

John first studied Lake Y with a walkabout, identifying problems and opportunities. John advised Lake Y owners start an improvement strategy with satellite photos identifying other water body influences and an examination of the lake’s history: when it was built, watershed influences and management approaches. He identified Lake Y as being off color and in a shallow ravine with a small dam.

His visual assessment also included evidence of otters, and identified issues surrounding the lake’s number and condition of boats, fish feeders and spillway.

Bassmaster says Lake Y “could well represent the majority of small lakes and ponds scattered throughout the country.” And, indeed, that’s exactly what John found after analyzing the data his team collected during the electrofishing survey.

“Really, this is a very average lake,” John said, “which is a great starting point. This is what people are dealing with all over America. You’re overpopulated with small stunted bass, not horrifically so but certainly so. You have all the right species in the lake. In addition, you have some species that, we’ll call them undesirable, stuff that’s not really adding to production.

“I feel like we got great data today,” he added.

There are lots of variations of electrofishing boats, John explained, but Lochow Ranch “basically builds ours in-house.” A generator using between 10-50 amps pushes about 10,000 volts through cables attached to the boat. The current puts fish in a state of temporary paralysis and allows for easy collection and analysis.

One survey will produce a dataset of about 3-5% of the lake. Lochow’s teams use it daily both for exploring new populations as well as for managing existing populations. Multiple electrofishing surveys over time will allow for an even more complete picture.

It’s an excellent tool for correcting an out-of-balance pond. Stunted fish or unwanted species can be easily and quickly removed as part of the service. And the survey acts as the reference point for a long-term pond management plan and provides clues for corrective stocking and harvest recommendations.

While on the boat, Lee Schoech, one of our fisheries biologists, identified several species, including largemouth bass; freshwater drum (which indicated the creek is substantial); channel catfish; carp; threadfin shad and gizzard shad; bluegill; crappie; redear sunfish; longnose gar and spotted gar among them.

Lee rubbed swabs on the tongues of the fish to get their genetic profile and establish a baseline for the fishery.

Asked about his gut feeling on Lake Y, John says, “I’m going to enjoy this project. … I believe this lake is going to take just some very traditional improvements. It’s going to do a heavy feeding program, a quality stocking program. We’re going to look at the genetics on the fish.”

But in the next episode, Lochow and Bassmaster are going to focus on ways to add structures and cover to the lake and create much-needed habitats to increase productivity. The structures also create areas where fishermen know they can find fish.

Capping off the episode, James asked John about some of the craziest things John has shocked up in his career of electrofishing surveys.

The largest largemouth bass he’s personally shocked was 19.1 pounds, John replied, as well as a lot of fish in the 15-16-pound category. He’s pulled alligator gar he believes were well over the state record; blue and yellow cats approaching triple digits; and goldfish over 10 pounds.

Aquarium fish such piranha are always a surprise, but the cormorants, alligators and the 60-70-pound beaver were also very memorable, he said laughing.

Interested in getting your own pond assessment? Get in touch to schedule yours today!

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.

Avoiding Noxious Algae: What to do when blue-green algae shows up in your lake or pond

August 23, 2021

A study of Water Quality – By Matt Ward

Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae is a large group of photosynthesizing organisms that are more closely related to bacteria than to green algae or pond weeds. These organisms disrupt water quality by producing harmful toxins.

Technically this means that they are in a category of their own and have attributes that make them and their management unique.

This article will discuss cyanobacteria and their management, touching on major concerns and primary management techniques.

Blue-Green Algae Concerns

After the death of some dogs that drank water tainted with blue-green algae in Texas lakes in 2019, blue-green hysteria seemed to strike the country.

Concerned dog-owners quit allowing their dogs to enter our public waterways or drink from untreated surface water. The truth is that all surface waters contain some amount of blue-green algae and many of these algae are able to produce toxins that can be harmful or even fatal to living organisms that absorb those toxins.

Most intake is through drinking though theoretically enough toxin could be absorbed through the skin to cause harm. In short any water body could have blue-green algae toxin in them and cause harm to animals that use those waters.

That being said, problems are most common when blue-green algae growth is dense. This growth can produce turquoise or emerald green film or sludge, dark green matted algae, particulate plankton aggregates, or many other forms of singular or collective cellular growth.

This growth is typically accompanied by strong smells and is almost universally judged as unsightly. Dense cyanobacteria growth always has the potential to suddenly release cyanotoxins which in turn can produce acute and chronic health consequences for other living organisms including fish and mammals.

Ultimately if your water body has dense cyanobacteria growth, fish and mammals that utilize that water are potentially at risk. If you don’t have that dense obvious growth the risk is greater than zero, but certainly reduced.

Particularities of Blue-Green Algae

Blue-green algae has a handful of attributes that lake managers need to understand to better manage its growth.

First, blue-green algae loves phosphorus. In scientific terms, low N/P (nitrogen to phosphorus) ratios favor blue-green algae over vegetative and green algae growth. Practically speaking this means that when fertilizers containing phosphorus are applied to a watershed, or manure builds up in the same, phosphorus levels will peak along with blue-green algae growth.

Second, even in the absence of excess phosphorus, blue-green algae have adapted to their environment by developing a phosphorus-mining technique. To do this, filamentous blue-green algae will smother the substrate, causing the pH to drop along this interface which in turn releases phosphorus from the sediment where it is commonly found.

Regardless of how the phosphorus ends up in the water column, blue-green algae soaks it up and grows extremely rapidly in the absence of competition. This means that ponds that have a lack of beneficial growth will tend to grow more cyanobacteria than those that do.

Finally, blue-green algae grows perfectly well in extremely hot water and while other plants slow their growth in the middle of the summer. This leads blue-green algaes to experience peak growth in mid-summer.

Management Objectives

The first step in managing blue-green algae is to kill excessive growth when it shows up.

Treatments can be done with various copper formulations but may also be done with various peroxide based chemistries. Growth forms will dictate which product and what formulation is best but know that granular and liquid products are needed in different situations.

It is also important to note that sometimes when algae is treated it can actually release toxins into the water column as it dies. This is where peroxide-based chemistry is particularly useful as peroxides are able to actually neutralize some of the algal toxins.

Proactively speaking there are two main approaches to managing blue-green algae growth.

First, N/P ratios can be manipulated and, second, total phosphorus can be reduced.

Many articles have been written about manipulating the N/P ratios in a given fishery. But in our experience it is seldom that adding some nitrogen to a waterbody suddenly shifts blue-green algae growth to green algae or vascular vegetation. More commonly, reducing phosphorus is key to pushing the N/P ratio in a positive direction and reducing the amount of blue-green algae growth a lake experiences.

There are three methods for accomplishing this:

Take steps to limit phosphorus inputs by reducing livestock densities and reducing fertilizer applications in watersheds.
Remove phosphorous that does end up in a lake through mineral sequestration via applications of aluminum sulfate or lanthanum bentonite or through uptake by beneficial aquatic vegetation.
Limit phosphorus levels by aerating a lake to prevent anaerobic conditions on the sediment interface.

Vigilant Algae Control

Keep an eye out for blue-green algae and if you have it take steps to reduce the growth. Treat excessive growth, limit phosphorus inputs, and when growth is dense keep your livestock off the pond or lake. Management of blue-green algae growth is a key to pond management success and maintaining a healthy water body.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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.

Our project with Bassmaster: Will Lake Y become a bass fishing heaven?

July 14, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

Turning an average, underperforming lake into bass fishing heaven requires some thought, planning and know-how.

Getting those details right is the goal of our new project with Bassmaster, “The Lake Y Project.”

The resulting project is a complete video series, which just aired its first episode at: https://www.bassmaster.com/lakey

The series examines how we tackle Lake Y, an anonymous 56-acre creek-fed lake in Alabama. Bassmaster says Lake Y “could well represent the majority of small lakes and ponds scattered throughout the country.”

In Episode 1, James Hall, editor-in-chief of Bassmaster Magazine, introduces the project with our president, John Jones.

John first studied Lake Y in the spring and did a walkabout, identifying problems and opportunities.

Overall, John says “there are a lot of chances to grow a lot of fish,” but Lake Y also has a lot of problems that need to be addressed.

“Left unmanaged, small fisheries, say from 3 to 100 acres, can get out of balance a lot faster than you would imagine,” Bassmaster explains in its series description.

“Bass can become scarce from predation of other critters, or worse, overpopulate a lake and stunt. Non-desirable species (at least to hardcore bass anglers), like catfish, gar and carp, can create such a biomass in limited space that largemouth simply cannot thrive. Cover and structure can deteriorate, vegetation can choke out open water and water quality can become unbearable for fish in a matter of a few years.”

In the video, John advises that Lake Y owners start an improvement strategy with satellite photos identifying other water body influences and an examination of the lake’s history: when it was built, watershed influences and management approaches. He identified Lake Y as being off color and in a shallow ravine with a small dam.

A lot of people find a great dam site, John explains, but they don’t put money into deepening the lake, which could have cost 10 times as much. But that doesn’t have to be a hindrance, he adds.

His visual assessment also included evidence of otters, and identified issues surrounding the lake’s number and condition of boats, fish feeders and spillway.

It’s a beautiful lake, John says, but multi-owner lakes (as this one appears to be) have to be handled very differently, and multiple ownership could be a help or a hindrance with different priorities. Among many other observations, he also notes the creek could present some challenges with species diversity, and managers should probably come up with a catfish control program.

John notes, “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great lake, but money speeds things up.” He says he asks customers to give him a budget or a timetable for goals. Now that the visual assessment is complete, the next Lake Y episode will focus on its electrofishing survey.

Electrofishing uses an electric current to briefly stun the fish population. This then allows for an accurate assessment of species, size, relative abundance and growth rates of a lake’s fish.

“In the end, we hope to inspire you to not settle for unimpressive or average fishing, because you can do something about it,” Bassmaster says.

Interested in getting your own pond assessment? Get in touch to schedule yours today!

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Fish Kills: What to watch out for as summer heats up

June 23, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

Summer is officially here, and all lakes and ponds are at an increased risk of a fish kill.

While they are not necessarily common or completely preventable, it is good to be advised on what can happen and what to look for because lately we’ve had a sharp increase in fish kill calls.

By far, the overall most common cause of fish kills is lack of oxygen and summer is the deadliest season.

During the summertime as air temperature and length of day increases, most lakes (if not fed by a well) begin their annual drop in water level.

Surface water becomes super-heated during the day and since water density decreases as temperature increases, stratification or separation between water masses at a thermocline occurs.

That is the cold water you feel at six or so feet deep. Little to no mixing occurs below the thermocline, which results in the water below the thermocline becoming anoxic or depleted of oxygen.

Depending on the surface area to volume ratio of your lake, this stratification is currently occurring to some degree, except in lakes that have appropriately sized subsurface aeration systems.

These conditions put lakes at an increased risk of a fish kill.

Other anoxic conditions can occur when weather changes drastically, for example during big rain events or very windy days lakes can experience a turnover. This normally happens because high amounts of rain can super-cool surface water causing it to sink, which causes the anoxic bottom water to come to the surface.

The combination of sharp changes in temperature and low oxygen levels can cause a fish kill. Small deep lakes with large watersheds have the highest risk of a turnover-related fish kill.

Some other causes of fish kills are:

very dense plankton blooms or green water
blue-green algae blooms, which produce toxins
weed decay, which uses oxygen
excessively dense weed growth, which consumes too much oxygen overnight

Lakes that have dense phytoplankton blooms are also at risk of a fish kill. If the phytoplankton biomass exceeds a critical level there can be a simultaneous rapid die off. The resulting bacterial oxygen usage from the decomposition of algal cells can reduce oxygen levels low enough to kill fish.

Extended periods of overcast skies and increased turbidity from rain events can also cause a rapid die off of phytoplankton.

All lakes, including those with subsurface aeration, are at risk of this type of fish kill. Closely monitoring water color and taking visibility readings using a Secchi disk can help with management decisions. Assessing summer kill causes and weed control are among the most vital management duties.

Certain corrective measures can be taken to reduce phytoplankton density but must be done so proactively.

As always, please let us know if you notice something “off” with your lake, especially during these hot still days.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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Leave it to Beaver? Not when it comes to your lake

May 26, 2021

By Matt Ward

As lake managers we get any number of calls from clients about somewhat offbeat subjects. One of those call subjects is beavers and what to do about them.

The largest rodent in North America, the American beaver is a common resident of ponds and lakes across the state. Most of the time they tend to go undetected until a favorite tree gets felled or someone steps through a collapsed den access tunnel.

In less common circumstances, the client’s call might come after a beaver dam has failed and caused major damage to a lake. We have seen enough of those to say that paying attention to beavers is a worthwhile lake management activity. Here is a brief discussion of the things you should consider when it comes to beavers.

Basic Beaver Biology

Since the fur trade knocked beaver numbers back in the 80s, beavers have come roaring back and are found on all kinds of lakes and ponds across the state.

Beavers sometimes build showy lodges that you can see from a half mile away. But other times they will simply build dens into available dirt embankments with little sign other than submersed tunnel access.

Beaver dens are hollowed out areas (whether in a lodge or dirt embankment) that are above the water line with an access tunnel that is below the waterline. This design protects beavers from predation allowing them to rest and raise pups in peace.

Beavers are vegetarian, focusing their forage efforts on the living tissues of trees. Most of their food comes from the living tissue from felled trees though they will occasionally consume roots and other plant material.

A sure sign of an active beaver are freshly chewed branches from which all the living tissue has been removed. The leftover wood is often incorporated into lodges or dams to improve those structures.

Beavers use dams to impound water for safety. Ponds and lakes are easy places for beavers to avoid predators and beavers have a natural propensity to plug flowing waters with earthen dams that are reinforced with felled wood.

Beavers can be active at any time of day, but often seem to be most active at night. They will fell a wide variety of sizes and species of trees. These trees are generally felled near water though we have seen cases of beavers attacking large trees hundreds of yards from the nearest water.

You might notice this post doesn’t include pictures of actual beavers. The one at the top is actually a public pic from a free photo web site, not one of our work sites. That is the norm. Beavers are generally secretive and not easy to spot. So look for their sign and don’t wait to see the critter in person. Detecting problems early is always the best policy.

Now that we have the basics on beaver biology, let’s look at the main management concerns for lake owners.

Fish Worries?

This one is easy. Beavers don’t eat fish so you don’t have worry about losing fish directly to beaver consumption. If you have lost fish recently you are probably dealing with otters. Otters might live in an old beaver lodge but no need to blame the beavers if the squatters are the problem.

Dam Damage

A stopped-up drainpipe or a sudden failure of a beaver dam on a spillway can cause incredible structural damage to a well-designed lake. This kind of damage is very expensive to address and should be avoided through careful and regular inspection of lake overflow structures.

A beaver’s need to dam flowing water is instinctual. Beavers hear flowing water and naturally want to stop it up. So they shove sticks and mud into overflow pipes and build dams across spillways. Lake managers need to inspect their overflow structures and make sure that beavers don’t plug them up.

Targeting Trees

Beavers generally chew down small trees but we have certainly seen them go after trees of up to 30” in diameter.

Often times they select our favorite trees and really damage the aesthetics of a well landscaped pond.

Many times the first sign of a beaver will be a freshly chewed tree. Check the trees that grow along the shoreline and note any fresh chew marks. Beavers typically will spend multiple nights chewing down large trees though we have seen them take down dozens in a single night.

Be sure to protect any prized trees near your pond with a wrapping of hardware cloth. Encircle the entire tree and adjust the covering from time to time to ensure that you don’t constrict the tree and that the wire doesn’t come loose. Use regular tree inspections as a simple tool to look for any new infestations of beavers.

Lodging and Tunnels

Lodging and tunnels are an excellent way to find a beaver infestation.

These tunnels create a collapse hazard for people that walk over them but also contribute to erosion in steep banks. If you don’t see a defined lodge look for piles of sticks or tunnels into earthen embankments. Note that tunnels are often concealed under overhanging branches or a dock so you might need to pay attention to access channels that appear as cleared channels through weed beds to locate an obscured den.

In short, keep an eye out for beavers to avoid the expensive headaches they can produce. If you detect them get a professional opinion about the threat they pose to your lake or pond. Beavers can be fun to watch but can also be a drain on the pocketbook. Trapping services are not inexpensive but are certainly more cost effective than repairing structural damage to a dam.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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Ready for the season? Get those fish stocking orders in soon

May 20, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

You might already be picturing your trophy bass Instagram snaps. But before that happens, it’s time to get your stocking plans set for the season and address any issues with your pond or lake’s inhabitants.

Springtime is a great time to assess your pond’s fish populations to ensure you’ll have decades of good fishing ahead.

As waters start to warm as we head into summer, we recommend moving forward with spring stocking orders in the next couple of weeks. That’s especially true for supplemental forage or Florida Bass fingerlings.

Balancing prey to predators for strong growth rates requires expert analysis of your pond management and fish stocking needs.

Our team of pond stocking technicians, biologists and other professionals at Lochow Ranch Pond and Lake Management can help you plan the perfect mix for your particular conditions and goals for your lake.

Fish stocking has been practiced for hundreds of years, and a lot of thought should be put into selecting types of fish, as well as whether to introduce non-native species.

What fish will work best in your pond or lake involves many variables, including its size, your goals, and other factors. Very small ponds under one acre have special considerations, and so do very large lakes of many acres. They must be stocked and managed in different ways and present distinct challenges.

A fish population analysis through electrofishing or gill netting will determine which species need to be stocked to bring your lake to its true trophy-growing potential.

Our experts create a recommended fish stocking plan that takes into account your lake size, location, health and condition as well as your desires. Lochow offers all of the region’s most popular species of fish, such as bass, trout, sunfish, catfish, forage fish and many other species.

If you are noticing nuisance vegetation growing, this is also the right time to schedule treatments, and we offer a complete range of traditional options and natural biological alternatives based on your needs, desires and our years of expertise in dealing with similar bodies of water around Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas.

Whether you want a lake completely free of weeds, or perhaps a 25 percent vegetation coverage to promote fish growth, our comprehensive vegetation control programs offer affordable and effective solutions to vegetation control and management issues that threaten the health of your pond, its fish and the desirable plant life in it.

For landowners who want to create their own fishery experience, we provide a complete, unmatched expert menu, from construction with an initial fish stocking plan to long-term pond management.

And after all the technical aspects of your fishing hole are well taken care of, please share those great Instagram snaps with us!

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Maximize your fishery’s health by working with water

May 13, 2021

By Matt Ward

Water health needs to be managed just like fish and plant life health. In the first of these posts about water quality, I discussed the issues of water turbidity and nutrient control, both critical issues for a healthy fishery.

This week we’ll take a look at water alkalinity and hardness, two more pond water testing factors to be aware of as you look to maximize the health of your lake or pond.

Alkalinity

All lakes and ponds experience daily fluctuations in pH and this fluctuation can put stress on fisheries which in certain cases can lead to lower productivity or even minor kills.

Alkalinity is a measure of your waterbody’s ability to buffer (read “stabilize) natural daily pH swings and will certainly contribute to primary productivity (which ultimately results in gamefish biomass). Alkalinity is generally raised by adding agricultural lime to a pond or lake.

In general, alkalinity should be maintained above 25 mg/mL but would best be maintained in the ideal range of 50-200 mg/mL.

That being said, some lake’s watersheds are so large or lake subsoils so acidic that it is impractical to adjust alkalinity. In these cases costs and benefits will need to be weighed and other sources of productivity (like pelleted fish food) will need to be considered to promote good productivity in a fishery.

Also, lower water quality in the form of lower alkalinity can be better tolerated by certain fish species. Know your water’s alkalinity, adjust it if you can, and then work as best as you can with what you have.

Interestingly, I have noticed that alkalinity seems to be less and less of an issue as more and more ag lime has been applied to pastures especially across the eastern half of the state. This agriculture effort has certainly improved water quality in a large number of private fisheries.

Hardness

Hardness can be simplified to approximate the calcium content of a given water body. Fishery management is best served by adjusting hardness to promote good fish growth. Calcium is important for the development of bone and shell in living organisms and minimum levels are needed to promote their formation. Ideal hardness would be in the 50-200 mg/mL but again, the practicality of adjusting hardness should be weighed against the cost to do so.

To raise hardness you can add gypsum or agricultural lime to a given lake. In lakes with adequate or even high alkalinity, but low net hardness, hardness can be raised without affecting alkalinity by adding gypsum. If hardness and alkalinity are both low, just add ag lime. In lakes where water quality amendments are impractical, consider that fish can obtain calcium from their food.

A Note on Vegetation and Algae

Interestingly, hardness and alkalinity also affect vegetation and algae growth in significant ways.

Though most fishery managers think of water quality management as a tool to boost fish production, water quality parameters sometimes need to be manipulated to promote shifts in aquatic plant and algae communities to better support existing fisheries.

Minding water quality

Water quality involves a variety of factors that must be considered in fishery management and lake and pond management. We haven’t covered all the different things that you might need to consider but hopefully this discussion has given you some food for thought. When fisheries don’t perform the way we expect them to, consider pond water testing and get some professional advice. Your fish will thank you.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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Liquid assets: managing water quality for healthier fish

May 6, 2021

By Matt Ward

In the interest of full disclosure it should be noted that my academic background is in biochemistry so I get pretty excited about water quality issues. That being said, this stuff really is important even if the details can’t quite inspire excitement like trophy largemouth.

Water quality issues across the nation go largely ignored as lake managers continue to reactively treat the symptoms of poor water quality.

Time after time, pond weeds and algae growth run rampant while water quality issues that drive this growth are not addressed. Fish kills occur and aeration systems are installed all while water quality issues that should be addressed go ignored.

Sometimes a little water quality work is all it takes to transform a water body and generate a healthy fishery with lower net annual input requirements. In other cases, fundamental water quality issues need to be addressed for fishery management techniques to even stand a chance. Let’s take a look at the four most important pond water testing parameters and how they can be adjusted to create a healthy fishery.

Turbidity

Turbidity represents the ability of a water body to absorb light that penetrates the surface. Turbidity is measured by peering into a pond or lake and determining the depth at which a highly contrasting object (professionally we use a secchi disk) disappears from view.

This depth is reported as the lake or pond’s visibility or turbidity. Turbidity is generally caused by one of two factors (though turbidity can certainly be altered with commercially available dyes): plankton or suspended solids (especially clays).

Turbidity from plankton represents primary productivity in an aquatic system and is generally desirable in most cases.

A highly productive pond or lake should have 18-24 inches of visibility. This level of turbidity will support high levels of fish production while avoiding increased risk of a plankton bloom crash which could easily lead to a fish kill. If a given lake has substantially less than 18 inches of visibility steps should be taken to reduce plankton production to protect the fishery.

Turbidity caused by suspended solids like clay particles are another story. Muddy water shades out the bottom sediments and supports low levels of primary productivity. A pond with turbidity from suspended solids will not support as great of a fish population as a similar pond with lower turbidity. This pond should generally be cleared.

To settle out turbid water, a clearing test should be run to determine how your water can be cleared. Most muddy water can be cleared with a flocculent like aluminum sulfate, but some waters are simply muddy from getting stirred up by cattle or even an overabundance of bottom fish like catfish or carp. In some cases a pond will need to be killed out in order to reset the fish populations and enable better water clarity to prevail, other times agricultural practices may need to be modified a bit to decrease turbidity.

Nutrients

The next water quality factor we’ll consider are nutrients. Ponds and lakes are nutrient sinks. All the basic nutrients in the landscape run down hill with the rainwater and end up in the pond.

In some cases, nutrient levels are low and a fishery’s productivity will need to be improved through fertilization. But in many other cases too much inflow means that pond managers must deal with endless cycles of growth of vegetation, algae, or phytoplankton.

In extreme cases, excess nutrients can lead to regular fish kills as excessive growth can easily absorb too much oxygen during the night or during cloudy weather. Excess growth can be temporarily reduced by targeted treatments, but ultimately growth should be curtailed by nutrient management.

The first step in managing nutrients is to understand where the bulk of a pond or lake’s excess nutrients are coming from. The most likely sources are applied fertilizers (both inorganic and organic), high nutrient well water, and direct animal waste.

Mitigation is both direct and indirect. Direct management might include applying fertilizers farther back from the pond, leaving a band of unfertilized shoreline around the pond or lake. It might call for reducing the fertilizer application rate or reducing the amount of well water inputs you use or even drilling another well to tap into a different aquifer. Other direct management techniques could involve herd control such as reducing herds or fencing them off of the pond or lake.

Indirect management, on the other hand, seeks to absorb the nutrients that are coming into the water body. This type of management might include establishing a buffer of marginal vegetation or other beneficial aquatic plants to soak up available nutrients. Another technique is to stocking forage that takes better advantage of phytoplankton helping to convert plankton bloom into fish biomass.

Another indirect technique is to apply inorganic minerals that deactivate nutrients like phosphorous, or using activated charcoal to directly absorb dissolved nutrients.

Some pond managers prefer to use aeration and micronutrients to create a better environment for beneficial bacteria that can also be used to process excess nutrients.

Nutrient management isn’t rocket science but best management practices will normally require a little professional direction. It’s important to prioritize the right management tools in your specific situation to best impact nutrient loading.

We’ll continue exploring water quality and pond water testing as part of comprehensive lake and pond management in next week’s posting, focusing on alkalinity and water hardness.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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Fishery tips: Prepping your fishing lake for a great season

April 27, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

Fishery management experts know that year-round pond and lake maintenance is key to keeping your favorite fishing pond healthy and productive.

The leading reasons the equilibrium in your lake could be off include over- and under-harvesting of predator fish, introduction of undesirable fish species, and summer kills, as well as excessive weeds, poor water quality and lack of fertilization.

Qualified experts like those at Lochow Ranch Pond & Lake Management can help turn around a failing fishery or enhance a stable one by addressing these various issues in an annual plan that tracks progress and addresses needs.

Otherwise, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service warns that Texas farm ponds aren’t managed at their highest potential for fish production.

Lochow Ranch can assess fishery populations using nets or shocking equipment and use state-of-the-art equipment to collect data and determine the precise program for getting your body of water back on track.

Surveying Your Pond’s Population

An excellent way to begin is with an electrofishing survey, which is a primary tool for correcting an out-of-balance pond.

These surveys accurately assess current forage and sport fish populations and quantify wintertime Cormorant or otter damage. Fish populations also are sampled to determine species, size, relative abundance and growth rates. Click here to learn more.

Planning Pond Stocking

Pond stocking is another important consideration when you want to maximize the potential for your fishery.

What kinds of fish will work best in your pond involves many variables, including your own goals for your pond or lake. For example, you need to carefully assess the impact of introducing non-native species into your pond. It’s important to be aware of the fish types that can live together in harmony so your pond can sustain a healthy ecosystem. Learn more by clicking here.

Getting a grip on pond weeds

Aquatic vegetation is the cause of 80 percent of low dissolved oxygen fish kills in Texas. And the issues are complex enough that expert advice is recommended.

As we detailed in a series of recent postings about pond vegetation control, there are a range of vegetation control techniques. Mechanical controls include pruning and cutting back pond weeds. Biological controls include introducing grass carp and tilapia, two types of vegetation-eating fish. Chemical means of vegetation control include herbicides and algaecides.

Click here to learn more about how the experts at Lochow Ranch can plan appropriate vegetation control for your lake or pond.

Fertilizing your fishery

Just as you would fertilize fields to increase crop yields, you should fertilize a pond or lake to provide phytoplankton with adequate nutrients for fish growth.

Proper fertilization increases food availability throughout the food chain and indirectly increases the total amount of fish a pond can support. Ponds should be limed before fertilizer is applied, which is important because it increases pH and alkalinity.

Even without fertilization, this may improve available nutrients which can support a phytoplankton bloom. Click here to learn more.

Adding aeration

In order to avoid problems, pond and lake owners also should be inspecting aeration and fountain maintenance or considering their implementation.

Repairs could address obvious signs of wear or just the cleaning of filters and screens. Lochow offers a range of aeration systems and fountain systems for ensuring your pond’s oxygen levels are optimal.

Plan for a great year

Our team of fishery management experts are standing by to help you make the most of your fishing pond. Whether you are looking for pond water testing, pond stocking, fishery management, pond renovation or new pond construction, we can help. A great lake can be a legacy that will be enjoyed by friends and family for generations to come. Fill out the form to get started today!

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

Click here to get in touch to get started today.

Forage for your fishery: key spring lake management tips

April 22, 2021

By Lochow Ranch

As our ponds pull out of the winter cold and begin to heat up, our gamefish metabolisms rise, and the spring glut is on.

Forage populations generally take a pretty big hit over the winter. Depending on the lake, the spring glut can have a lasting impact on forage and the predators that consume them.

Forage fish are generally smaller fish or crawfish that are the food source for your larger gamefish, such as bass.

Between diving cormorants and pelicans and continual predation by largemouth bass, peak forage populations of the fall season are heavily depressed and must rebound in order for lakes to maintain peak production.

This week, we’ll take a look at some common forage management issues and how to resolve them as part of your fishery management plan.

Goal-Oriented Management

As with most aspects of fishery management, establishing your fishery’s goals is paramount to determining your overarching pond and lake management strategies.

Is your primary target feed-trained bass? Do you mostly care about hybrid stripers? If so, forage fish may not matter a whole lot for your fish. Sure, healthy forage always benefits gamefish, but fish that consume pelleted feed can pretty easily shift their diet away from forage whenever populations are depressed.

If your target species are trophy Florida Largemouth Bass, native non-feed trained bass, or crappie, forage populations are essential.

Let’s take a look at the main forage species for each target gamefish and see how their populations can be managed for the greatest possible impact.

Target Fisheries

Trophy Florida Largemouth Bass

Trophy bass require good forage availability throughout their lives to achieve the outsized proportions for which they are so prized.

Good trophy management requires regular monitoring and rapid intervention if forage populations crash. Generally, these fisheries will rely primarily on bluegill, shad, and crawfish in that order of importance, with additional forage support from redear sunfish, golden shiners, silversides, and in some cases tilapia.

Having some diversity in your forage species helps to provide food for bass as certain populations experience natural fluctuations.

It is important to have good forage diversity in both species and especially size. To ensure all of your bass have plenty of food, careful and regular analysis of small, medium, large, and jumbo-sized forage should be made to determine if your forage is adequately supporting your lake’s bass.

Early in life, bass consume all sorts of fry (recently hatched fish). As they grow their diets shift to small sunfish and fry. In the next stage of life, threadfin shad can really make a huge difference in pushing bass growth. These fish combine with medium sunfish and medium shiners to supply bass to a couple of pounds in weight.

Next your bass will shift to eating large sunfish, threadfin shad, shiners, goldfish, and crawfish. Finally, if all goes well, bass begin to push into the trophy stage where they will continue to consume the latter forage but also begin to take larger meals, which could include jumbo sunfish, gizzard shad, jumbo golden shiners, larger goldfish, trout, and any other large fish they can swallow.

These various forage populations should be supported through supplemental feeding, habitat management, and pond stocking as appropriate.

Non-Feed-Trained Largemouth Bass

Even if you aren’t trying to grow the next world record, home-grown bass fisheries still need adequate forage to develop good populations of healthy fish.

Keep an eye on your forage and develop good populations of fish fry, and small, medium, and large forage.

Most forage is principally helpful in the 1-4” range, with some benefit being had from forage up to 6” in length. In general, forage above 6” in length are too large to serve as much benefit to your average native bass, which generally tops out around 7 pounds in weight.

Threadfin shad are excellent supplemental forage for spring stockings with golden shiners a close second. Golden shiners and goldfish are excellent supplements in the fall.

Once established, bluegill and redear should generally be maintained in perpetuity in well managed fisheries (assuming you don’t have a bunch of hungry cormorants or pelicans land on your lake) and generally won’t need to be restocked.

Crappie

Crappie are notorious for boom and bust reproductive cycles and slow growth.

Care must be taken to help these fish have plenty of food at the right times. Generally, fish fry, silversides, small threadfin shad, small shiners, and small sunfish are paramount to a healthy forage supply.

Large forage will actually remove the food base for these smaller fish, which would depress their numbers and easily result in stunted crappie.

Forage Specific Management

Regardless of your desired outcome, a few key factors must be considered in order for forage to thrive. Let’s take a look at three primary factors, habitat, food, and predation.

Good Habitat

First, habitat must be maintained to provide shelter for some of your forage.

This helps a given lake maintain a breeding population of various forms of forage. Habitat like cover is particularly important for bluegill and redear sunfish. Generally good habitat will involve some beneficial vegetation and some non-living habitat like felled trees or artificial structures. Habitat for open water schooling fish is just going to be that, expanses of open water where they can shelter by schooling together.

Food For Forage

Second, forage food must be plentiful for strong populations.

Sunfish diets can be supplemented with fish food as can that of golden shiners and tilapia. Otherwise, healthy populations of aquatic insects and fish fry are necessary to maintain those populations. Threadfin shad are planktivores and a healthy plankton bloom is essential for these fish to thrive and achieve their potential.

Moderate Predation

While we certainly grow forage to be eaten, we want predation to be commensurate with forage populations.

If the right number of gamefish is maintained, forage numbers will stay high and gamefish will thrive. If predator populations exceed what the forage base can support, forage populations will crash.

Be sure to conduct the necessary annual harvest of predatory fish to ensure that forage populations thrive. It goes without saying that no fishery can sustainably support predation from huge flocks of avian predators without some supplemental stocking from time to time.

Plan Forage For Your Dream Fishery

Forage matters. Know what forage your preferred gamefish need and make sure you have stocked the right species. Make it a regular part of your fishery management and pond stocking plans.

Assess your lake forage on a regular basis and adjust management strategies to promote healthy forage populations.

Adjust the habitat as needed, keep your forage fed, and limit predation as appropriate.

Your lake will thank you with smiles and your fish will thrive.

Why Choose Lochow Ranch for Pond & Lake Management

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