johnboy " not all fish float when dead."
FWIW,,,
So many of 'your' (everybody's) pond questions, can simply be answered with the purchase of a SNORKEL, MASK & FINS! ;>)
My Sportsman Club now owns about 1500+- acres with 4 large 100-250 acre stocked strip lakes,,, plus 3 small, deep 'ponds'.
I snorkeled there, most of my life,,, I probably covered every sq ft in 3 of those lakes.
Some of my observations;
We/ the club would stock thousands of white bass for summer time fishing , & 2 months later they would all be gone. I would dive down & find them all over the bottom, DEAD. We're STILL not totally sure why. maybe Heat?
Pond/ lake building?
#1 mistake.?
In the beginning, the strip pits were totally void of weeds & structure. So The board decided to plant aqua grasses. Oooops WRONG TYPE OF GRASS!?
It didn't take many years for the crystal clear water to allow those 'grasses' to choke the WHOLE LAKE! Those healthy sun-soaked grasses grew all the way down to the bottom,,,, 33' DEEP!
Now, we couldn't bottom fish at all! We couldn't even cast! heck,,,, we couldn't even get a boat through the surface crap/ carpets in mid-summer! (lol,,, like fishing Mosquito AFTER a bass contest!!!;>)
& We had so many cattails choking the shallow 20 acre flats,,,, back by our overflow, that the lake would over-fill causing dock issues. The water elevation kept getting higher & higher each year.
#2 mistake? Then came $$$$$ Chemicals. Trying to slow those weeds down. NOPE, that didn't work! Just 'Throwing the money away'! Years & Years of treatment didn't put a dent in them!
#3 ??? Next came the OVER stocking of amurs,,,,, (hey Gary, was it 500 or 1000!!?)
THEY WORKED AWESOME! But, THEY ATE EVERYTHING!
The last time I dove down deep, I couldn't find a SPECK of grass! & NOT 1 CATTAIL ANYWHERE!
#4,,,, Now, in order to MAKE SOME STRUCTURE, THE 'BOARD' decided to drop trees into the lake!? WHAT!??? (Another one I completely disagree with,,, I would NEVER place anything in the water that decomposes). These strip pits already have 3'-4' THICK BLACK DECAYING MUCK ALL ACROSS THE BOTTOM! There use to be thousands of crabs, millions of snails & hundreds of clams,,,, there WAS zillions of baby minnows swimming around in schools.
#5 ??? Now, the board wants the members to completely RID the lake of those amurs. (Many 4'ers. are being caught & SHOT) I shake my head at that decision too.
I say,,,, keep tabs on the amount being caught, & re-place SOME per acre of water, in the other smaller weed-choked quarries.
Well,,,,,, On & On,,,,
I posted this whole mess story so some of you POND/ LAKE BUILDERS have some different view points of what to do,,,,,, & WHAT CAN GO WRONG.
BTW,,,, some of the walleye that were stocked years ago,,,, they ARE reproducing. :>)