There is a KZfaqr out there called Let’sdig18 anything you want to know about building ponds that’s the guy to watch

All the minnows you showed was bluegills. The dark one was a highbread gill

I have an 8 acre pond in Ohio, we had duckweed and algae problems when we moved in. We added aeration that worked well and also added a good amount of grass carp. Surprisingly the grass carp made a huge difference. They were eating 24/7. 6 years later they are still circling and eating Constantly.

That’s good that you still have some fish in your pond.

When you restock you should think about putting some baitfish in the pond. Fathead minnows or some shad. Baby fish are called fry, not minnows.

There is a youtube "letsdig18" that shows a lot of ponds being updated with new drains! It would show how he goes about fixing leaking ponds to give you view of what is involved. He replaces overflows and etc

Re: duckweed, you can use a floating boom to concentrate the duckweed around your skimmer. You may be able to find pool noodles or something similar on clearance or at a dollar store and for less than $100 you could make something that the two of you could drag across the top of the water to concentrate the duckweed at one end of the pond in order to remove it.

My boss said he had problems with duck weed and moss and he put 16 grass carp in their pond and they haven't had duck weed problems for years there is a fish truck that comes around and he bought the grass carp from them

It is GREAT that your pond was not killed of in its entirety! I hope you do stock your pond!

Glad to hear that it is all good news. Restocking the pond still seems like a good idea. Thanks for the update and thanks for sharing.

It's so good to know that you have really many things in your pond yet I'm looking forward to next summer to see upon come back you guys are such good caretakers of the land tell me at these turkeys related to the beautiful Tom the you last lot less lost last spring are they going to be beautiful time turkeys like he was

The ducks look happier with less duck weed and the pond looks much healthier. Winter's coming and the aerator will keep the pond from freezing over much to the ducks joy. Funny that this is the same objective of the Mars Rover looking for life.

Get on LetsDig schedule for the next time he is up there in a few years lol

The pipe likely runs at an angle to reduce the flow velocity which can help reduce erosion at the outlet end.

It's all good news. God's blessings❤

I think I’d also plant some actual baitfish minnows. This is a perfect time to put some shad or something small in there so they can get established without a lot of pressure from predator fish. You’ll notice your bass will grow like crazy if they have a bunch of shad to feed on. I also planted rosy minnows and mosquito fish in my pond and they both reproduced like crazy and my bluegill exploded in size after that.

I appreciate all your videos. I have a horrible problem with duck weed. We are following your recommendations. So sorry for your failures but happy you are coming to the front. You are a great person!

To get rid of algae and vegetation add about 10 sterile Grass Carp. They are eating machines and clean up a pond plus keep it clean. I did 200 Grass Carp in a 20 acre lake and they grew to 25# and kept the lake clean. Check it out with a fish hatchery.

Gets snagged and starts winding like crazy 😂😂😂

So nice to have you back mate thanks Joe

With all that die off it's quite possible the duckweed hasn't been spreading as fast as it gets either eaten or dies and sinks. A huge part of it's growth is related to the ammonia concentration in the water - the amount of fish pee and agricultural runoff.

Add grass Carp to help keep the pond clean. Add shad for the bass and crappie to feed on they will grow fast.

I keep grass carp in our pond. They keep it clear of vegetation. We have very little moss and duck weed. 8 to 10 grass carp per acre and add 10 % per year. Then you get staggard ages of the grass carp. The smaller one are more aggressive eaters. I've never used chemicals in the 28 years we been here.

Our family has an 8 acre lake which has been a great source of fun for decades . Sounds like the engineering side of pond is okay . I would suggest looking into a pond management company before adding any fish . The health of your ponds ecosystem is a must before adding fish . Oxygenator , automated fish feeders and fertilizing are just a few of things you might do . Many states have fishery resources that you may use . Best of luck . I can tell you that a healthy pond will add immeasurable joy to your farm .

...GOOD ONE, KEEP SAFE AND WELL..

Good luck with your fish project. The pond is looking so much better.

Good to hear there is still life in your pond! Don't worry, time will repair it.

I think you need to put grass carp in the pond to control the duck weed. That or find a blue natural chemical to get rid of duckweed.

I’m glad you got some minnows, hope you have a lot more too! I think you should put a few more in there, just to help.

Maybe you could install a floating barrier to retain the duckweed and keep it from being blown around, easier to manage if it's confined in one area, could be done by hand and canoe..??

Hi..... Evan nice to see you love watching your videos 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🏡🎥👍👍👍

SUGGESTION, Have the water tested. Might give you some answers. I wouldn’t add any fish until the water is tested with favorable results ‼️ GOOD LUCK, Vinny 🇺🇸

Little fish are better than no fish and good news on the overflow pipe. God bless 🙏🏼🇺🇸

Hi Evan, just found this information on another Utube site. “Place Barley Hay Balls in netted bags attached to a Buoy float in the water. The Barley breaks down the algae over growth naturally, restoring the Bio. This will clear your water. Hope this may help you, love the video’s been following from the beginning. Love from Mablethorpe, England xx

Put in a double wall, smooth on the inside, corrugated on the outside, 20' sections that just slide together. Just be sure you got some good clay to go back in it and pour a concrete 1/2 ring around the pipe on the bottom side of the pipe about 12" deep like a footer on a stem wall to keep water from seeping around the outside of the pipe. Watch Letsdig18, he's done alot of them and never had a problem, just make sure you have clay packed around the pipe really good .

Well That's Awesome that you still have fish!! God Bless and have a Great Day!! 😊⚘❤

Man I would give up everything and more that I own to have that land and that pond regardless of the trouble.

Pond looks much better thanks to your good work.

I usually leave the catfish bait over night and check it in the morning for best results.

Glad to hear there is hope for your pond. Regarding lining, another option is a cure in place pipe liner. We use them a lot to rehabilitate old pipes by adding a “concrete” lining inside the old pipe. CIP liners last for over 50 years, they are stronger than the original pipe and are WAY less expensive than open trench excavating. Something to think about as an alternative.

Its great that you care so much about your pond. Seeing someone working at living a good life is inspiration I really needed right now. Thanks for sharing this part of your life with us.

Electroshock is the best way to get a count on the fish population...

Charlie Brewer Crappy sliders. Some say he was the inventor of the Ned Rig.

Just a thought to reach out to your neighbors to possibly borrow a fish finder to reassure yourself that not is all lost

Contact your county soil & water division regarding fish purchase/quantities if you have one. Fishery will bring minnows & white Amur to control algae for prepaid price. This eliminates mandatory allowance for public fishing.This is how it is dine in my state. btw fish are brought to county soil & water for customer pickup.

Happy to hear you still have some minnows in the pond. I am happy too that the "fixing" is not going to be as expensive as it might have been and also not as urgent. I love both catfish and crappie so I hope you are able to get enough to restock whenever you think the time is best....not only for eating but just because you and Rebeccah love the serenity of fishing. Have a Blessed day.

Good to hear Evan that the pond is not as disastrous as first thought. Infact, from what you caught in the fish trap there seems to be even enough small ones left in there to reproduce and replenish it. Also, very good you don't have to drain and put in another overflow pipe. 👌

Hello Evan glad there is fish left alive. Have a great day.

Signs of life is great the eco system is functioning…….the swimmer may have saved some of the fish hopefully you will be able to rebuild the system very interesting and informative video!!! Thanks

Try an 1/8 Oz jig head like you used and a 2 ought spinner blade and you can catch bass bluegill and the red eyes on them.

Glad it wasn't quite so bad!

We fished for bluegill with a TEENY-TINY hook, bobber, and a canned corn kernel. You'd be surprised. We were.

So glad your pond is clear ! Sure hope the underneath looks healthy too. We enjoy your work and channel. Thanks !

Minnow definition says “ any fish of the family Cyprinidae, including the carps, goldfishes, and daces” - seems pretty inclusive! Would you consider doing an overflow exposed concrete canal? Add a little bridge? Might be less digging and clearing.

The pond does look pretty good then it did

It's great that you still have a stocked pond. Awesome luck! Check "letsdig18" on KZfaq. Chris is a top notch excavator. He does this all the time. Check him out for examples on how to do it! For a pond that size you should have a 24 inch overflow and it does not have to be angled like that. Size depends on volume of inflow from the land around the pond. A straight shorter cut would be better and normally cheaper. No advantage to that angle and it could be a weak point in the dam and make it more difficult to locate the source of a leak in the future.

Nutrient management is the key to pond health. If you have a duckweek explosion your nutrients have increased. Is there any pond weed that can tie up the nutrients to keep the duckweed and algae at bay?

A lot better report than I expected to be honest with you! I do like your idea of the restock and relocation of the larger fish if possible▪I know you will; but be sure to take 'us' along when you restock please!

Thanks for the update! Could you build a cofferdam to avoid draining the entire pond?

Hi Evan, I don't think you've ever spoken about the cemetery. Could you maybe talk about it? Do you own it? Are you responsible for it's upkeep, etc.?

Add Grass carp fish, some 30-40 it's enough to remove most of the duck weed...😇

Saw on another one of your videos that you plan on repairing the roof on your wood shed, looking forward to the video. As always, I enjoy your work ethics and all your videos.

They also have certain types of carp that will eat it that you can buy just for that

Glad to see you still have some life left in your pond.

That's fantastic news ❤️

Great video. When you get ready to replace the overflow. look into the black plastic culvert pipe. Dirt perfect on KZfaq replaces every overflow with the black plastic culvert pipe. This will do away with the rusting problem.

My pond was totally covered with water meal, similar habit as duckweed. I used an herbicide called Clipper, designed for floating aquatic plants, and it knocked it out completely. Took all summer going after it, several applications. Killed it all, hasn't been back in 2 years.

Put a light in the pond at night it should attract bait fish

Hi, Evan and Rebekah. The pond looks so much better.

Might be worth getting a company in to electro fish the pond and get a idea of what you need to stock

Great job on the pound just keep at Evan, great videos and great job

Another very nice video. The pond is looking better. Maybe mom nature will do wonders for it this winter.

So happy to see the small fishes, hope they will grow up and be big fishes and make fishbabies 🙂

Theee's HOPE for the Pond. You'll are doing a Great Job

Glad I watched this. I was thinking of building a bubbler for our pond. Its a bout the same size. I was going to use a platform that floats on the water where the motor sits. I was looking for a DC motor, so I could run it off solar, and have a small solar panel on the same platform, with a piece of weighted hose with holes poked in it to provide the bubbles. I was only going to use a small motor, as it would have to be solar powered, just to oxygenate the pond, so I will proceed with extreme caution. I dealt with the algae bloom when it started getting bad late spring by using blue dye. It looked great while the dye lasted, and knocked down the algae, but it wasn't quite as bad, maybe because I caught it in time. I use it once every couple years as needed. Our overflow tube was clogged by beavers, so we've build a siphon system to suck it down. I'm also looking into installing some kind of micro hydro into the 4 inch pipe on the downward side of the dam. If you use it, make sure to use schedule 40, and make sure to get an air tight fit. Ours is very basic, but lowered the water level a few feet in a few days. Something along these lines, nothing too fancy. We prime it by carrying a bucket to fill it up, then close the hole on top, and open the one at the bottom, and off she goes. Our setup very similar to this. It won't keep up during heavy rains, but does a good enough job so water isn't flowing over the emergency spillway all the time. aquascape.net/2020/08/05/siphons-suck/

Sounds like your getting the pond taken care of, I hope it continues to improve for you. Glad to hear the ponds doing better, some bigger fish from another pond works, we did some of that when I was a young en. Good luck for the future pond improvement, thanks for sharing, have a great week.

Make a flooring dock and take your boat and use a net skim the water and dock use transport

AYE! The duckweed is almost gone! Edit: Get you a couple sterile grass carp (don't want them breeding), but they will take care of the rest.

May want to tighten the drag on your reel 😉

Great news

Great video thanks. All the best 🇬🇧.

It's good to see you do have fish in the pond.

The little things count for reducing nutrients. An example would be feeding your ducks 20 feet or so from the edge. Grass is an amazing filter and can reduce NPK from going into the water.

looks like your pond has cleared up

That’s great news Evan that you still have life still in your pond!! Happy for ya Brother 🤙

Good news you have fish.

Did you try feeding the animals duckweed again? I think over time they'd get used to it

We had duckweed last year that covered our 1 acre pond. The cold did not kill it. The only way it got off of the pond was from all the winter rains pushing it out. This summer we started to see signs of it spreading again. We purchased SonarOne pellets and broadcasted them in the water about a 4 to 6 weeks ago. Our pond now looks beautiful; the duckweed is completely gone. It's pricey, but well worth the cost.

Could you rent a boom line, install it at one end of your pond and tow it towards where you have your skimmer set up? Then as you pull it would it would pull the duckweed to the skimmer to be pumped out and filtered. Just a thought.

Great update glad thing are looking up.

Growing up we always just left the pond alone. Sometimes it was clear and pretty and sometimes it was gross.

Good news on the pond. Glad that’s off your mind now. Lining the existing pipe sounds like the easiest option.

The pond is starting to look much better. So good to see the minnows!

Hello from the Netherlands . thanks for the video . Sincerely, Hollandduck

Bigger hybrid stripers for over winter to cull the smaller ones & take out the crappie. They overpopulate & produce too many small fish. Reset with Bass & Blugills. Perhaps a couple of lunker blue cats for a pond monster to catch one & awhile. Is haying done for the year?

Get a bass fisherman with a Hummingbird. Then you ll know if you got fish or not. ( fish locator). You’re a pond owner, but Not a fisherman. 😂 ( but I enjoy the work that you are doing). I’m jealous that you have a farm pond. It’d be so nice to camp on the bank under the stars

Illinois department of Natural Resources, might come out for free and help with the duck weed issue. It would be worth a call to them.

i haven't read all the comments so it may have already been asked. Have you tried getting a few grass carps to put in the pond. I have them in mine and don't know if that is helping. I don't have any problems. I know one is eating well because we saw him along the edge one time and thought at first it was a log. When the water is high you can see him along the shore I assume eating the grass. Anyway, worth a try if they survive in your are.

Kudos on pond good news 👍👍👍

This is really great news for you especially when expense right now is something everybody wants to keep at a minimum because there’s so many necessities that are at a high cost!! Plus this gives you plenty of time to plan and think about just exactly how you want to move forward and what you thinks going to be the best solution for the pond as well as the filter system. I hope you don’t have to cut down all of your trees but if you do then it’s just a necessity but it does look nice to have a few trees around the pond, in my opinion. I kept waiting to see your fishing pole go flying out of that PVC pipe…But it didn’t LOL this was a wonderful video I am so happy for the good news😊❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️