Properly managed lakes provide excellent recreational opportunities, particulary for popular fish species such as largemouth bass, channel catfish, and hybrid bream. A good fishing lake must typically be stocked with the fish species of choice, continually maintained, and then fish removed or harvested at the appropriate rate. Most lake owners do not know the fundamentals of lake management, but that was exactly why this site was created, so keep reading.

The first step in recreational lake management is to decide what kind of recreation is desired. Lakes and ponds can be managed for fishing, swimming, wildlife attraction, and aesthetics, but it is difficult to manage for all of these recreational activities on the same scale. However, all objectives can be achieved to some extent, but the most important can be emphasized. This site promotes lake management for recreational sport fishing.

Although no two lakes are alike, every lake or pond can be managed to provide optimal recreational fishing and associated activities. Not only will practicing the fundamentals of lake management increase pond productivity, but also decrease problems associated with aquatic vegetation, fish stunting, and water quality issues. Each and every lake may be different, but the  same management techniques will work on each and every body of water.

The most important part of managing anything, whether it be a farm, a company, or a fish population is having a thorough understanding of the subject and learning how to identify and diagnose problems. Once a  lake manager is aware of lake inputs, potential lake problems (such as low dissolved oxygen), and how to remedy those issues they can truly manage their lake. The essential parts of any lake management program will include:

1. Fish species selection and stocking rates
2. Fertilizing and liming
3. Aquatic weed control
4. Watershed management
5. Prevention of fish overpopulation
6. Removal of unwanted fish species
7. Lake or pond construction
8. Water quality and lake management
9. Lake record keeping

First, ponds are man made whereas lakes are not. In America, we have a bunch of water bodies we call lakes, but most of them are really just ponds and reservoirs. Reservoirs, by their very definition are made-man, most created most by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for trapping and holding surface water. Most of these have been constructed along river channels to supply urban and suburban areas with drinking water, although fishing and other forms of aquatic recreation take place there.

Naturally occurring areas where surface water collects are the real lakes. And honestly, there are very few lakes in the United States. That being said, the technical distinction between a pond and a lake has not been universally standardized. Limnologists (biologists that study ponds and lakes) and freshwater biologists have proposed formal definitions for pond, in part to include “bodies of water where light penetrates to the bottom of the waterbody,” and “bodies of water shallow enough for rooted water plants to grow throughout,” in addition to “bodies of water which lack wave action on the shoreline.”

To me, all these definitions make sense to varying degrees, but each of them have been met with resistance or disapproval, as the defining characteristics are each difficult to measure or verify. Accordingly, some organizations and researchers have settled on technical definitions of pond and lake which rely on size alone. This, I also agree with, but different organizations use different sizes for classifying water bodies.

For all practical purposes, any water body that is less than 5 acres in size I refer to as a pond. On the flip side, any water body greater than 5 acres in size I refer to as a lake, although I will not always hold to this hard-and-fast rule. The physical characteristics of the water body will help me determine whether I am dealing with a large size pond or a small size lake. But even then, it comes down to either pond management or lake management, and the water body really does not care what we call it.

The most important thing is that we do our best to make the system be the best it can be for the organisms using the pond/lake. The aquatic plants will still grow in the water and the fish are already wet, so in the end it’s all the same.