About PondStat
PondStat began with a simple question: How can pond owners understand what is really happening beneath the surface?
What started as a custom spreadsheet for a friend’s 85-acre pond became an organized platform that turns everyday fish data into meaningful calculations, professional graphs and clearer management decisions.
Years from the original idea to today’s PondStat platform
The pond behind the original PondStat spreadsheet
A useful spreadsheet that was not useful enough.
PondStat began when a close friend asked Terry Battisti, Ph.D., for help understanding the fish data from his 85-acre pond in Southern California.
As an engineer, a self-described math geek and an enthusiastic bass fisherman, Terry created a spreadsheet that organized the pond’s catch data and performed the necessary calculations.
The spreadsheet worked—but it required too much manual data manipulation. Terry’s friend could enter the information, but Terry still had to process it and prepare the final tables, graphs and PDF reports.
He wanted to come home after a day of fishing, enter his data and let the software produce the tables and charts.
Turn everyday catch information into calculations and professional reports without requiring owners to manage complicated spreadsheets.
An idea more than 20 years in the making.
The need was clear in 2004. Creating a dependable, easy-to-use platform took persistence, the right technical partnership and a renewed commitment to solving the original problem.
The Original Spreadsheet
Terry created a spreadsheet to calculate and organize fish data from his friend’s 85-acre pond. It produced useful results, but still required too much manual work.
A Good Idea Without the Right Partner
After learning that no comparable software existed for private pond owners, Terry began developing the concept. Two years and several unsuccessful programming experiences later, the project had to be placed on hold.
PondStat Becomes a Platform
In late 2024, Terry revisited the idea with a trusted technical partner. Together, they transformed the original spreadsheet concept into an organized application for pond owners and fisheries professionals.
Make fishery information easier to understand and use.
PondStat helps pond owners and fisheries professionals turn regularly collected fish data into a clearer, longer-term picture of pond health.
Better pond decisions begin with better information—not isolated observations or a single day of sampling.
Simplify the Science
Perform important fisheries calculations automatically so users can concentrate on collecting information and understanding the results.
Reveal Long-Term Trends
Preserve data across fishing trips, seasons and years so pond health can be evaluated through patterns instead of isolated catches.
Support Better Decisions
Organize information into useful tables and graphs that can support conversations between pond owners, biologists and management companies.
PondStat is a management tool—not a replacement for a fisheries biologist. It helps owners collect stronger long-term information that can make professional consultations more productive.
One platform. Two useful perspectives.
PondStat gives owners a more active role in understanding their pond and gives fisheries professionals better-organized information for evaluating performance and communicating results.
Understand what is changing beneath the surface.
Turn ordinary fishing trips into useful observations about fish condition, population balance and progress through time.
- Record fish length, weight and species
- Follow tagged fish and individual growth
- Identify seasonal and long-term trends
- Maintain an organized history of the pond
- Share stronger information with a biologist
A clearer understanding of your pond without having to build spreadsheets or perform fisheries calculations manually.
Work with better-organized client information.
Use data collected between professional surveys to develop a more complete picture of fishery performance and communicate recommendations more clearly.
- Review client pond data through time
- Use accepted fisheries calculations
- Generate organized tables and graphs
- Supplement periodic professional surveys
- Communicate trends and recommendations
More consistent historical information and less time spent rebuilding spreadsheets and reports for each client.
The owner collects the data. The professional adds experience.
PondStat helps bring those two perspectives together through organized information that both can review and discuss.
Accepted fisheries math. Made easier to use.
PondStat uses established fisheries calculations to help evaluate fish condition, population structure, catch rates and changes through time.
You provide the measurements collected while fishing. PondStat performs the calculations and organizes the results into tables and graphs that are easier to review, compare and share.
Fish condition naturally changes with seasons, spawning and available forage. Collecting information over time provides more context than evaluating one catch in isolation.
Relative Weight
Example shown for explanation only. PondStat applies the appropriate accepted equations to the information entered.
to platform
Give pond owners a practical way to collect their information, understand their fishery and work more effectively with the professionals who help manage it.
Built for people who want their pond to become the best fishery it can be.
PondStat is not a miracle pill that solves every pond problem. It is a tool that helps owners collect better information, recognize changes through time and have more productive conversations with their fisheries professionals.
All you need is a measuring board, a scale and your phone. Collect the information while you fish, and PondStat will help organize the data and perform the calculations.
We hope PondStat becomes a useful part of managing your pond. We also want to hear from the people using it so we can continue improving the platform and the way it works.
Questions, feedback and ideas are always welcome.
Your pond is telling a story. Start tracking it.
Turn every catch into useful fishery information. PondStat handles the calculations and organizes the results so you can follow your pond’s progress with greater clarity and confidence.
One Pond
per year for one pond