I have been lurking on the site for several weeks and am very impressed with the quality of information here and the friendliness of the members here!

I bought a house last year here in Louisiana that has a 1/2 acre pond. It had been "stocked" by the previous owner by catching a few fish offsite and releasing them into the pond. After I bought in February, I started making my plans for the pond (stocking, landscaping, etc.) then along came hurricane Ike. My fresh water pond ended up under 10'4" of salt water. Needless to say, nothing in the pond survived. I came within 1 1/2" of getting water in my new house.

In December, I decided it was time to continue with my pond plans. Unfortunately, now that included completely pumping it down to rid it of the salinity. The purchase of a 3" gasoline powered pump and 11 days later, the pond was empty. It is a watershed pond, so the first 2 rains filled the pond back up half way. Waiting on more rain to finish the fill.

Ordered a Vertex Air 1 Plus yesterday from ForeverGreen (Ted was VERY helpful!). have been scouring the nearby marshes for driftwood for landscaping and purchased plastic 55 gal drums for a floating dock.

This is my present situation. I will add more to this thread as I get things accomplished.

Thanks for having me as a member on this great forum!!

I'm going to try to beat JHAP and TomG to the punch here and say welcom to Pond Boss forum.

oh shoot. It looks like this is your second post. I knew I would have to be quick so I guess I got careless.

Next time I'll just leave it to the pros.

Welcome, Dragon...
Post some pics of the project.

I think I got him on the other thread. :)Welcome again,and here's a little friendly advice,watch out of the advice of the resident nutcases.

Well if you want to look at the bright side. At least you get to start with a clean slate. Who knows what the previous owner "Stocked" in that pond.

Welcome Dragon! Please take pics and post them... We love pics!!!

Welcome, Dragon.

What kind of fish do you like?

Dragon, when you build your floating dock with the 55 gallon drums how about posting how you do this project. I've collected about 10 30 gallon plastic drums but still unsure how I'll secure the barrels under the dock. Good to have you aboard!!

Thanks for the welcomes!

I do plan to post up pics of the progress. I think that my wife took some at the empty stage. That would be a good place to start.

My intentions are to stock LMB, BG(not sure what varities or how many varities),CC, and forage of several types. I am still working out the details of the plan. I am most definitely open to suggestions!! I have a new 2 month old grandson that I want to introduce to the world of fishing on this pond in a couple of years!

I thought I would do some detailed posts on the constructiion of the floating including pictures. Hopefully it will help someone else with their construction.

We all like pictures, so you can't post too many! Let us know when you decide to start stocking your pond and the experts on here will chime in with a stocking plan for you...

Piranna fight really well.

Hey Tom - Believe it or not, I used to raise those little eating machines. I have never seen an aquarium boil like mine did when I would drop in a piece of raw liver. Everything went well until my tank heater thermostat went out and the water got to ~90 degf. I came home and I had 1 survivor out of an original 9 and he looked like he had been through WW3! Apparently, these little buggers really "switch on" in water above 85 degf! They had started a feeding frenzy on each other.

4 posts,and your logged on before 6AM,your hopelessly addicted to PondBoss.You have officially joined the club.

Yeah, I believe you might be right!