I just recently purchased a house that has a pond on the property and have a few questions about it.

Please look at the picture provided of a google earth photo of the pond so you can get reference of what I'm talking about.

This ponds stretches over a couple of peoples property and would like to know the best way to go about stocking this thing.

Its a naturally fed pond that gets water year round. The dam where the water enters I own and is a cement bridge with some metal covert pipes supplying the water. The exit Dame is on my neighbors property(Who I haven't met yet). I do not know if the exit dam is fenced off yet.

Would it be worth it to stock bluegill and channel catfish, even though some could travel out of the exit dam?

Will the fish stick around if i supply food or if they have enough to eat?

Would it be worth it to dam up the pond right at my neighbors property or should I keep, this will probably depend on if he is cool or not and wants to fish?

The Pond is anywhere from 2-4 ft deep, would it be good of me to use my backhoe and dig deeper spots where I plan to fish?


Any suggestions on what you would do with this. Its a amazing pond and full of bullfrogs, doesn't look like there was much fish, but i don't believe it has ever been stocked. Its truly beautiful just want to be able to fish it.

Thank you for anyone who has comments or suggestions.

Once fish are stocked, they will stick around whether you feed them or not. Typically enough natural food to keep a population present.

Sharing a pond with other people is the tough part, they usually have other plans than you do, or have crazy ideas that don't blend well with what you want to do.
There are a few stories about shared pond here, none of them are good ones that I remember.
Welcome to Pond Boss, my healthy escape from the day job.

I appreciate your comment and advice. I hope my neighbor isn't to much of a jack***, to give me problems with my trophy bluegill dreams!! haha I wont get trophies just want a nice peaceful alone place to fish.

That pond will be nice... What kinda trees you got on your place? almond?

Thank you I cant wait to start working on it. The property is in escrow right now and we plan on moving in on July 20th.

It has 7 Acres of Fuyu Persimmons in the way back and Fukamoto Oranges in the back by the pond and in the front of the house.

Look like escrow should be closing soon. I should get the keys sometime next week and finally become a pond owner. I have been doing a lot of research and can't wait to start fixing this pond up.

Good luck to you. It'll be a lot of fun...

7 acres of Persimmons......wow. I can't keep up with one tree.

Thank you I'll be posting updates as they come.

Its won't be to bad, but I totally feel what you mean

We'll I have been living for 3 weeks at my new place with this pond and its becoming more work than I can handle at the moment so its very neglected. There is green duckweed and algea overtaken the surface water and this dam weed, I can remember what's its called but I read about it on here and it sucks, very invasive. The pond has so much vegetation around and in it that the smell is starting to get rank at nights. So I think the best game plan is hold out until the winter months and start overhauling it.

Step 1 remove all vegetation from banks and reconstruct the banks.
Step 2 Remove as much sludge with backhoe.
Step 3 treat with pond safe herbicide and remove as much vegitation as it becomes spring time and try and keep up on it.

Thats the game plan hopefully it works and keeps the smell down and hopefully the overload on plant material in the pond clear out after a couple years.

I'll ad some pictures very soon, even though its ugly.

Before you get to digging with the excavator, pump out a lot or all of the water. That will speed up the digging process, and you can see what you are digging. Removing as much of the bottom muck as you can will help with the duckweed, as their seeds are in the muck "seed bank".

Thank you very much for the input I will be trying to block off as much water incoming into my pond and try and get water pumped or drained as much as possible. I dont think I'll have much luck with getting all the water out but I'll be trying my best. The issue I see it the incoming water source is a year round creek that feeds it and the exit dam is my neighbors property so we will see what he says when I see him next.

See if you can rent a trash pump to drain out the water in your pond, and see if you can make a temporary dam to divert the water around your pond while you are doing the work.