Hi everyone,
My name is jeff.
I don't yet have a pond but have plans to have one "made" starting sometime late fall. Working with a well respected contractor who knows the area well.
South Central Indiana is the location of the property. Expecting the pond to be approximately 2+/- acres. I am including a picture of the basin area the pond will be in. The dam will be towards the left in the tall trees and the pond will not extend beyond the fence line shown. I do not currently live in the area but will be there during construction and plan to take a lot of photos during construction.
Hoping for a low maintenance pond with nice scenic and fishing possibilities. Thought of having tall grass and wildflower around much of the perimeter. The dam is to include a drain,an overflow pipe and spillway.
I have visited the forum many times before joining to learn as much as I can and would welcome any comments or suggestions from others.

Welcome to PB Jammer

What kind of low maintenance do you have in mind?

Welcome Jammer. Pretty spot, looks kinda' like karst topography...watch out for sinkholes and caves.

I am hoping to keep it to a week or two per year of hard/casual labor and attention. Since I wont be there all year it will be a day or two here and there. Sound possible or am I fooling myself?

@sparkplug - Yeah that is my worst nightmare, a hole opening up in the earth. I had to look up Karst topography. Yikes, lets hope that is not the case. There are a lot of ponds in the area and I have not heard of any issues so hoping we are clear on that.

My pond is very low maintenance now. After it was dug, I planted lots of desirable emergent plants and water lilies, and also added a fixed dock connected to a floating dock for access. I controlled invasives like cattail and willow, and now only the occasional invasive needs to be controlled.

@sparkplug looks like we are in the same general location, I am a bit to your east.

@Rah, You have a great looking place in my opinion. I am certainly hoping to let things take care of themselves as much as I can.

@Rah, where did you get the plants?

If I can help with anything Jammer, let me know. I don't have many answers, but I'm happy to stand, stare, and scratch my head right along with you. And, I know who to call.

As important as anything right there.

I bought emergent plants from both JFNEW and Spence restoration Nursery. I favor Spence because they did not make last minute species switches on me. Both have a quality product. I bought water lilies at Lowes but got a lot more from a friend.

@sprkplug >"If I can help with anything Jammer, let me know. I don't have many answers, but I'm happy to stand, stare, and scratch my head right along with you. And, I know who to call. " <<

I really appreciate that sprkplug. I will be the first to admit that I really don't have any experience for what I am getting into. There is a bit of anxiety and maybe second guessing as we get closer to the construction date but all in all I am really looking forward to getting this underway.

Would be curious what people think about a fixed vs floating dock?

My preference would be toward a simple fixed one at this time.
I just like the way they feel for one thing.
Are floating that much cheaper or have other advantages?

If pond water levels stay relatively static, then fixed is the way to go.

If water levels fluctuate, and you don't mind the dock potentially being high above the water, then a fixed is the way to go.

Other than that, floating is the route to take.

Floating/fixed, the actual walking surface and support structure (joists, etc.) should be relatively the same price. The price difference is in the posts/floats and related hardware necessary for both systems.

thanks RAH
I had not really thought about "in the water" plants like water lilies and such. Is that something that you need to stay on top of to keep in control or do they respect their space?
jammer

Domestic water lilies are not invasive. They really need to be split and replanted to spread them. Wild ones can be quite invasive.

RAH
Earlier in the thread you mentioned that your pond is low maintenance now
Your photos are very much in line with how I would like our pond to look. With the exception of maybe a 100 foot or so clear mowed area on one shore.
How long did it take to get established and did you have a knowledge source to make suggestions or just figure out as you went?
Given the late fall completion schedule I am guessing I could be ready to plant in the spring if the hole fills by then or should I wait longer?

I've contacted NRCS but they seem to be displaced at the moment over the budget mess. They have offered to look into it but I would appreciate any other suggestions as well in the meantime.
Thank you for all

The mowed area is across the dam and allows easy access to the dock, as well as keeping woody plants out (a must on the dam). However, burning, herbicide spot treatment, or infrequent mowing works fine also (which is how most of our dam is maintained. The mowed area is also part of a network of walking trails around our property. It took at least three years for the pond margins to look really good with heavy emergent growth around the whole pond. Of course, if you plant more and larger plants, things go faster. I have read a great deal on wildlife habitat restoration and I am trained as a biologist. My wife also has a B.S. in plant science and can germinate and grow anything. The Pond Boss site is also a great resource where you can see what other think of your plans (I have learned a lot here). Spring is probably a good time to plant, but you may want to get some annual rye on the bare ground ASAP. Any growth this fall will slow erosion. The DNR has been a great resource for me and you may be able to cost-share through the Partners program if you are willing to keep the ground in wildlife habitat for 10 years. If you are interested in this program, you need to start now to get funded. BTW - I just planted a new pond this spring and summer. I am 30 miles west of Indy. If you are up this way and want to visit, let me know.

Welcome jammer, I am a pond owner and want you to know it is a great way to enjoy your property. It looks to me from your picture you will have a great view.
Good luck on the time spent with maintenance but the pond will grow on you, and just draw you in. It is worth it.

You already have some good help and I wanted to thank RAH for the picture,great place.

You did not mention if you have a well or even need one, with the good runoff potential I see from your picture.

With fewer fish and no feeder you will have less time needed to address pond issues, as an observation.

I'm going with fixed dock due to kids and us older types needing stability.

Lot's of good info in the archives, if you find the time.

I watched a guy on Youtube that had taken pictures several times a day, from the same location, over the weeks it took for his pond build. It was really neat when he spliced them together in a video. Everyone here likes pictures,me too and good luck.

thank you for the offer to visit RAH. I may take you up on it someday. Great advice for sharing a plan to get input as well.
Seeing as I pretty much don't have much of a plan at the moment I will get on that and try and get some input.

General question about the forum: Would it be better for me to start a new thread regarding specific topics or just keep this one going?

thanks again

MPC - I do not currently have a well planned. Runoff area is actually somewhat on the smaller side, approx 3:1 by my estimate. The builder does not seem too concerned about this. Soil here is supposed to be well suited to holding water.
I think a well if doable would be great, but I would worry about cost to pump and all.

I would be very careful to be sure that you have sufficient watershed to support your pond before digging. Three to one does not seem sufficient.

I agree that it sounds on the low side. 3:1 is my calculation.
As I said I think the contractor is comfortable with the situation and I do have a lot of trust in his experience.

As I think about this I am wondering what the process is for determining runoff area.

did not meant to send that yet....

as I was saying about calculating runoff area. I have some questions

Does the surface area of the water body count in the runoff formula? ie does a 1:1 ratio imply there is no runoff other than the surface itself or does it imply a runoff equivalent to the surface area outside of the water body? (sorry if that is not as clear as it could be)

Does the land need to be a certain slope or can a mostly flat plateau area or hilltop count also in the consideration?

My initial calc of 3:1 is based off my visual estimation of where the slope starts. After going back and using better tools it seems that maybe I could count much more that has a subtle and gradual slope.

All land that slopes toward the pond is usually counted as watershed. I have over 20:1 on my two ponds with very little leakage. My ponds drop about a foot during summer dry periods. My ponds are very very tight.

The NRCS 590 pond planning, design booklet p.10 and 11 of the booklet or pages 21 and 22 of Adobe reader will tell you just what you are wanting to know. I tried to highlight and copy but could not. I do not know how to attach the doc. on a reply post here. Sorry. If you google NCRS 590 planning design booklet the site will come up but may not work due to the GOV shutdown. Good luck.

Thanks again for all of your information RAH, Yeah I do wish I had more as it would seem an obvious benefit.
I found this information -
"A guide for estimating the approximate size of a drainage area (in acres) required for each acre-foot of storage in
an embankment or excavated pond"

on page 21 (Illustration 11) in this document - http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/docs/AgHandbook.pdf

If I read that correctly it shows a broad swath of Indiana in a 3-5 suggested ratio. But I am also sure that I have read that suggested rations are much higher as you suggest.
Reconsidering my previous runoff perimeter at best I still only have 4-5:1 Looking forward to talking with my contractor again soon.

I don't know if you are still following sprkplug but I wonder what your ratio may be as I am just about 25 miles or so east of you.

thanks mpc, I wonder if it is similar to the data I found?
Yeah, dang the shutdown. Just when I need them.

I've got a client that needs to renovate his leaky pond, and is waiting for the NRCS to come back to work before proceeding, so I feel your pain.

It might all depend on soil composition (clay or sand) amount of vegetation in the runoff area, how fast the rain comes (1" over 24 hrs or 10 minutes) and probably some other variables.

Pond construction is underway.
These pics represent some of the initial clearing of trees and stripping of topsoil.
I would be interested/willing to post images of the progress.
Sorry if this is obvious but should I start a new thread in another forum or just stick to this one?

jammer

Exciting times for sure! Sorry I missed your earlier post Jammer, in regards to surface ratio in the watershed. All of our ponds are the result of damming across existing ravines, and as such they tend to have considerable area that slopes downward and drains into them. But, even with that, there are a couple that just tend to accumulate runoff better than the others.

As far as actual surface area? Hard to tell, as there's not hardly a flat spot on the place. If I were pressed for an answer, I would estimate that 40-45 acres drains into our ponds, which are at three different elevations.

thanks for that info sprkplug. not exactly what i was hoping to hear though, ha
Do you get a lot of water movement through your ponds during heavy rains?

jammer

I am attaching a topo map of the area around my pond in the hopes that maybe someone with some more expertise could give a rough estimate of runoff area.
I come up with about 5 acres or so...

Construction is nearing completion and the final size looks to be more in the 1.6 acre range.
If runoff is insufficient to keep it fill it I think my next best option may be to pull some water from a stream that is about 200 or so feet away.

Yellow lines represent road (and ditches). Backside of dam is approximately 270-300 feet for scale.

jammer

whoops, file attached in this post...

I have some updates to this project that I have been meaning to send for a while. All was essentially completed in late November, just prior to a heavy rain event in the area. That contributed to the water contents shown in the photos. These were taken in late November.
The depth of area filled in the photo is approximately 3-4 feet. Total depth should be 18-20 feet. Submerged and not visible is a 3" drain in a bed of gravel. The entire pond if full is approximately 1.5 acres.
I was encouraged by how much water came in after the first storm since the rainfall was not that substantial but it was in a short intense burst so I expect there was a lot of direct runoff. Not to mention the area filled is rather small as well.

There also appear to be several slow seeps coming from the shallow side (uphill)of the pond contributing a very small amount that I observed.

The most recent storm in the area has apparently dumped over 5" of rain on top of several inches of snow melt. Unfortunately I have not yet seen how much this recent event added to the overall level. My anticipation is high to say the least and hope to remedy this soon with some photos from relatives...

On the negative side I am hoping the late seeding had enough growth time to be able hold things together as I had some ruts develop from the earlier storm. Seed and bedding was added a week or two after these photos.

your pond looks great. i cant wait for my new pond to be complete. with my very limited knowledge, i would think your stumps are too deep for fish attractors unless you aerate.

Cool photos! keep them coming. I always return to this forum just to see everyones pond photos!

Ditto!

Thanks I agree about the stumps being too deep. That is where they ended up when I was away. Been thinking maybe I could maybe put a grapple on them later to pull them to shallower water or maybe not.

Hi Steve,
I just joined this forum and I had 2 ponds constructed on my property in 2002. I have learned the hard but enjoyable way that you will spend more time there than you now anticipate. Looks like a great place for a pond. I am near Jasper, IN.

I have plans to reclaim my largest pond of 1 acre. I will be daring it this spring in order to hire a company to do a complete fish kill so I can get a new start on the fish stocking. A friend of mine likes to fish for channel cats on the Ohio river and he asked if he could put some in my pond. I said he could put them in the small (0.25ac) pond up the hill in the woods but he made a major error and put them in my 1ac pond. That 1 acre pond WAS a great bluegill and largemouth bass fishery. But, after a few years the bass were all about 11" long and the bluegill were either very large or eaten by the cats.

CAUTION! Get many professional opinions about fish stocking!

Another error I made was letting my dozer operator pull out before I wanted him to. He was busy and just had to go but I was hoping for him to create some underwater structure like humps, shelves, etc.

My advise is to not rush anything during construction and to consult professionals who do not sell fish.

AMJR, another Hoosier is always good news. Where are you located? Your caution is good but the opinions are best from well experienced pond owners. Professionals (fish suppliers) often give advice that benefits them more that the pond owner.