I’m looking at a 70 acre piece of property in central SC that has what is being advertised as a 10 acre stocked pond. My wife and I went up and looked at the property ourselves this past weekend and are planning on meeting with the realtor later this week to get more info. I want to be as informed as possible before meeting with him. I’ve always wanted to live on a piece of property that I could fish on and enjoy the outdoors with my kids and this looks like it could be that place. I’ve fished my whole life (until the kids came along in recent years) but have no experience with building/maintaining ponds. I’ll tell you what I know about the place and what my concerns are and try to keep it brief.
According to the realtor the pond was put in between 8 and 10 years ago. The work was done with the land owner’s supervision and his equipment but he hired people to do the labor. I asked if the land owner got the proper permits and I was told he did. I did notice that there was an area near the southeastern corner of the pond that has a particularly steep bank that has fallen into the pond. Not sure if I should be concerned about this or not. I think this is near the dam but not part of it. There is a creek that flows into it but the creek is hard to follow on aerial maps so the creek may be spring fed.
There is a small concrete spillway over the dam and it looks like there is a vertical drainpipe protruding from the water so that is what dictates the water height. Are there things I should look for that would indicate that this dam was built properly and will be trouble free for decades? I intend to ask for any pictures that the landowner may have taken while the pond was being built. This whole area of SC got substantial rains last year and a lot of roads and bridges were damaged and it would appear this dam made it through ok.
I have no clue on depths but there was a lot of vegetation(my guess is southern naiad) around the 3/4s of the lake we could get to for the first 5-10 feet or so from the bank. I was concerned however when I noticed a jon boat that had a long stick next to it with a make shift duct tape handle on one end. It was about 7 feet long and I would assume that’s what’s used to push the jon boat around the pond. My concern is that the pond is only 6 feet deep at the deepest point which seems too shallow. There was also a small paddle by the boat so maybe the pond is deeper in some spots. Prior to looking at it the realtor told us the land owner had lowered the water level by removing some panels from the spillway(I think that’s what he said). The pond didn’t look low to us so I’m not sure what he was referring to.
There is a dock on the pond which has a feeder on it; solar powered. It had feed in it. My concern there is I wouldn’t expect to still be feeding fish that were put in about 8 years earlier. I would think that would only be necessary for the first year or so until the ecosystem gets established. I don't want a 10 acre aquarium that I have to constantly feed fish. I intend to also ask about what/when stocking was done. I know for sure there are LMB and BG in the pond. While we were there we threw a few handfuls of the pellets into the water and were surprised when fish didn’t respond very quickly. After a few minutes we noticed them taking the pellets but even then it was slow. Would this indicate the fish don’t rely too much on the pellets or that there isn’t a very healthy population of fish in the pond?
I guess my main concerns are that the pond was built properly. By that I mean I won’t have to repair the dam or spillways any time soon and that it will be a good habitat for the wildlife to thrive in. What are the questions I need to ask to ensure this? Thanks for any advice. Whether or not we get this property we plan on getting something with a pond so I’m very excited to have found this very active forum.
