Okay, just to get ideas flowing.. no real plan as yet as I am working on my deck atm.. heh.. but, How many of you folks have a pond smaller than 1/2 acre?
How large is it?
How large is your lot overall?
What sorta fish are in your pond?
I have 1.91 acres and I think the area I can build a pond on would give me about a .45 acre pond...so.. Let's see what YOURS looks like.
Also, how close is yours to your house?
Again, not really 'fishing'....lol....for "how do I more of, I want to see if it really is worth it to folks that have already done it.
Can't help ya on how big to make your pond but it just depends on your acreage . Post the layout and someone will chime in . Mine is 5acres and I'm about 150 yds away from the house.....
Oh, just wanting to look at pictures of folk's ponds right now. Already asked a few questions in another thread, just want to see if other folks with limited land had done anything similar and what that looked like.
Lez see, the view from the back of my house (inside the kitchen I think..since ya asked.. heh)
okay.. hope this works... so: This is an old picture, looking out of the back kitchen window. Now we own about 10-20 ft on the other side of those trees behind us (the closer ones on the other side of this clearing). (i'll take a new photo tonight.. heh)
So, the entire amount of water on this road flows through the left side of the view (out of view)... so, we can capture a lot....
1/4 acre pond on a 40 acre plot about 100 yards plus from the house (uphill kind of). 10 foot max depth. It's the first year after renovating, the only things stocked so far are fathead minnows and crawdads to build a forage base. Water scorpions, brown water snakes, snapping turtles, frogs/tadpoles of at least 4 different species, and many types of water bugs have showed up on their own. If I drew a rectangle around the pond and house I would guess that it would fit on a two acre lot, just barely because of the land between the two. The pond dam is not curved, it just looks that way because of the panorama photo.
OK here is mine. Usually just under an 1/2 acre. This picture it is slightly over 1/2 acre. We have BG BCP LMB and TP in it. Our lot is 12 acres mostly wooded.
OK here is mine. Usually just under an 1/2 acre. This picture it is slightly over 1/2 acre. We have BG BCP LMB and TP in it. Our lot is 12 acres mostly wooded.
okay, I know LMB...but the others are BG = Bluegill? BCP = some sort of Perch?
I tried to talk the wife into getting 5+ acres, she wanted closer to Austin so.. heh.. Mamma gets what Mamma wants so dad gets SOME of what he wants :P
May be able to fit a pond in the back, some day, but if not, I can have fun dreaming about it and seeing everyone else's
You know, a 1/2 acre pond does not look all that small.
Russ, bein from south of the Mason/Dixon you are forgivin for thinking most all panfish are Perch. Yellow Perch are an individual fish seperate from BG, Pumpkin seed, Green sunfish, HBG, Crappie, Warmouth and many more. Look up Yellow Perch and see what they look like. Or look up any of the above mentioned. You will see a great difference.
Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
Russ, bein from south of the Mason/Dixon you are forgivin for thinking most all panfish are Perch. Yellow Perch are an individual fish seperate from BG, Pumpkin seed, Green sunfish, HBG, Crappie, Warmouth and many more. Look up Yellow Perch and see what they look like. Or look up any of the above mentioned. You will see a great difference.
lol.. okay, thanks for the pass
It will be a while. We just finished building the house in December of 2016 (7 months ago) and we already built a barn / man-cave for me, fenced all 1.91 acres (long story.. heh), and am almost finished with a 61' wide, 18ft deep deck along the back of the house. My wife is ready for me not to have another project that costs money... lol.
We have a hunting ranch in SW Texas, but I love my fishing and even more think the view would be awesome.
So, just sorta planning atm and thinking of whether it would work.
I love catfish, don't get me wrong, but to me, white bass and crappie would be a lot more fun heh.
1 - I have an aerobic septic and need to be 50' away from that. I can point the sprinklers to only go backwards and to the right and that gives me more room. I placed the "do not cross line" about 60' to be safe.
2 - The lady next door owns the 3.5 acres behind us and has a pond that fills up from water flowing through my tract, but she never sealed it and while she claims it was "designed by a professional"... imo... adding the island, no dock, whatever.. it just looks bad and useless. Again, my opinion.. but, it is hers and while we discussed working together to make it awesome.. I am not sure I want to put money into someone else's pond.
Here is a picture of my top down area. I added a barn / man-cave which I made a sorta blue outline for, you get the idea.
Debating if that is too close to the house, will there be enough room for the dogs to play etc...
So.. just in the "what if" phase.. 5 or more acres would have been better, but it is what it is
It would be very easy to have septic sprinkler heads redone to the front along the fence. I would do that, not for contamination reasons, just to get it out of the way of the pond, dogs won't be chewing on sprinkler heads, they/you won't be walking trough the water sprayed out, it will increase the size of your enjoyable area.
I won't work on someone else's pond to "share" You can get too much money invested for it not to be yours.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
It would be very easy to have septic sprinkler heads redone to the front along the fence. I would do that, not for contamination reasons, just to get it out of the way of the pond, dogs won't be chewing on sprinkler heads, they/you won't be walking trough the water sprayed out, it will increase the size of your enjoyable area.
I won't work on someone else's pond to "share" You can get too much money invested for it not to be yours.
Hrm.. had not thought about moving the sprinkler heads. I wonder how big a deal that would be. Since I am adding a line going to the septic for the barn/man-cave bathroom I am adding, I guess it would not be too huge a deal to spray the front instead.. heh.. and, I get a better looking front yard! lol
Just trench the line, lay the new PVC pipe and sprinkler heads, fill up trench. It is a fairly easy job, but will cost a little money to redo. I think it would be money well spent. You won't be hanging out at the front of your property towards the road I wouldn't think...
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
Russ,thank goodness ya have a sense of humor. I seem to offend some of the folks here and after I posted I figured ya might take offense but decided ta roll the dice instead of explainin myself. Now we got at least 3 smart Texans. I'm not savy enough ta post pics but if ya wanna see my 1/4 acre pond just google map 2943 Co Rd 71, Butler In 46721. Pleeez no bomb droppin drones or "friends" that want ta move into the chicken coop. It's a dumpy lookin pond but thanks to Cody and Cecil it has some real healthy fish in it. It's got REAL YP, TP, SMB, HSB, 4 RE, WE, SPS, Paper shell crawdads, BNM and several very unwelcome CC. The last CC caught was 7 lb 2 oz. Not real big but I figure it was probably eating 10" YP. That is my upper limit in letting friends(yes, I actually have a few)take enough for a meal. Probably eating some smaller WE and small HSB. They make it very difficult to ladder stock and are like vacuum sweepers on the pellets. Hope your plans work well for ya.
Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
lol.. I learned in the Navy to have a very thick skin.. :P
Cannot promise no drones... but since I do not have one, they will be a long time comin.. heh
I really would think to shy away from any catfish. While they are easy and fun, I tend to see most ponds have those OR other fish.. and I prefer the "other". To me, I'd love to see a pond where the kids could pull in all sorts of fish like crappie etc... with minnows. I can catch cats all the time with whatever, but the real fun comes from a lightweight tug on a bobber with a cold beer sitting by the side.. heh
Now, getting my wife to LET me dig the pond.. well, that will take as long as the planning
Let's see, maybe my math was off. Someone tell me if my math is off.. lol..
The 4 sides are about:
1 - 185 2 - 115 3 - 90 4 - 150
If you put sides 1, 2, and 3 perpendicular to each other (in that order) and connect side 4 ends to 1 and 3, side 4 ends up being very close to 150 feet (149.1'). This shape yields 0.36 acres. I used autocad.
A good way to estimate your future pond size is to go to Google maps and trace out the pond's location on a satellite image using the "distance" function which will give you square footage. Then convert to acres. The "measure distance" function is found by right clicking on the map where you want to start the outline of the pond, selecting "measure distance", left clicking the next spot and so on until you have enclosed the shape that best depicts the pond's shoreline. The area automatically shows up on your screen in square feet.