Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Building a pond

Hey guys, I'm having some ideas with building a pond possibly ranging from 2.5-7ish acres. What would prevent me from building a 7 acre or bigger pond is the amount of work and money put into it. I was also wondering if there's a huge difference in the production between ponds of those sizes?

Some more problems include having enough watershed area. Also, runoff would be coming from farmland. I would have a buffer strip with grass between the pond and fields however. If any of you have any experience with this, please comment. Any advice would be appreciated! Love reading all the posts on this site, continue with the good work!

Production and everything else increases with size. If you are going to manage it yourself the smaller would be easier.







I posted this on another post, but I think it might help with some questions I had and learned. Some the easy way, some not.



I would start with buying this book, and learning as much as you can before contacting a builder. A good builder is going to ask many questions you may not be ready to answer yet. I wasn't.

http://www.pondboss.com/item.asp?id=163&r=store%3Fp%3D2

You will have to copy and paste link, or it is Mike Otto's book, Just Add Water.


Then read as much as you can on this site. There are so many questions....... And so many answers start with "It depends"
Areas I would try to find to learn about prior to...:

Goals- When I started I didn't like this question, because I knew so little about the process. All I knew was I wanted a hole with water in it. You need to try and figure out how you are going to use the pond. Trophy bass, trophy bluegill, swimming, not worried about trophy just want to catch fish, catfish pond...... Each one will send you in a little different direction. It is VERY difficult to manage for more than one type of trophy fish if trophy fish are your goal.


Location of pond

Size of pond

Cost of construction- this was one of my big surprises. Expect $15-20K per surface acre, or $2-3/yard of dirt. How much dirt they have to move depends on the shape of the land you have. I included cost because one thing we tend to know up front is how much money we have to spend. These are just ballpark numbers, but when I started I didn't have a reference point to start figuring what I could afford and what I couldn't.

Shape of pond

Contour of pond(built in structure like humps, channels, points, shelves)

Slope inside(3:1) steeper inside reduces vegetation problems later, and outside of pond(4:1 or even 5:1) less slope outside the pond makes it much easier to mow, but needs more dirt moved,thus more $

How deep?(12-16'?) The deeper you have it the more insurance you have during times of drought.

Type of spillway(over flow area, pipe, or bottom siphon system) and emergency spillway

What size pond will your watershed support? Ballpark # is 10:1

What kind of structure are you going to put in it?(man made stuff, cedar trees, gravel, rock piles)

Aeration? (helps prevent fish kills and keeps water in better condition, removes thermocline, ballpark price $1000/ac) Will you have electricity close?

What kind of fish? Ballpark price on stocking is $1500/ac

What effect does one type of fish have on another? You really can't stock it with whatever you want and it do well. Everything needs to be in balance, as best you can. How many predator fish? How many forage fish do you need to support the # of predator fish you stocked? How many fish can "your" size of pond support?

Are you going to feed fish? What kind of feeder should you buy($400-800)? What kind of fish food are you going to feed? Feed cost depends on you, but average $400/ac per year

How are you going to keep the pond mowed?

Livestock going to use the pond?

Soil samples to determine if you will need to lime BEFORE it fills with water

DO you have the right soil type or will you need to bring in clay or other type of liner?


There are more but this gives you a starting place.

http://www.bobluskoutdoors.com/news-updates

Then it fills up with water, and you get a whole new set of questions!

Nice kickoff Brian +1.

Woody, if your head is spinning, that's normal!

Tell us about some of your goals for the pond and how much time you want to spend during a normal week for maintaining/manipulating your dream pond. Is it going to fill with water and that's it? OR are you going to spend many hours and days building structure and habitat for the fish, feeding the fish, planting desirable aquatic vegetation, lining the shore with rock, etc., etc. My little 1/4 acre pond has really taken a lot more time than I anticipated since it was mucked out last October. It's a good thing I enjoy hard work and the results it brings at the pond. If my pond was twice as big, I could not have had the time or energy to do what I have done or at least not with the same success (or for the same amount of money).

Planning is the most important part. Good advice so far. You can call Mike Otto as well. It is key to remember you are planning a multi generational project.

Woody, based on my own experience I'd only add that it is very important to have the water chemistry checked before going ahead. If it is acidic & low alkalinity, you may well need to cover the lake bottom with ag lime & disk it in. I added lime, but made the mistake of not disking it & have struggled with fertility.

If the water is alkaline & very fertile, such as from farm runoff, you would have the opposite situation: Possibly excess fertility, algae issues, weed issues, etc. In such case you'd be smart to limit shallow water, aerate, & think about biological controls such as tilapia and grass carp.

Good luck, it is quite an adventure!

Yeah, there's too much for me to wrap my head around right now. I'm not even sure what I want in it! I love all fishing, would like to have a pond large and deep enough for walleye/saugeye. Not sure what that all requires either, however.

There are ponds accessible to me that have any kind of fish I'd want to catch. I didn't know if I wanted bass and bluegill? Catfish too? Crappie? (I know how you guys feel about them in ponds, though.)

Thanks everyone. You've listed things I haven't thought about. It's about impossible for me to do that unless I have it all written down.

Woody,
The site dictates the size your pond should be, not your pocketbook. Watershed size influences pond size. Soil types, runoff, average rainfall amounts, and evaporation influence the size. Your pocketbook or budget should decide whether or not you build it.
BrianL hit it out of the park with his advice. Due diligence and planning are huge. All the advice above is solid. I'd follow it.
Start with goals. Study watershed size, then get a good idea of subsoil types...you'll need clay.
Start with those two things, and then proceed with your planning.

Woody, I suggest walking into your local NRCS office and asking if they can assist in designing a pond. Offices vary in support around the country - mine was very helpful in surveying and calculating area, cubic yards in dam, diameter and length of spillway pipe, watershed, etc. Ended up with a packet to hand out to contractors for estimates.
click on your county then NRCS; https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=KS

Agree with seeing the NRCS agent.

Our local one designed our big pond for us (3 acres). First looked at the site on aerial photos, then came up with some potential sizes available for the site I was proposing. Looked at soil types according to soil survey. Looked at watershed area available. This was all without visiting the pond site on his computer in his office.

On second visit to his office he had water outlines drawn for three different pond sizes. We decided on a size, discussed some dam opttions and left him to come up with a final plan.

He came up with the plan then came out and flagged the pond outline and the dam. Gave us a multi page plan with dam dimensions, overflow pipe specs and other pond features. At that time also flagged a terrace in adjacent field because the size of pond we wanted needed more watershed and we got it from the farm field on the opposite side of the hill.

So our Kansas NRCS agent did what I thought was a very nice job designing our pond and was very helpful with other advice about how to do the core trench in the dam, etc.

Your local agent may vary depending on his work load and initiative, but ours was very helpful.

I had not found PBF until our pond was basically finished and stocking plans already made so I do not have build pictures in my thread. But there are pictures of the completed pond and one particular feature I really like is the wave erosion "bench" that was designed into our dam. I really like to stand on flat ground at water level all the way around the pond instead of on a sloping dam. Pictures in the thread here.

Snrub's main pond thread