My loader is a New Holland Lx985. It is 75 H.P. and weighs around 9,000 lbs. with the solid foam fill tires. I have over 4000 hrs experience on a skid steer loader (most people call skid steer loaders a Bobcat).

I have been working on my pond for 4 years now. I hired a contractor to clear the site in fall 2004. It was really thick, I couldn't even ride a ATV thru it. He spent 36 hours on a track hoe taking out trees and piling up the logs and brush. I spent many weekends in 2005 cutting firewood and burning brush. I didn't get much time in 2006 as I was busy with my concrete business. Although I did manage to get my topsoil cut and moved out of the pond site.
In this picture you can see my loader with an 8 ft bucket pushing topsoil.


The previous land owner had a road thru the middle of what would become my pond. It was 8-9 ft high, 10 ft wide, and 120 ft long. My plan was to move this dirt to fill back in the road where it was cut from, shape the site so it wouldn't hold water, then hire a contractor to build the dam.
This is a side view of the old road


Spring of 2007, I moved the dirt from the old road back to where it came from.




Summer 2007 I had 2 contractors out to look at my site, but neither one ever called me back with a price. Then I decided to try it myself. July 8, 2007 I cut my keyway and started pushing dirt.




As winter fell I had half of the dam up to grade with only 2 feet to go on the other half. In the picture below you can see that the lowest part of the dam was a about the middle. March 18-19, 2008 we had 9 inches of rain in 24 hours. Even with the 6 inch drain flowing unobstructed, the 18 foot deep pond filled to the full level. The spillway was not cut in yet, so I dug a spillway to the far right with a shovel 2 ft x 2 ft x 20 ft long, as it was too muddy to use my loader. I am glad it did not rain any more. It was within a foot from going over the middle.


After the springs rains dried up I started pushing dirt again on the weekends. By Sept, I had the dam up to grade when the hurricane came thru Indiana . We had about 75 trees on our 80 acres blown down. That kept me from working on the pond for a while. Since then I have completed everything except my siphon drain and dock. The finish height of my dam is 19 feet 11 inches with 3 feet of freeboard. I have a 6 inch pvc drain thru the bottom with 2 concrete anti seep collars. My spillway is 16 inches above the full level and 24 feet wide. My watershed is approximately 50 wooded acres. I am going to install two 6 inch PVC siphon drains to handle normal rains. In the pictures of my dam you can see in the middle where I didn’t seed and straw yet will be where I place the siphon drains.

This picture is looking west toward the dam


This one taken standing on the dam looking east


This one looking south across the dam


This is my spillway to the creek


This will be where my SMB will hopefully spawn


After we get thru this winter, I will put in the siphon drains, build my dock, and stock with FH, RES,YP, SMB, and maybe some HSB. I plan to aerate and pellet feed. I also have another small grow out pond planned (60 ft x 120 ft) in a ravine about 150 ft up from this pond. I will use it to grow fathead minnows and maybe grow out SMB for later stocking into the bigger pond.


I have been reading this site for some time and thought that I would share my story. Any thoughts or suggestions please respond.


My 11/19/2017 edit was to change the pictures from Photobucket to imgur.

Last edited by DC70; 11/19/17 10:30 AM.