Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello fellow pond lovers!

Ok, so I've recently acquired some property with three ponds on it, making me a first time pond owner. I love water and ponds, but know next to nothing about owning/maintaining one, thus my introductory post here. I'd love to hear ideas/input/advice from you guys. So here's what I know about what I have so far, the neighbors tell me that the previous owner had the three ponds dug 30+ years ago to support trout farming, however, at some point during his ownership the springs dried up some and were no longer sufficient to support the trout operation, they've been untouched for about the last decade. That's pretty much it.


So without further ado, here are my three beauties.

Pond #1 - Upper/Smaller Pond
Elevation 2315 Ft
Perimeter ~65 Ft
Area ~0.01 Ft







There may be an overflow pipe in this pond, but I've never seen it, and if there is one, it's probably plugged, as the overflow runs down the side as a small surface stream down to the middle pond.


Pond #2 - Middle Pond
Elevation 2300 Ft
Perimeter ~200 Ft
Area ~0.1 Acres





Photo of the 3" overflow pipe that I believe flows into the lower pond.



Current tadpole population:



Fish I spotted




Pond #3 - Lower Pond
Elevation 2315 Ft
Perimeter ~65 Ft
Area ~0.01 Ft




Fish I spotted



6" Drain Pipe outlet - A week or so ago, I put a pvc adapter on the end of the pipe that will allow me to raise the water level by adding interchangeable pipe lengths, the adapter alone added about 3 inches of height, and I was surprised that within a day, the pond had filled the additional 3" completely and resumed overflowing through the pipe.




Aerial Photos

GIS



Google Earth



So what do I want with these ponds? I want to enjoy them! I have kids that want to fish and swim in them, and it would certainly be nice to get some fresh fish dinners. Possibly even some electricity generation.

-Thanks

*Edit - Images should now be viewable.

Welcome to Pond Boss! I'm another relatively new pond owner, not an expert, but here's a few ideas...

On the smallest ponds, you might want to consider channel catfish and/or tilapia if you like to eat fish. They are both highly prolific and tasty. The tilapia won't survive the winter, but the CC will. You can raise a bunch in a small pond if you feed & aerate.

In the larger pond, I'd go for classic bluegill & bass combination. You may wish to check out the fishery first to see what's in there, the pic looks like fertile water with maybe lots of small bass. If so, you might want to hit the reset button, or just try to catch out enough little bass to make a difference.

Good luck!

Welcome to the club threeforme, Your ponds have beautiful settings, Congrats!

The first thing that comes to mind to ask is... how deep are they? My little pond was considerable older when I purchased the land, but at 50 years old and only a 1/4 acre...it was silted in to only 2 feet deep. It would have been foolish for me to even try to stock that old hole. So long as you have plenty of depth then managing becomes worth while. 6 years later...I will be stocking fish into a renovated pond that is now 10 feet deep and ready for the challenge.

The second thing I would do is find out what's already there to a high confidence level. Fishing, trapping, and seining would be good start. Do some research on Fish Relative Weights and determine the health of the existing populations. You may find that the pond only need some creative management OR that resetting the pond/s make more sense and starting from scratch.

At any rate, you have come to the right place. PB will allow you to get as deep into your ponds as you can stand! I started researching pond management just a couple years ago and can not get enough.

that looks like a pair of monster crappie in that picture....

You have a great looking property! Make sure you develop a realistic plan for the ponds after gathering more info about how deep they are, types and abundance of vegetation and cover, under water structure and possibly water testing. Are their any signs of these ponds overflowing in the past? Also look out for other wild life that may impact your plants such as otters, great blue heron, cormorants, etc. Research your water shed which directly impacts the ponds - you mentioned the springs drying up, see if you can gauge if you're going to run out of water at some point down the road. think long term

How are your kids going to access the ponds for activities? shore access? docks?

Matt you think the pix is crappie?if they are they are huge!

anthropic, I've heard catfish are good eating, but don't they have stingers? I want to keep the ponds safe for swimming also.

Quarter Acre, that's a good question about depth, I don't have an answer to that yet. Any ideas on the best or easiest way to measure pond depth?


Matzilla, except for the upper pond which overflows through what's now a very small stream down to the middle pond, there aren't any other signs of pond overflow. (the middle and lower ponds overflow piping seems to work well). I haven't seen any otters, herons, or cormorants yet, we'll occasionally get a few geese stop by for a day or two, so far that's been about it, but I don't get monitor it night and day, so who knows what's happening when I'm not watching it.

My first thought is to get a canoe, boat, or raft and a length of rope with a weight and drop the weight down to the bottom, then measure the wetted portion of the rope to give you the depth .I tied knots every foot in the rope, but only needed my paddle after all...pond was only 2 foot deep:( You could do this in several places and record the deepest point, most likely near the center and near the dam. Others with more sophisticated equipment will use "fish finders" that measure and display the depths. With that kind of gear or the rope and some patience, I would suggest drawing a simple map of the pond and grid it off with 5 or 10 foot line spacings. This way you can actually map the bottom which can come in useful for figuring average depth and also to help determine which areas might be good for sinking cover and structure like xmas trees, cinder blocks, and/or rootwads.

If all else fails, get in and bob around. lol

BTW, Your upper pond isn't much to work with as far as swimming goes, but it likely serves a great purpose IF the water that flows into the other ponds passes through the smaller upper pond FIRST. If that is the case, then the upper smaller pond would be considered a sediment pond that helps drop out the silt and such before it goes on down to the remaining two pond. If I had a sediment pond that looked as shallow as yours does (see all the floaty slime? That a good indication of a shallow pond), I would have it dug out a bit just to maximize it's "drop out" ability and consider using it for a forage pond. I'm thinking you could stock minnows in it and use that as feed for the other ponds either as the minnows naturally overflow down stream or by netting them and manually putting them in the other ponds. Something to think about.

Quarter Acre, great ideas! There was a canoe that was left in the woods that I pulled out, you can see the front of it in one of the photos, it's a little banged up, but it floats just fine, when I get an opportunity I'll try to map out the depth, at least of the lower pond.

From what I can tell, the water comes from 3 flowing springs up near the woodline, there's a fourth spring that appears to be seasonal. Most of the water flows from the upper pond, to the middle pond, and then to the lower pond. I say most, because I do get quite abit of runoff when it rains that flows into the lower pond as well. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ponds have springs in them, but I don't know for sure if they do or not.

I haven't heard of swimmers being attacked by catfish, but it is true that a pond dedicated to maximizing CC production is probably not great for human aquatic activities. Too much stuff in the water, even with an aerator.

They have sharp fins that hurt like the dickens when you get finned