I am planning starting construction on a second pond. Last year I had a 1 acre pond built and it has turned out well. We are blessed with clay in the previous spot and in this new spot is also laden with clay. I have an experienced pond builder but he is not a fisherman and knows nothing about habitat or others features that people may want in a fishing pond. My initial layout has an island, and several fingers and I plan on creating a lot of structure using rocks, pallets, metal, cement blocks, etc.
I will also build fathead minnow fortresses for them to spawn and evade predators also. This pond will be filled entirely by rain from a 180 acre watershed.
My main question is are there some major things to keep in mind when creating a pond? This whole pond thing is frustrating because there seems to be hundreds of experts that all have different ideas about how to build a pond and what to stock in it. This will be built in Southwest Wisconsin.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions that I am missing

In my area (West Central Missouri), watershed to pond surface acreage ratio rule of thumb seems to be 10 to 1. That's 10 acres of watershed for every 1 surface acre of pond water. Make sure you consider the local ratio for your new pond build.

And, if money allows...build a sediment pond up stream, so to speak, from your pond to catch debris and run-off soils. This pond could also harbor FHM's and act as a forage pond as well. I wish I had one.

In my opinion, islands are not so great. They look cool and lend themselves to a unique pond, but they aid the "filling in" of the pond over time. I would rather have a deep pond all the way across than the aesthetics of an island that allows more vegetation and speeds up the eutrophication process.

If the watershed is 180 acres, the pond should be a minimum of 10-12 acres, or that's too much watershed.

I have seen ponds with too much watershed like that, and they get deltas in the upper end in only a couple of years, and have washouts, and lose lots of fish.

If it's a smaller pond, please consider diverting some watershed, or at a minimum, consider building a fairly large detention pond or sediment pond upstream.

Thanks for the feedback. I do believe that I will need to downsize that watershed by building a berm or two to eliminate some of those acres from going into this pond or it would back up on the neighbor's property.
I appreciate the info on an island and the sediment pond.

I am also planning on putting in breaker rock on the waterside of the damn to prevent muskrats from digging into the damn. Would the top 10 feet in breaker rock of the damn be adequate to prevent muskrats from causing issues or would I need that rock from top to bottom in the damn?

Hi! Keep in mind that it’s not really the watershed size that will keep water off your neighbor, rather it’s the elevation of your pipe or spillway the will keep water off your neighbor. Example: If your spillway crest is at 1500’ elevation and your property line in the upstream channel is at 1499’, you will flood water over the property line regardless of your watershed size, it just might take a little longer to do so with a smaller watershed.

As a rule of thumb, when laying out a pond, I keep the top of the dam elevation (which is usually about 2’ above the spillway elevation, but can vary based on the amount of flow your spillway is designed to handle) at or below the property line elevation. That way I never have to worry about flooding the upstream neighbor. In the example above, I would set the top of dam about 1498.5’ or so.

Good luck!

What I can suggest is to research more by watching videos that is readily available online. I have learned a lot from the Pond Guy and other pond makers and enthusiasts.