Good day, found this site and have lots of questions and need advice. I live in northeast Wisconsin and dug a pond last fall. The pond is 200 ft long and about 190 wide. The ground around this area is entirely sand. The pond is being fed by several small springs, however with the lack of rain has dropped about 4 feet. The pond is around 26 ft deep and in the shallow end is 10 -12 ft deep. I just installed a windmill for aeration and have 3 defusers going. The water at the bottom is cold, need to drop a thermometer and find out exactly how cold. Very little if any vision at the bottom, water is almost black. I have hundreds of small green frogs that were tadpoles. I would like to ensure I am doing everything right for the pond to be sucessful. No plans for it other than stocking and occasional fishing.
I would like to stock the pond with some fish. I was just going to stock with some minnows this year and then next year I would like to stock trout and maybe bluegill but nothing else. Does this sound like the right approach? What type of minnows should I place and how many?
Second question, should I have the water tested?
Third question, the banks are sand. I want to get some sort of grass/ground cover on the banks to control erosion. What should I plan? Last fall I broadcast rye seed to just get some ground cover. The pond overflowed this spring so I am going to raise the banks 14 to 16 inches higher. There will be topsoil around it.
I want this pond to succeed but control what goes into it.
The pond sits on 40 acres and there are trees around it but 50 60 feet away. Should I place any type of debris in the water for fish cover? I have placed some rocks on one bank and down into the water to cover a PVC pipe that the defuser tubes run through. The bottom is bare sand. No signs of weed growth anywhere yet.
As I gather rocks I plan on placing them along the banks to help control erosion, but this process will take a few years.
Please chime in with suggestions, recommendations.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Ben,welcome to the forum.Sounds like your on your way to having your own little slice of heaven.Hold on,and the experts will be along shortly.You can also learn alot from reading past posts in the various blogs around here.

Ben:

Welcome to the forum. I have a groundwater pond dug in sandy soil and I can relate to the ups and downs of the water level. For fish, you are going the correct route in stocking the feeder minnows first. One thing, research where you are getting your minnows from. You could introduce unwanted species along wtih the minnows pretty easily.

I'll defer to some of the experts here on what to stock fish/minnow wise, and where to get them. At this late in the season, I think the only minnows that will pull off a successful spawn or 3 this year will be Fathead Minnows (FH) that I think are sold in your area as crappie minnows.

As for structure, yes you should have some. The minnows and baby fish will need something to hide in, and some structure will be needed for the minnows to spawn on. Fish will orientate to the structure as well, and it will make finding the fish in the winter easier if you are planning on doing any ice fishing.

The rye grass will do a good job of covering the soil, but if you are having a hard time getting it to grow well, you should have your soil tested and apply the recommended fertilizer and adjust the pH if necessary. There are places that sell seeds for shore cover, but the prices might suprise you. A couple are Spencer Nursery and JF New. I don't know of any good fish suppliers in Wisconsin, but I'm sure someone here does. Buying the minnows from a supplier will be cheaper and you'll most likely get better quality fish than buying them from a local bait shop.

Here are a couple of things for you to read and look at until the experts start responding to your questions.

Structure

Aeration

Fatheads

Acronyms

Structure Placement

Happy reading!

A couple of things:

With the 4' fluctuation of water level, you will have a hard time getting anything to grow well in that area. Most emergent plants can live with 12" or so of water fluctuation, but not much more than that.

You could have the water tested, but you could take a floating minnow bucket, put a dozen minnows in it, and float it in the pond for a day or so. If the minnows are still looking O.K., then testing isn't required.

The more that you read here, the more you will find out that the answer is "it depends". With ponds, nothing is written in stone, there are too many variables. What might be perfect for your situation, might not be for someone else that has different goals and/or who lives in a different climate. People down South don't have to worry about ice and snow cover for 6 months out of the year, etc.

I'd love to have Coppernose Bluegills in my pond, but they won't survive the cold weather.

BFM, Welcome to another Trout propigator, there is plenty of valuable info here, and as these guys have said take time and research past posts.
Golden shiners would be a great addition, but early spring would probably be a better time to stock adult GSH.
Feeding your Trout and bluegill (pumpkinseeds) would help them grow faster, and I would also like to plug the use of artificial floating islands to increase biodiversity in your pond.
Good Luck.

esshup, Thanks for the great info, good reading indeed.

Ben

Adirondack pond,

Please tell me more about the artificial floating island.

Ben

Ben, here's some links with different ways of building them.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...h=true#Post7316

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=174474&fpart=1

Welcome to the forum! As a former native to WI, I can say that your black water is a product of the environment. With WI being a big nasty marsh pit and all of the evergreens/cedars everywhere the water is normally stained that color. Your pond might be a bit acidic but I don't know with the spring feeding your pond. Ewest's suggestion is a good one with testing the water out with minnows. As a person that ventures up every year to meet my father and brother (they still live in the Fox Valley area) to go grouse hunting, I can say your probably going to be fine with Trout and minnows surviving the black waters as we do alot of fishing, when hunting is slow and most of the waters in the Northern area of the state and the Western area are stained black. The sand is going to be a problem because it allows both water to enter and leave and most of WI is made of sand with the southern parts half sand/half clay. It's too bad you couldn't have trucked in some clay to seal up the sides and bottom.

Good luck with your new pond and wishing you many happy memories. Seen any grouse this year?

Don't know how far you are from Argonne, but I just was up some months ago picking up my new brittany pup to compliment my aging one for continuing the saga of bird hunting.

ceadmin: I hear that the grouse are almost at their highest point of their "up" cycle. Hopefully hunting should be good this year. As you know, just watch the dogs in wolf areas.

BFM: I've caught some pretty big brookies in the Stevens Point area years ago in the local ponds. What trout were you thinking of?

esshup,

Thought I'd try Rainbow trout.

ceadmin,

Located outside of Marinette, WI. Yes, I agree the water will probably always be black. Was hoping it would clear up some. Digging this pond cost a small fortune as it was, two excavators going for 10 days. Figure we dug and moved about 15,000 cy. Couldn't afford to truck in clay, kept the sand on site and filled in where I want to build next year.

To all,
Everyone has given lots of good info that will take awhile to digest. After raising the berm another foot or so and adding topsoil, should I try to plant anything special or just rye. The pond is going to be enlarged slightly this fall. I'm not happy with one side of it. But all in all a nice little pond, that's pretty deep. Please keep the suggestions coming, if anyone thinks of something I should be doing.

Regards,
Ben

I would plant the annual rye to hold the soil in place. You can also look at planting any of many wild flowers, sedges and grasses that like wetter areas to add interest to your pond. There are many ideas in some of the other threads on here.