I am sooo glad to have found this forum, my compliments to you all this is great!! I am in south central Missouri, getting ready to build a 1 1/2 acre lake, clearing brush, trees and debris now, i know I need to remove top soil and save it for the dam, but my question is (one of many ) do i need to remove all dirt, gravely dirt and rock from basin till i hit clay (which is about 5 to 6 ft deep)? (In our area what I see most call a pond they call a lake here, I dont know why but correct me on the term).

Hello lbrooks and welcome to Pond Boss.

We use a very technical method to refer to bodies of water (BOW).

If the BOW is on your property it is a lake.

If the BOW is on someone else's property it is a pond.

Hang on for some expert opinions.

lbrooks, welcome to the forum. Have you contacted the NRCS and asked their opinion as to clay/location? If your county guy is not very helpful, give Sid VanDerveen a call in Houston, Mo. He's retired from the NRCS but loves to help out.

When my pond was finally sealed pretty well, under Sid's supervision, we did not line the entire pond with clay. We lined the main pool area then tied the lined clay into a strip running from hill to hill. We took the chance that the clay we tied in to covered the entire upper portion of the pond under the hard pan of gravel mixed soil. It appears to have worked.


FWIW, I'd suggest digging to the clay in the entire pool area as my pond cost 4K to build (wrong) and 20K+ to repair!

Strongly consider getting a copy of "Perfect Pond ... Want One?", absolutely essential for those planning, building, or repairing ponds. You can order a copy here, or try and steal Rainman's.

Be careful, though, he's raised four daughters and knows how to deal with those caught stealin'.

Hi Ibrooks,welcome aboard,we're glad you found us.Im not a dirt expert but you are encountering a difference of opinion already.If its yours and you let ME fish in it,its a lake.If I cant fish in it its a pond,and a pretty poor one too.

Thanks for the info, started today pushing the trees over cutting off root wads and stacking the logs, got a lot of white oak trees to remove and a few hickory and walnut,the root wads has a lot of red clay in them a little sand but not bad. I took a 5 gallon bucket drilled 3, 1/2 in holes in bottom put in 2 inches of rock and then 3 inches of the clay/dirt packed in down a bit and then filled the rest of way with water. After 5 hours I see a couple drops of water under the bucket. Is this a bad sign??

Well the bucket test, seems good to me, its been 27 hours and its down 1/4 inch, my dog probably drank a 1/16 of that!

lbrooks---Welcome aboard--
You will love this place.

The bucket test is about as good as it gets. When you are starting you cannot get to much info. Get the book like Theo Said. Call the people Rainman knows and keep us posted here.

Thanks guys for the info and you all will be welcome to come fish when I complete it!! I have ordered the book and going to subscribe to the mag. also. I have had DNR out, they looked at the place and gave me some topo maps and figured out my water shed, 40 acres will keep a 3 acre lake/pond full. It will be in a valley with another hill coming to a point making the pond like a Y the vally narrows between the 2 hills where I will put the dam, I will post pictures soon. Thanks guys keep any info coming!!

Let us know what you are doing.

Well I have not disappeared, I have been reading the forums and following all, there is a wealth of info here, thank all of you.
Well if I can get a picture posted. This is my pond site picture taken from deck, the red line represents where damn will be located, yellow indicates approx water level.I started clearing trees and brush. The damn would be located on the right and would be 15ft high 150ft long

Maybe this should be in site location. Sorry PB.

It looks good to. What are you doing with the trees?

I was going to sell as logs but no one is buy any now, maybe stack them up for later, make the rest into fire wood. the trees are most white oak and a few hickory and walnut.

What kind of Walnut? Black Walnut is worth some serious money!

That might depend on where in the country you are at, here guys are getting just as much for walnut that isn't veneer quality as they get if it's cut up and sold as firewood.