I have been lowering my pond to retrieve dead bluegill (see my other post-"more dead bluegills") so I thought I would share a few pics of my structure that was placed when the pond was built.

Is that a Crash-Test-Dummie in the 3rd picture???

Looks like a beautiful place to me. The man kinda threw me off lol.

TJ, that is actually a little concrete statue of a boy fishing. there is no telling how old it is. My childhood best friend found it and wanted me to have it. the head was broken off, but I glued it back on. He needs a little fishing pole to make him complete.

there are also a few steel targets hanging here and there for me to shoot with my old 22's.

Good Looking place there Scott. I agree that your little buddy needs an ole cane pole with a bobber out there on the pond. Looks like several spawning beds in the pictures also.

"TJ ?"

Man alive!!! You sure know how to wreck a guy's morning!!!!


(kidding! But TJ is a freak!)

Sorry about that Sunil. I have no idea why I said TJ.. Ole TJ is an alright dude though. If not for him and soilfloc my pond might look "lowered" more often.

bigpullerman- yes there are spawning beds in several places. I saw several in places I wasn't expecting, especially some in deep areas.

My 'Bama bros watch my six - I'm grateful.

Scott...that water visually sure looks healthy to me...I mean I see no signs of excess nutrients in the way of FA, etc. I'm really eager to see what your pond water analysis yields as we all can benefit from this educational experience.

BTW - beautiful looking place you have there...can't wait to swing by one of these days. I've gotta see your Brutegills feeding.

Water does look good. Time to add more structure if needed. Some new water might help reduce any water quality issues. Remember that the fish still there are operating in much less vol of water until refill.

Scott are you siphoning bottom, anoxic, nutrient rich layers? If so, should help with water quality issues [if any exist] when you refill later. Lusk/Eric often recommend removing a few feet of bottom water with siphon if one suspects quality issues...so that's going in your favor.

i should have taken a pic of the 3 bottles of water today. there was way more color to the pond sample than the stream sample. i've had a little fa in the past, but not much. i usually shoot it with cutrine.
you are welcome to swing by anytime. unfortunately i think it will be a while before we get to watch a good feeding event. i do have old videos though of them..ahh the memories.

i never really wanted any cover much for the bg. i wanted to keep the reproduction rates down with bass predation. i am kinda thinking i may need to add some cover for some of the little ones in there to hide. these warm evening have the bass in high gear. they are wearing the 1-2" bg out.
also i have a really good stream below my pond with an electric pump. i used it to top it off during a dry summer of 2017 and then i put it on a timer in 2018 to run a few hours about dark. that was my aeration-cool water blasting in. i took a sample of that water today also, just to make sure it was pure. there is no ag runoff at all upstream. the closest house is about half mile or more away through the woods. i had winterized the pump, but i started it back up today to help fill the pond for the reason you stated. also, i have a good flow of water coming in the from the stream that feeds the pond.

i actually have a separate pipe installed in the bottom of my pond. it is 4" diameter with the valve on the dry side. it runs straight thru the dam and pulls from the bottom/deepest point. i have a traditional standpipe and this 4" pipe is buried right beside it. so it pulls right off the bottom. the guy that built my first pond recommended doing that. it wasn't my idea, but i would suggest anyone building a pond to do it. it is so easy to just open a valve and pull bad water off the bottom, i have even opened it during a huge rain event to keep it from going over the emergency spillway.

the pvc valve on the end of the pipe is just a backup in case the main valve was to go bad. in the second pic you can see a black corrugated pipe sticking up about a foot above the ground. the main valve is down in it. it is kind of underground. i keep a piece of plywood over the top to keep rain out of it and to keep it from freezing. i figured adding the 4" pvc valve on the end of the pipe was cheap insurance in case the other one failed.

Day-um that's some water moving...

[quote=scott69]the pvc valve on the end of the pipe is just a backup in case the main valve was to go bad. in the second pic you can see a black corrugated pipe sticking up about a foot above the ground. the main valve is down in it. it is kind of underground. i keep a piece of plywood over the top to keep rain out of it and to keep it from freezing. i figured adding the 4" pvc valve on the end of the pipe was cheap insurance in case the other one failed.


A wise man at work there !! I will never put a valve on the water side of the dam. Back ups and careful thought should go into any water control system - failure is not an option !!!