We are almost completed with our renovation and will allow the lake to fill back in anytime now we get enough rain. Link below explains the project and has new pics showing our structure holes we had dug out, and the cover we placed in various spots around the lake bottom. There are a lot of pics on this page, so if make take a while to load. Bring on the rain!!!!!!!!! New pictures of our lake renovation and the story!!

looks great, i bet your like a big kid grinning from ear to ear with a new toy huh?!! keep us posted. mark

My grin has stretched past my ears.......I must have surgery now!!!!!!!!

That is really nice! Are you planning an aerial photo before you flood it? You could keep it as a map later.

I wish I new someone who could take me up to take some pics!! Instead, I have a big plat of the lake and I'm going to measure and mark the channel, the deep holes, and the cover locations on this plat. I'm also going to bring the GPS with me as well and mark the spots with it, recording there exact locations on the map.

Brian, there are usually plenty of pilots at the local light aircraft airport, who need to fly so many hours/yr to maintain their certification. I am not sure that they can even accept payment of any kind, when they just have a private licence.
They are usually a friendly bunch and may even take you up with them to take the pictures yourself.

The Pennsylvania DEP had arial photos of my land and lake. There was an area just adjacent to my land that had some old mining high walls. They contacted me and asked to meet me there for permission to reclaim those areas.

At that time, they had arial photos of my land. They gave me two photos & if I had stereo scope glasses, you could put them together and see it in 3D relief.

Your lake is going to be awesome. 55 acres..Damn!

Just wondering, what kind of fish are you going to put in it.

Thanks for the info. Ed and I will check into that.

Someone asked about stocking......Well we now presently have 1/2 the lake full fish that used to be in the whole lake. We have been advised that the fish would not likely relocate to the renovated side again. We are now preparing to stock our bream in the existing channel that has filled in, and will follow with a native bass stocking in early 2004. Basically, we are now treating the renovated side as a seperate lake.

P.S.: the side with the fish in it now has some nice 5 and 6 pounders!!!!!!

Brian; regarding the photos. A private pilot showed up at our door a couple of years ago with pictures of our house area for sale for $25.00. He had flown over every house in the area, snapped pictures, and started peddling them. I expect a lot of private pilots would cut a deal with you.

Dave

What is a reasonable cost to dig two three acre ponds 12-15 feet deep along a creek that is dry, down near Greenville in open pasture? How long should it take?

Thanks,

LF

First question: Why 12 to 15'deep???

Cause it takes dang near that much water (once it fills up ) to have any water left over from the summer round here!!

Big body of water brian !!! Question why not crappie? Are stockind crappie in this ocean of water?

Most publications (including pondboss) recommend not stocking crappie in lakes or ponds smaller than 500 acres.

Specifically though, we don't want the competetion for food. We are more geared toward a good bass/bream based lake. Crappie in small inpoundments can cause more probems that they are worth.

I updated the lake site today......added some older pics during draining, and put them in order.......I hope these are helpful to someone.

Let's tackle the crappie thing.
Pond Boss doesn't recommend crappie in lakes smaller than 20 acre. Crappie need bigger water, open areas with deep water structure and cover. But, the biggest issue is their spawning habits. Crappie, both species, are erratic spawners, spawn first each year, and are top line predators with a limited mouth size.
Largemouth bass, for example, can eat their own brothers and sisters. Crappie can't. So, too many crappie can survive, while competing for a limited amount of food. When that happens, crappie overpopulate and stunt. Throw in the fact they spawn first each spring, and baby crappie are feeding on baby bass, baby bluegill...you see the pattern.
Only larger lakes can properly support crappie for the long haul.

My bad Bob......

Once again looking back over my lake notes I found that the Ms. folks don't recommend putting crappie in lakes under 500 acres.....

I have however seen numerous post which strongly recommend not putting crappie in smaller lakes..

I your lake is managed properly and you have heavy fishing pressure..go for it. Nothing eats better!!!!!