So just finished meeting with the last of the contractors this morning and have made my decision on which one I will be using to remove my old small silted in pond. The new pond will be in the same area but will be much larger hopefully with any luck close to 1.5 acres. The construction will start this June and I will update this post regularly with new pictures of the going ons.

Have fun and chronicle the journey.

+ 1 on the fun and send pictures when ya can

Started clearing pond area yesterday also drained old pond and burned old brush piles glad to finally be started will post more as it progress's.

Looking forward to taking the trip with you.

Looking good so far. Enjoy the ride!

Makes me want to build another pond! Wish I had done a couple of things differently. I would have liked it about 3-4 ft deeper (max of 11-12 feet) and I would have done a steeper incline at the edges. What IS the perfect pond anyway? I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. Having a pond sure has been an education and will continue to be one.

Second days progress

Third day of construction had my 4 year old stand in the middle for some scale in the last picture.

pics of the finished pond and even got some rain the day after it finished so we already got about 8" of water

Kind of went about it the hard way to water that tree

Looks good. You got it done quickly.

Thanks yes it did go quickly the only problem we ran into was we had to stop at 8 foot deep due to solid rock bottom, but other than that I was very impressed. The contractor was very professional and polite with lots of helpful advice hopefully I can post some better pictures once I get home I work on the road a lot.

I guess I am probably the only person wishing the rain would stop filling my pond lol. It has been raining every day and as quickly as the pond was built its filling up even quicker hopefully it will stop soon and dry out so I can finish building fish structure and my dock.

Of the 2, I think I would go for a full pond. However, I expect you can count on rain more than I can.

Its been very busy and wet since I last posted any progress on the pond. I added as much rip rap as I could and continue to do so even though I am only about a foot from the overflow. Hopefully I can get some more structure in as soon as possible. Here are some pics of the pond since our last rain.

Its been awhile since I have had time to post any progress on the pond, but with a recent vacation I was able to finally enjoy some time at home. Since I last posted grass has grown the clay has settled out and has been replaced with a nice green water. The kids were all able to fish, swim, and kayak. Early this spring I added a Texas Hunter feeder which was well worth the investment by looking at all the pot bellied hybrid bluegill. Of course I am sure the Optimal feed helped with that as well. I wish I had more pictures to post but lost a phone over the vacation so I will just have to post what I have.

Looks great, a slice of Paradise.

Me and the boys built us a mobile fishing platform to leave in the pond. Pretty neat thought I would share some pics of it.

Very cool! It looks like a lot of fun, both the build and it's use.

Thanks I do enjoy tinkering with stuff like that. It drives my wife nuts that I work so hard on my time off lol.

It's not work if your having fun!

Looks amazing, Did your contractor do the entire build with the dozer? I'm wonder how it went when he had to go into the existing hole. There must have been a lot of goo he had to move. Did he get stuck?

Congrats Ozark!!

Bobby- I would have to agree it doesn't feel like work

WW- The contractor actually did a lot of the work with an excavator such as muck removal, core trench, etc. The dozer was mainly used for moving dirt and pushing trees.

TJ - Thanks, really happy with the project as a whole.

Also my wife enjoys watching wildlife around the house so we added about half an acre of food plot between the house and pond. It has came up great and needless to say you cant hardly chase the deer off anymore.

Oz what species did you feature in your fishery?

YP,HBG,RES,HSB,SMB,FHM,GSH

Great combo! How are things going?

Things seem to be going well. The HBG and GSH are thriving for sure. As far as the rest of the fish go I have only caught a handful of YP, but they seem to be in decent shape. I have caught several RES yoy in the minnow trap so that's a relief knowing they took hold. I have only caught 1 SMB shortly after they were stocked. I cant say with certainty but I believe my poor catch rates are attributed to a couple things. One being a full time welfare Heron and the other being lots of forage and pellets. If my catch rates are still low this fall and my RWs are high I will probably add some more HSB and HBG. My average RW on HBG this March was around 98% which I thought was good coming out of winter? Plus I don't start pellets until April. Really interested in getting some RWs this Fall after a much heavier feeding routine this year.