I just closed on 4.4 acres just North of Austin, TX. Plan is to build on and move to the land when feasible. It has a pond and creek as well. Heres and over head shot showing the .25acre pond. The pond is all watershed and was probably a stock tank before the neighborhood was created and it was all a ranch. I'm not sure how deep it is as i just closed and haven't waded out yet. It at least 4' deep though and clear. I haven't seen any fish in the pond at all. A few turtles and frogs though. I've only seen a few small fish in the creek. The neighbors say that they have seen the pond completely dry during our drought, but one good rain and it would fill right up.



I've been visiting it regularly since about christmas time and the water level has dropped about 6-10" from this picture. This is the dam from opposing angles.




You can see it hasn't been taken care of at all and has overgrown.



I have 3 really good leaks that i think are lowering the water level. The first one is the furthest and the other two are right at the base of the dam.

One here:


And two that merge before all 3 merge and lead to the creek


A few pics of how clear the water is and the creek.




I'm hoping that i can find the leaks and maybe some SoilFloc or bentonite (if it drys up) will help. I do not plan on re-diging the pond.

So where do i start? Pull up everything with a trunk less than 4" diameter from the dam? I appreciate any and all recommendations.

Welcome to the forum SNKETR! You can find lots of good, sound advice here.

Do you have any specific goals yet for the pond? I realize it's not easy to set long term goals before you even know what you have. I observed our pond for two years before I established my somewhat changeable goals. Any preferred fish? Want it for a swimming hole? Aesthetic addition to your home viewshed? Where might the home site be?

That is some amazingly clear water. And a troublesome erosion gully, at least in the first "leak" pic. Is water leaking/running out of the pond right now? I ask this 'cause it looks like a small waterfall in that pic. I'm assuming that is not a pic of the creek.

It could be eventually helpful for us to know the present water depth, what that underwater vegetation is, that there are positively no fish presently in the BOW, plenty of other things too.

It looks to me that you have quite a bit of potential there. Congrats!

No real specific goals. Kinda all of the above that you mentioned. The home site is going to have to be to the South East. I'm probably going to have to take out the two large oaks there to have enough space to build.

It's actually ice during our last freeze a month ago. You don't actually see a steady stream of water from either, but there is always standing water. the first one always has standing water and the 2nd/3rd start with about 30' of just mud before they turn into standing water. When all 3 merge about 50' from the creek it turns into a stead stream. I'll try to remember to get a video and or pictures next time I'm out there.

Thanks! I'll pull samples of all the underwater vegetation as well next trip, and see about the water depth.

I plan to spend this year watching everything before i try to stock it. Might even buy a game cam or time lapse camera. It's only about 15min from where i currently live so i'll be out there regularly when I'm not traveling for work. I might get my trimmer and cut all the overgrown banks.

Went out yesterday to talk with my builder. I still haven't seen a single fish in the pond and I really don't think there are any. It went dry a couple years ago in the drought, and i'm fairly certain nobody has stocked it.

Looks like I have some FA starting to show up.


Looks like 90% of the pond bottom is covered in this stuff. Muskgrass?



And another picture of the dam. I'm taking the weed eater out next time around.

Update:

Sent off water to TAMU for analysis. We'll see what they say. Saw the water level drop about 6" from full pool over 5 days. We'll see how much further it has dropped when i get back in town, since we haven't had any rain.

My girlfriend's son went in to check the water depth. About 8' from the shoreline at full pool it is about 5' deep and the middle is at least 7'. He's 5'7" and couldn't touch the bottom with his head barely under the water. So actually pretty happy with the depth and consistency of the depth.

Still haven't seen a single fish. Some neighborhood kids pulled out a 1'lb bass out of the creek though. I'm thinking about stocking the creek as well.

Spent some time cleaning up the near side with the brush cutter. Haven't had the time to cut the far side yet.

Before:



After: Starting to green up as well.



Here's more general pictures of the pond as well. Shows that pretty much 100% of the pond bottom is covered in veg. On the recommendation of Todd i submitted my application for grass carp a couple weeks ago.





Is this a willow? You can see it in the first picture of this post as well. Should i pull it or cut it regardless before it does more damage or grows larger?

Yes, that is a willow. Grow crazy fast. I have large (30 feet tall) willow trees all around my pond that I would like to cut down but the wife won't let me. If it was further out in your pond and provided a little bit of cover for your fish I would say leave it for a while but being almost completely out of the water I would cut it down. I have been told that a willow tree can suck up 100 gallons of water a day.

Enjoying your thread and pictures. I can't tell you what to do about the willows, but I can tell you if left unchecked, willows will grow like wildfire. I have them all around my pond and a few of them are 30' tall.



Looks like me and N.Texas are in the same boat without a paddle.

Thanks, the willow is gonna end up being removed. Hopefully i can pull it out otherwise it's getting cut and sprayed.



Thanks! I'm kinda using this thread as a log for me. It helps with everyones input and i can track the dates i post.

So the last pictures were from last weekend. These are from yesterday. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I'm almost down 1' from full pool or the highest i've seen it. You can really tell the difference because there is a lot more muskgrass that is touching the surface now.

I'm making it out there about once every 5 days to at least check on it and see what has changed. I have been traveling a lot for work lately and it doesn't look like it'll be slowing down so actual work on the land & pond is going to be minimal.

With that much vegetation I'd be tempted to throw the correct dose of SONAR in there (probably not much more than an ounce but someone here can help you calculate it) and in 30 days you will have a very clear bottomed pond. You can then better assess how much muck/debris is on the bottom and then plan your strategy from there.

Had about an hour total of rain today with 20-30min of it being really strong thunder storms here in central tx. This is the pond yesterday:



This is it today:



Also notice I cut down the willow. It wasn't going to be feasible to pull so i just cut it about 18" from the ground and sprayed it was a broadleaf killer. We'll see if that manages it. This is the highest i've seen the water. It rose about 12" with just that little rain.



Unfortunately it doesn't look like SONAR will work on Chara.

It's been a little over 3 weeks since i've had time to work on the land. Here's a picture from yesterday of the pond. Same position to compare it to the picture from my last post.



A little closer



And one more from the top of the dam.




I'm gonna have to figure something out. Maybe if it gets low enough i'll have a bunch of bentonite thrown on it and worked in. I'm also considering a trash pump from the creek once a week as an option.

SNKETR,
Looks like you've got an exciting project going on here. It's amazing what a little TLC will do to a neglected place. I'm sure you will get your leaks sorted out. There's a lot of wisdom here on the forum. The guys will not lead you astray. Keep posting your improvement pics. Welcome....

Thanks! Yea, we'll see how far it comes by the time I'm ready to build.

Here's a current pic for comparison. Lost a lot of water since the last picture. Probably down 2.5'-3' eyeballing it from standing at the present water line.



This picture was taken from opposite the dam.



And this it a close up picture of the dam soil.



There is a lot of sludge in the pond, and when walking on the dead chara it's real easy to slip. Almost tempted to dig out the sludge while the water is down.

I also have A LOT of crawfish, and big ones at that!