We just got the pier posts in place and the bass structure ready for the coming rain. I hear it on the roof right now and wonder who else has a new pond waiting for the rain to come fill it up? Let's share stories as we head in to stocking forage fish!!!

Hope I did not jinx myself.

Good luck, dnorm! You guys have had a tough run in TX so I hope the healing continues!

I need four more feet to get to full pool! But please not all at once

Highflyer: good filling!

Trying to post a few pictures via link:

http://s1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii635/Dnorm11/

I need about 10 feet to full pool, but so far this year we have put on about 7 feet, so you never know! I get excited just looking at the approaching front with 5-6 inches expected in our area. That could give us another 4 feet! I couldn't stand it and put 3 giant male CNBG, 5 RES and 3 large male BG in the pond along with half a dozen females over the weekend. The pond is teeming with insects and larvae. Fatheads go in soon.

Dnorm, nice looking pond. I like your structure.

Captain1: Thank you. A lot of research went into the structure. We left islands and Meadowlark's "bass highways" in the pond while we dug it. My bass structure wound up being a Bass Playground! I might have to register it as a trademark.

We're south of Bonham, so I'm hoping the 5" forecast delivers more than the last one. So far so good!

In Fort Worth, we have gotten 3 inches overnight and more is coming. This may be the one we have needed so badly.. Due to drought, area lakes have been terribly low and we have been under lawn watering restrictions.

I went to my place South of Bowie last Sunday. I hadn't been able to get there in awhile. We had gotten 2.5 inches sometime in the last 2 weeks and my pond had risen about 14 inches but still needed about 4.5 ft to fill. My forage pond also was still about 4 ft low. It rained steadily but lightly there all day yesterday before starting here and it is still coming down. We only got heavy winds, 40 to 50 mph in D/FW yesterday with scattered damage.

I'm expecting about 4.5 to 5 inches at my place by the time this ends. This may be the frog strangler I've been needing.

Brian, I'm afraid that this will be "all at once" whether you like it or not.

Dave, I hope you are getting your frog strangler!!!
We are already full pool and radar indicate rains are approaching Delta County - hope for more flushing via syphon system spillway.
Hard rain should beat down a bad case on FA in little pond.

Brian, your lake is on the rise - can't wait to see it!!!!

Hope no damage for anyone.
Texas weather - drought or flood!

Rained all night here in Lewisville, Texas.

We Need It!

You guys in TX are getting quite a flushing. Everyone stay safe. This has to be one of the strangest weather years.

Just checked and now have 4.5 inches. I dumped it since the gauge doesn't hold over 5 inches. It's still coming. Never figured I'd need a bigger gauge.

Lots of flooding here in the metroplex. Road construction and the rain is creating quite a mess.

Same here - had to take my bumbershoot and check my rain guage after read your report .... I'm just going to let that sucker overflow - that'll be a record!!!

Lewisville Lake is up over a foot since last night (555,000 acre feet). I have to think my little pond is at least half full. It's going to take a ton of willpower not to run out there to check today instead of working!

Some parts of north Texas have had over 10 inches.

Dallas
http://www.localconditions.com/weather-bonham-texas/75418/radar/rain-storm-total.php

Austin
http://www.localconditions.com/weather-austin-texas/73301/radar/rain-storm-total.php

Dnorm....I just put my place for sale yesterday on Lake Fork, so the timing of all this rain couldn't be better. This past summer Lake Fork got as low as I've ever seen it. I would say we lost 10-20% of our trees on the property.

I too always get tempted to jump in the car just to go look at the lake progress. The only thing better is being there in rainwear and boots watching it fill! Here is a site that I use to determine rainfall amounts since the local wood county airport rain guage stopped working months ago. You can zoom in and see rainfall amounts by county.
http://water.weather.gov/precip/

With water still draining....hooray, we have a pond! Time to think about some forage fish!

http://s1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii635/Dnorm11/

I'd say we're about 3 feet shy from being full. We picked up about 9 feet of water!

I just talked to my grandson and he said he can hear the syphon spillway pipe roaring clear across the pasture with him standing on the back patio.
I can barely stand it but he said he will take some pictures for me.
Flushing the toilet removing years of fish poop...

Congratulations. Let the water settle for awhile before stocking.

Glazener Pond
Flood of 03-20-12

Man that is music to my eyes to see that full pool of water in your pond George. Did the rain knock some of the algae down in the little pond?? Still looking at a day when I can bring you some tilapia and maybe a surprise or two.

My lake is 3 feet over pool level, and watershed pasture above my lake is still dumping water.

NOW I have to get one of my neighbors to take a pic, I feel just like its prom night!

George, looking good!

Dnorm, Dave is right, wait a little while and let the sediment settle a bit before stocking. I know it has to be killing you , but your fish will thank you!

Nope – doesn’t look like the rain put a dent in the algae from Garron’s photo – hope it rained hard enough but just a lot of 24 hour rain ….

Need those all male tilapia – they won’t be making love but eating algae for sure ...

Are you guys calling my pond a mud hole?

Seriously, I know you all will say I'll know when the water looks right, but are we thinking a week or a few months?

Also, thoughts on fertilizing it soon?

When it settles, check the alkilinity and PH. Also the clarity re phytoplankton. That could be a month and every pond is different.

Do ponds in your area generally need to be limed and fertilized?

I have been waiting on this kind of rain since my pond was completed, over a year and a half. We received 6.5" Tuesday night into Wednesday. I am now 10" from full pool. another 4" of rain should top it off.

What a difference 3 weeks make! Last week dumped an additional 6 inches of water in our area that resulted in about a 6 foot increase in the depth of our new pond putting us roughly 3.5 feet from full pool! When I arrived at the property after 2 weeks away I was elated to find that our mud hole had turned into a lake. We are up 10 feet in the past 3 weeks. I am losing about an inch per day as the sides wick in the water, but frankly I didn't think that I would see the pond this full any time soon. Another good rain and we will be full! Now its time to re-shoot the spillway and make sure the calculations still hold following soil movement, etc. I am amazed at the water color. The water is a light tea brown probably from all the organic matter in the ravine. I'll give it another week and then add FHM.

I can't seem to bust 6' deep. I lose about 1/2" a day through seepage in the original creek channel and I have about a 20 ac drainage going into an ultimately 14.5' deep, 1 1/4 ac pond. I need at least an inch plus rain to get a decent rise. Earlier this year we were getting a lot of those and there wasn't enough heat to dry out the ground so most of those rains went straight to run off. I was getting maybe 10" of rise for an inch of rain.

But for the last couple of months the rains have all been .2"-.3" which does me no good at all. We finally got a 2.3" rain last weekend but the ground was pretty dry and I didn't get as much rise as I had hoped so now it's back up to about 5' 11". Kind of frustrating when it's peak so far has been at around 6.5', who likes to go backwards?!

The surface area is decent but I need about 3 times the volume to get this thing full. Since we only get about 38" of rain a year here it looks like it may be awhile.

Anyway, I've got my 500 1" BG & 3 lbs of minnows stocked so at least I'm making progress while I wait.

The rocks were all turned up during the dig...arranged as rip-rap:


2 shots looking out over spillway:

Jimmi I feel your pain... I have been sitting at 2 ft below pool since the rains stopped last year. I can not seem to get a good rain this year to bring it to the top. Seems like I will come up half an inch then go three weeks with out a drop of rain.. Hang in there it is bound to happen sooner or later