Hi all! I've been lurking for awhile... Trying to learn the ways of the pond bosses while I searched for property. I've pulled the trigger and I'm officially an owner! My wife and I bought 83 acres in eastern NC. Has 2 ponds on it already and borders a third... On my property one of the two was for sand pit use (very shallow 3ftish about an acre) and one was used to build a road (a little deeper but no idea how deep, 1/4 acre ish). The bordering pond was also a sand pit(long ago) but has fish. I don't think either of mine has any fish. We are planning on making the land an estate for generations to come and will eventually (10ish years from now) build a house and a 10-15 acre pond. But for now it's going to be our playground.
So some questions... How should I proceed with the ponds on my property? Where do I start?? I'm thinking the L shaped shallow sand pit pond should stay as is. It seems too shallow and clear for any real fishing. In the pics it looks muddy but thats actually the bottom sand.
The smaller one I think I could make work as a fishin hole and later on as a stocking pond for my 10+ acre one. It clearly needs aeration and an outlet just to keep the top from being stagnant (as you can see in the pic).
The pond that I border looks to be in excellent shape for fishing and I want to enhance what is already there. I'm sure my neighbor is ok with me making it better for hunting/fishing but I want a solid plan before I present it to him.

Soil is very sandy, but a high water table.

Sorry for the rambling but I wanted as many opinions, suggestions, and comments as I could get. I'm so excited about it I can't stop smiling

This site is amazing btw my wife loves to give me hell at the hours I've spent here.
Great to be aboard!!

Congrats! I know how you feel. Sometimes I feel like an immature kid here playing amongst the adults. It's good to hear someone else that has that new kid excitement. Everyone here is happy to help. Fortunately for you there are lots of people close to you to learn from. Welcome aboard!

Hey JN; welcome to the show.

Welcome to Pond Boss...a lot of good info here!

Welcome to the forum,
I am new as well to the pond management thing. But my understanding is that sandy soil will not help you any, also I read on one of the forums about a "Bucket test" where you put some of the material in a bucket and add water to the top let it sit outside and see if rain can keep up with evaporation and leakage. (May want to do some soil tests around your property before getting your heart set on a location and it turns out to be a hard soil to work with, also causing you to truck in loads of material at a hefty cost.)

Someone with way more experience than me will be along shortly I'm sure to give you some good insight. I am by no means a pro, also just learning my 2 cents follow

If you use google you can just type in "bucket test site:pondboss.com" it pulled up a lot of hits and limits it to this forum.

I also read someone had a way to test how deep the pond was without getting wet it involved a float, a weight and some line. The actual setup escapes me but I imagine it is based of a sliding bobber theory.

By the looks of your pond you are experiencing similar issues that I am the thin film I believe to be pollen as mine cleared up naturally after that season passed. The darkness is caused by what I think is to many nutrients and dead leaves making the muck layer thick. My plan for my property is cutting out a good amount of the newer medium to small sized trees. I like the look of old growth trees better personally. Then I will also be aerating(for muck control) and adding water(to fight a growing weed issue)

I am working on cutting my trees back currently.

Hope this helped some and have a good day

Beautiful ponds, welcome aboard.

There is seems to be tons of row planted pines on the property. Are you going to log them, or leave the property as it is?

Thanks for the info and great welcome guys!!

Love the comments! Keep them coming!

As far as the sand, I don't think it's gonna be a problem bc the low water table. Sand pits have a much harder issue keeping water out even tough it's pure sand. Now will I have a fluctuating level? I'm guessing yes. I'm planning on having a well to supplement rainfall and add water features.

Great idea about the small trees! The rows of pines are about 35 yrs old. I'm gonna log just for the large pond but keep everything as wooded as possible. I love the trees.
Cutting out the small trees will help the larger one grow I'm guessing?

I've also got a ton of seed to replant the logged portions.

Welcome!! I have a high water table pond as well with a 3 to 5 foot deep sand layer down 4 or 5 feet. My water level this first year varied from full to grade to down about 4 feet. The pond is only about 1/4 acre now so I can still easily adjust the water level with the well pump if required. My only advice is when you get around to digging that well, figure how much water you will need for the house and the pond then double that and size the well and pump accordingly.

What kind of pond are you thinking that 10 to 15 acre pond will be in the future, i.e. dug, dam, etc?

Good advice on the well! I'm thinking something that can supply a hunting cabin and do minor adjustments on the existing two ponds. Then in the future use it for the 10 acre pond since I have no other water source to dam... Why it will be a dug pond.

I'm planning on using as much wind/solar as possible.

Sounds like a great project! I know that big pond is way in the future so I suggest if you ever have cause to have a guy doing any back hoe or track hoe work on the property between now and then, have him dig a few test holes where you plan on putting that pond. One thing I would do is time how fast the hole fills from the water table. That info could help a lot when the time for the big pond grows near and you are planning on what it will take to dig it.

Hopefully, one of the experts will jump in with a comment on how big a well would have to be to actually control a 10 acre water table pond above the existing water table. My thought is, you will just have to plan the pond with sufficient depth to live with whatever mother nature provides as far as water table.

Unfortunately, you won't know for sure how big of a well you will need until the pond is dug and you see how fast the water level fluctuates. My personal pond is dug in sand also, with a high water table in the area during wet years. During dry years, it can drop 6' from full pool. My pond is 1 to 1 1/4 acre at full pool.

Since the majority of cover for fish is in the upper 8' of water (and for juvenile fish it's in 4' or less of water), I have a hard time getting recruitment. The large fish eat all the small ones once they don't have a place to hide. Plus all the cover is out of the water and looks ugly.

When my pond is 5' below full pool, I pumped water into it and measured the amount that the pond water level rose. I can pump 25 gpm in to the pond. I found out that at that level, I lose 18 gpm from leakage. If the pond was at full pool, and the water table was at a low level, I'm guessing that I could have somewhere around 40-50 gpm leaking out, but that's just a WAG. I do know that at 36" or so below full pool the well will not raise the water level at all pumping 24/7 at 25 gpm. So, with the increased area of the pond bottom at full pool, and the increased psi on that pond bottom, I'm guessing that I'll see a much greater gpm loss.

Found out today it's all clay 4-5 feet down after the sand. It's why they stop digging and why the sand pits don't drain. Good news for me.

Saw multiple 7+ acre ponds on the adjacent land so when it's time to build big I should be ok. I've got the highest ground around

We hit a sand seam right under our dam during the build. That was 5 months and 5 million gallons ago. Everything holding fine and I hope you have the same outcome.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=393928&page=1

Hey Jnarronecu,

Not sure why you think your high ground is a good thing when digging a pond. Won't the neighbors be getting the water shed? Won't your water table be lower than theirs from grade? Do those other ponds have wells? Or are you thinking since the sand pit has water now, even though you are the highest land, you will be good to go? I am a newbie too so I am not saying you are wrong, just wanting to learn.

Been awhile lol.
I was referring to building a house when I said I was excited about the high ground. With the way the topo is, a large pond will be built in the watershed. I'm prob going to supplement mine with a well. But this is a long ways off.
For the existing ponds i need advice. I'm thinking the smaller deeper pond will be better for a fishing hole. Should I drain it and see what I've got?

I don't have the answer to your question but I sure do like your ponds!

Hey Jnarronecu, Welcome to BP. Lot of great info here as you may have read. I would reccomend getting the Perfect Pond want one book read it and continue to research until you feel a bit more comfortable with what you want to do.

But just for some Ideas from my looking at your pic's and what you wrote, I would say this. It might be good, if your pond(s) holds water do not mess with it and consider it or those a brood ponds as a management tool for a larger 10 or 15 acre lake that could help same some money when stocking day(s) come plus you may be able to grow out some FHM/CNBG/or other fish for that matter.

If you have a site and it appears you do for the big lack you could dig a pond of 1/2 to 1 acre that is feed from the runoff of the others until you build the big one. A well could feed the smaller pond area and hard plastic pipe to the others or the larger pond/ Lake to control water/fish etc...

Core samples will help you a lot as suggested and the existing ponds may serve a purpose even though they are shallow, and as some here will say "IT DEPENDS" and it does.

You found a great place to start hear and a way to not only save money but a bunch of headaches if you read through many of the problems that others have had and solved here.

Good luck and welcome again. FYI I am just a novice and offer opinions only. East TX and NC are two different for me to make a lot of particular suggestions on fish.

So finally got back out to the property this past weekend!
Went fishing on one of the three ponds... Zero bluegills. Lots of small to medium LMB. Clearly we need some forage and restocking ideas. I'd like to keep this one as a "trophy bass pond" or "experiment pond". The second larger pond hasn't been fished yet, but we can see lots of fish. That one will be managed more for wildlife and beauty (more aquatic plants, etc) with it being so shallow and I don't want to worry if it drops too low. Turtles and ducks will hopefully love this pond.
The smaller 1/3 acre pond also hasn't been fished,but I don't think anything has been stocked in there. We will find out soon as my bro has caught the pond bond itch, so be nice when he joins It is however, very deep...but being surrounded by trees I'm hoping some cover has fallen in. This pond will be our primary management pond (until the 10+acre lake is built) since it is where a cabin will be built with hopefully a panfish haven out back. Here's the goal you guys always ask for ----->>> We want to catch and EAT! Panfish panfish panfish!!!! I know, needs a lot of work. Zero aquatic plants (on any of the ponds). Steep banks. No food chain at this time. So once we figure out what's in there fishwise, we can get going on stocking!!

So one question... Options for good eating fish in eastern nc? Bluegills our best option? The pond is too small for catfish I'm guessing. LMB not tasty enough? Perch? Sunfish? Crappie seem to take over?

As always any thoughts, comments, critiques are welcome!! Thanks again everyone

Just some more pics of one of the larger ponds for fun.... You can see the fish in the he middle in the water, and minnows in the shallows

Anyone know of any reputable places for pond plants and fish stocking in eastern NC?

And two copies of perfect pond on the way

Looking at the second pic you posted just above, consider clearing the trees from immediately around the pond. I know that will be a lot of work, but all the leaves pictured use up the oxygen in the water to break down. Less O2 in the water = bad for fish.

I'd rather have nature than fish in that pond. Thanks for the advice though!!!

Or just aeration?

So my bro seined our J shaped pond yesterday. Got 7 or so bluegills and these two mystery fish. Can anyone help identify??

Top 2 look like Gambusia, bottom one is a Largemouth Bass that is 1-2 months old.

Thank you for the info! More updates to come about what we've found... But I've gotta pack so I can be 15 min away from the ponds instead of 15 states away!!

Lumber River Native Plants is in NC. I have used them quite a bit for all the sedges, rushes, picklerweed, iris, duck potato, etc so far. Great prices, good advice, and good people. Jeep is the guy I work with. Look up their website. They list what they have.