Hi Guys,

I have been lurking and compiling information around here for a little while now, but finally decided to post. I will be getting permits shortly and then be ready to start the excavation of my pond and I'm looking for a little advise from the experts here.

For a little background, I will be excavating the pond in a former farm field 100' behind my house that is basically flat and is getting planted into native grasses. It will be filled with naturally high ground water and minor run off. As I am working on layout elevations, I might be able to connect a one acre seasonal wetland that I am also installing to act as an over flow to the farm ditches. I am shooting for about one acre of surface area and around 20' of depth. I will be performing the excavation and dirt handling myself, so I will have control over every aspect of the project.

I want to use the pond for BG, LMB, CF and would entertain trout as my neighbor has some in his. The fish will mostly be to entertain my three young kids, but I want to make the habitat as good as I can. I will also be putting in a small beach for the wife and kids. I am a wildlife guy at heart, so I would like to see the pond created in a fashion that makes it fishable, swimable and also visually pleasing.

I have attached a drawn topo of what I was thinking the bottom contours should entail. I have created a couple flat shallow areas with gravel for BG spawning (3-5' deep) and added trenches to allow the bass to travel from the deep water to the shallows to feed. I also added two underwater peninsulas that I figured I can put some artificial tree habitat in 7-10' of water.

Do you think I should change the bottom contours any or just roll with what I have?

Should I plan on putting more tree habitat along the drop off to deep water? If so what is the ideal depth?

What about installing cribs somewhere in the pond?

Thanks for the help! And I will definitely be posting pictures when I get started.

Is the dam located on the left handed side?

No dam, this is a dug pond in a basically flat field.

Welcome to the forum!

Since it is a groundwater pond, be prepared for water level fluctuations depending on the available water in the ground.

Do you know where the water level is now in the ground? (i.e. how far below existing dirt level)

Some things to think about, because I have a ground water pond that fluctuates:

Make the shore contours no greater than 3:1, and if you have the ground, 4:1 or 5:1 is even better. Once the water level drops you'll probably want to mow to the waters edge. Any steeper than 3:1 and it's a PITA to walk down to the water.

Make spawning areas from 1' depth to 7' or even 8' deep. If they start spawning in shallow water, the nests might be high and dry before the eggs hatch.

Have your fish cover in all depths. Fish like cover in shallower water in Spring and in Fall, deeper water in mid summer and winter provided there is oxygen at those depths. Just be aware that cover in 1'-6' of water might be high and dry in a low moisture year.....

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=330504#Post330504

The water level is only a few feet below grade in normal conditions. Right now, I have 1' of standing water all over my field. The property used to be flooded timber, so the water table is pretty high and stable. I also have good blue clay all the way down, so it shouldn't leak much at all once filled.

I do have field tile draining through this area and was thinking about leaving the uphill tile in place to help fill the pond. I have heard leaving field tile in place can bring a lot of silt and nutrients into the pond. True?

Makes sense on the side slopes. I'll keep that in mind.

My place sounds sorta like yours on a quick read. I'll spend some time on your thread.

Thanks!

I was thinking about going with the standard LMB/BG stocking, but after reading more about SMB/YP that sounds intriguing. My 4 year old daughter has already told me she does want to swim in the pond because she doesn't want the fish to bite her... We do own another 5 acre pond that has had to many BG in it at times and boy they can attack swimmers.

Any other thoughts with that in mind? Would the contours be better for one type of stocking vs another?

Esshup's thread would be time well spent. I am working towards a pond similar to yours, and have been throughbthatbthread several times.

I don't know about contours, but the SMB prefer a spawning area that can be made more for them. Go to the archives common Q&A section and look up the SMB threads. If you can't find it, get back to us here.

Huntmaster,

I would suggest the book Perfect Pond...Want One by Bob Lusk. Covers topics which need to be considered before digging dirt, I've found it very helpful. Also check out some of the structure ideas in these forums, there are lots of great ideas. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress. Thanks.

Bryan

Perfect Pond showed up yesterday, so now I have some reading up to do...

Finished Perfect Pond last night. It was full of a bunch of good info and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't have earth moving experience.

I thought it would have more stocking info on some of the more common mixes of fish out there and more design info about laying out the pond contours or structure. Any books out there that have this info in them for my area?

I have done a bunch of reading in the habitat section here and turned a truck load of leftover siding I had into strips to make structures like the fishiding guys have.

I also had my pond approved by our Township planning commission last night and get to pickup my permit tomorrow, so I'll be ready to get going soon. Unfortunately it looks like I have to wait until the end of the month to get started digging as our crews are pretty busy for the next couple weeks.

Can't wait to break ground...

Hm, now the fun begins...

The big thing that I'm seeing on fix mixes in print vs. here on the forum is the "cutting edge" new data that is available here. Some of the printed rates that I've seen is from the '40's - '50's.

It also depends on what your state allows. What are your goals for the pond? Will you be aerating and/or feeding? Do you want to catch fish during the winter?

You've got clay. So, the pond water level should be relatively stable (depending on moisture of course). Since the pond will be dug in an area that floods, you have 2 choices that I see:
1) Leave the flood waters enter the pond to replenish the water level, and deal with the possibility of unwanted species of fish entering the pond with the flood waters (GSF, etc.)
2) Build up the bank around the pond so that flood water doesn't enter the pond. But then if the pond is sealed well, how to replenish the water in the pond?

There is a very good structure/cover thread in the archives.

I always put oak pallets in my ponds with rocks piled on top of them. Your fathead minnows will spaw on them and also gives your small bluegill fingerlings a place to hide and grow. I would put 3 or 4 piles in your pond. As far as the channel cat goes get some old tractor tires or plastic drums. they work awesome for them. Just a suggestion good luck!

Based on the other ponds in the area and the 80' of blue caly thats supposed to be in the area, my pond should hold water quite well unless we have an extremely dry year like last year, but most ponds have recovered from last year already in the area.

My neighbor has a 1/2 acre trout pond that sits several feet above the natural grade and has very little run off to fill the pond. My pond will sit just below the natural grade elevation and I will have several acres that will sheet drain into my pond.

Any flooding of the field that occurs will be the direct result of rain water and there won't be any access to other fish to contaminate the pond.

I plan to tie my pond into at least one maybe two areas in my field to get replenishment water. I will also use that area to act as an overflow area if the pond begins to hold more water that I have figured.

Since you're going to smallmouth bass route, it would be incredibly beneficial to you to look into some back issues of Pond Boss. Specifically ones with articles written by Bill Cody. It's an entire series (5 issues I think?) on smallmouth bass.

I'd suggest the Pond Boss magazines, but for the sake of keeping things online, Bill's articles were also posted at bassresource.

http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/growing-smallmouth.html

Omaha, Thanks for the link!

That was one great article Bill!

If you want to grow great smallies get some stocker pellet trained SMB and YP from Laggis Fish Farm, Gobbles MI. His pellet trained fish are good quality and fast growers. The source of many of his perch have been domesticated for over 19 yrs. With pellets expect the YP to grow to 12"-14". SMB and YP will not bother swimmers. Filamentous algae could be more of an issue with pellet fed fish and a more productive system in a swimming pond.

Bill,

I have Laggis on my short list of places compiled from this forum.

Could you elaborate a little bit more on what you mean by "Filamentous algae could be more of an issue with pellet fed fish and a more productive system in a swimming pond."? Is there a relationship between pellet fed fish, algae and swimming in the pond?

Thanks for the help.

Oh, by the way I also subscribed to Pond Boss today. Probably should've done that back when I first signed up here...

Post moved to the fish stocking area...

Now for the habitat plan. You can see the different habitat features outlined in the legend.



On the South and West underwater concrete areas, I am placing the broken concrete on top of peninsulas that slowly tapper down to the bottom. The one on the East will not be a peninsula, but just follow the pond edge to the bottom and be 20' wide or so. I am going to use concrete everywhere that is under water, but I think I'm going to do rip rap along the two shore lines for aesthetic purposes.

I have read just about every article in here on the SMB beds and think I have that covered. The one thing at this point is what do my YP spawn on?

Anything else I should add?

After looking at some of the plant threads, I've been trying to find a spot to mix some Hardy Lily's and pickerel weed into the mix...

What if I were to take the sand and gravel bed in the NE corner and change that to a native plant bed max 5-6' deep? I could potentially line the southwest shore with some shoreline plants as well. I'm trying to keep the shore along the house a little more open.

That should add a bit of plant diversity to the mix and I'm sure between the SE sand/gravel patch, the beach and the other two shores, there should be enough room for the RES to spawn...

Plus it would be good to have some plant life in the pond to help hold off an invasion of phragmites into the pond which is inevitable at some point...

Shore-Kleer or something similar on Phragmites. See one, whack it.

YP spawn on underwater weeds or brush with branches relatively close together. Sunken x-mas trees work.

Here is a picture of some broken block and brick that we have on hand in our yard. Based on the pictures I have seen on here, I plan to place this in the sloping areas highlighted in white on my drawing above. They will start around 4-5' of water where my rip rap stops and continue down to the bottom of the pond which is around 20' deep. I'm hoping this combined with my rip rap shore lines will provide good habitat for my crayfish as well as other species.




I also have this old truck tire that is 4-5' in diameter and figured I could place this in the pond as well. What depth of water should I place this?

Great habitat!! the rock will work great and the tire also.

Is there a preferred Rip rap size for the shoreline extending to 4-5' below high water line? I can readily get 4"x8" limestone at a local quarry. That seems like it's the right size...

We are going to be going full speed excavating next week and I want to make sure I have all of my habitat items on-site so I can get them placed ASAP.

If you ever plan on putting CC in the pond, they will use the tire for spawning habitat. Dunno if that's a good or a bad thing - it all depends on your goals.

You should drill a couple of holes in it to let all the air out. If not, it might float around in the pond.

Limestone of 4"x8" is a very good size for rip rap wave zone. The pile of waste concrete and blocks will be good habitat for crayfish. If the tire is lying flat deep on the bottom it might have poor water flow inside it unless it is near an aerator. Its best location might be oriented upright in 6-7ft of water with some brush or PVC structures mixed around it.

Read this very informative link from the Structure topic in the archives about fish cribs:
http://underwaterfishphotos.blogspot.com/