This is how I am building and placing structure in the pond built per "My Second Pond: Groundbreaking!" which is to be stocked with SMB/YP/RES according to "My Second Pond: Stocking Plan, Strategy, and Tactics"

The built-in dirt structure includes two sets of two-tier flats for SMB Beds, a submerged island, and a large area intended for easy seining. The dirt structure can be seen in photos linked to above and probably more clearly in photos to follow.

This weekend we built the spawning beds for SMB. (See SMB Spawning Bed Preparation in the archives for more details on how to do this). There are a total of 25 beds, which is probably beau coup overkill for a 1/2 acre pond, but that's how using up the space and native rock I had set aside worked out. Since the beds are in two different locations (North side and South side), at two depths in each location (nominally 3' and 5' deep), I figure the SMB will hopefully pick and choose what works best for them each year based on water temperature, depth, etc. and be able to be at least somewhat successful in spawning each year. There is a log structure near the middle of the beds on each side of the pond, and next weekend I hope to work on placing root balls in between some of the beds to provide more woody cover for the spawning SMB and their fry.

The beds still need their "mattresses" of gravel placed inside them (except for one which is filled with hand-made pea gravel, carefully smashed from larger rocks by my daughter), but I can schlep that down into the basin later, by hand if it's too wet for
the front-end loader. I am trying to get all the jobs which really require machinery done while things are pretty dry.

I also placed some concrete and ceramic tiles in the pond, next to a large 5' diameter tile with hedgeapple (aka osage orange or bois d'arc) posts wired in place inside it, which I call the "pencil caddy." The tile and the caddy are just offshore from the submerged island, which my wife and daughter arranged some structure of their own on this weekend when they weren't helping with the SMB beds. For some reason, the submerged plateau is now known as "skull island."

Here are the SMB beds on the North side


and the South side of the pond


Here is the tile pile and the pencil caddy


located near Skull Island

That last picture is a classic! LMAO. Great work. Makes me want to live there.

Theo some cop is going to look in there during a clear water period and think you sunk a corpse.

Do the SMB beds have small rock in the inside?

This is exactly what happened when they created what we now call Stonehenge.
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Nice work, Theolonius. Someday, around 2085, they will be preparing to clear your property for a new Walmart when all of a sudden all construction will stop to call in ancient artifact experts. The question is: what social function will these experts determine was occuring at this excavation site?

Not yet, Eric, but they'll get about 5 gallons of pea gravel each, maybe with some #4 mixed in.

That thing in the last picture looks like the Demon/Statue from The Exorcist.

Freaky.

Don't you have gargoyles guarding your SMB beds?

Theo that gargoyle/skeleton structure is classic. Now all you need to do is put a sign on the bank that says "Trespassers will be utilized for pond structure."

I was going to ask you where you got you skeleton but then I though better of it.

The standard answer for that is animal or human sacrifice. :eek


Agreed! I bet Stonehenge was built by a guy with a sense of humor, and all the speculation is way off.

Is Stonehenge in a basin by any chance...........?

The skeleton is a nice touch.

Today I placed 8 root balls (pretty much the only ones small enough to handle with my front end loader) left from tree clearing in the SMB bed areas. Per research from ewest, SMB do best reproducing when there is wood near their spawning beds.

FYI, root balls don't roll in anything approaching a straight path.

I also placed 3 medium-sized empty wire spools in about 3' of water, for FHM spawning substrate. I have some pallets set aside which will go in a little later for the same purpose.

Got 20 tons of pea gravel delivered as well, for SMB spawning bed mattresses and parking area improvement next to my machinery barn.

Here are the SMB bed areas, with root balls, on the North side


and the South side of the pond.

the SMB KOA campgrounds in ohio LOL........excellent work.

there is one big rock in almost every pile......any significance to that?

It's called the initiator rock in the directions ewest referenced. I mentally call it the headstone (headboard) of the SMB bed; I think it tells Mr. & Mrs. Smallie how to orient themselves, sort of.

I'll tell you how it had the most significance to me. Most of the initiator rocks are so big that I was the only one who could move them. So I placed them all ahead of time, added bulk portions of smaller rocks, and turned the kids loose to build as many SMB beds as they wanted right where I wanted them to be.

I'm thinking about what might be the reaction of a poacher during a drought. Can you imagine sneaking into a place and seeing the gargoyle head sticking out of the water? I love it.

Got the SMB beds filled with pea gravel today. Added three beds made from cut-off plastic barrel ends, one at a vacant end on each side of the pond and one inside the log cabin. A cairn was added to Skull Island (see edited first post).

Here is one of the nicer looking SMB beds, completed:


Here is one of the barrel-end beds:

...and, we'll leave the light on for ya.

Great job Theo. In the sprit of full disclosure Bill Cody was the impetus for and did as much work as me WRT the SMB beds info. Thanks Bill.

Are you going to put a log near the shallower line of SMB beds on the south side?

They are rather farther from wood than the rest of the beds, aren't they? I've got lots of Hedge logs (ca. 175) left; I believe I'll take a look today and think about where a couple of logs on that side would fill in the holes. Of course, if I do that I'll probably add another log or two to the North side as well. Last night I figured out how I want to hold the log cabin down without needing a crane (I was previously thinking about putting our old front porch step - 8'x12"x12" of concrete and rebar - on top of it) or staking-and-wiring it down. I can switch the stake-and-wire material over to adding single logs in the bed areas. Need to see what logs on the pile look good for SMB beds (large) and bad for fence post use (crooked); it'll be nice if they're near the top layer.

Great stuff Theo. I wish I had your imagination and patience.

Here's an artist's rendering (haw haw) of my "stickups". They're just 3 foot lengths of 1" plastic pipe that float. I plug 1 end with clay for ballast, and they sink standing perfectly straight up. I have 1 bed of 21 now, but will add some more later.

Bob stake beds are an often recommended and use structure method.

ewest,

I thought about staking them into the bottom, but doubt I could hold my breath long enough.

I simply toss the pipes into the water, and they sink to the bottom and stand upright like tall, skinny weebles.

Wish I had made a few little gravel beds like Theo before my pond flooded.

I got my BG Condo Built! I also put in a half-dozen tire structures, added 5 logs to the upper SMB bed areas, and weighed the log cabin down with two 3' lengths of 5" steel pipe filled with concrete (don't-drive-in-my-yard pylons from a house in town; didn't work, and I picked them up after a couple of cars broke them off).

Nice looking stuff. How deep will the water be where that structure is?

6-ish feet. The top of the BG Condo is the highest piece, I think it'll have about a foot over it at fool pool.

Nice condo! I think that having water just a little bit over the top is a good deal. I can throw nightcrawlers in my pond and sometimes see the BG emerge from the condo to grab their prize.

This last weekend I added two small pallet structures, placed an 8' long piece of old steel gas delivery pipe to the top of the log cabin to help hold it down, and wired the solitary logs down to keep them from floating away. I had been kind of worried about this last task, but with simple tools, #9 steel wire, and used 15"&18" guard rail bolts for stakes, it was really easy. The bottom of my other pond (in basically the same soil) is firm enough to hold such stakes, so hopefully this'll work okay too.

Typical log wiring job:


The North SMB bed area, perhaps final configuration:
.
The South beds, ditto:

Theo are you sure those pallets have enough weight to hold them down? They tend to be hard to sink or keep down.

Each stack has 2 pallets and 4 interstitial 2"x4"s (underneath and between the pallets), topped by 6 or 8 rocks ranging from fist to head sized. Based on pallet experience in pond #2, I think that will keep them down; I know I can redo them from shore if they float up after it fills.

Theo, why do you want it a foot over full pool level. Did it just work out that way, or is there something I dont know?

Here's my thought process:

1) Based on extrapolation from the history of my first pond, which has basically the same soils (better, if anything, on #2), same watershed type (hayfield/pasture), very close watershed:pond ratio (#1 is 11 acres:0.9 acres, #2 is 5 acres:0.45 acres), and the amazingly similar insolation and evaporation factors that occur from being located all of 100 yds away, in an average year I expect the pond to be full going into Winter and to get less than a foot of ice thickness. So ice hopefully wont be a problem if the top of the BG condo is a foot or more below fullpool.

2) I expect to lose 6"-8" to evaporation in the hypothetical average year. So the condo should stay submerged most of the time.

I would have been happy with anything from 1' to 2', it just happened to come out to about 1' (I think; we'll see when she actually fills up). There is lots of other structure nearby (and a little more to come, weather this Fall permitting) which is farther from the surface, in case that works out better for the fish.

What about strapping concrete blocks to a pallet and placing it blocks-down, any advantage? You could position the blocks the tall or the short way. I'm thinking in terms of FH spawning, but maybe the extra clearance from the bottom would help other species too.

You are an engineer aren't you!

I started out with stacks of pallets for my FH's and sunk barrels and large pipes and other things they could get into. But found that when I started sinking large brush piles, including some big cedars that are so deep I never see the big ones even under extreme draw downs and keep stacking more brush on top of the 100'X100' trianangle section of my pond I designed don't swim danger brush I have had better luck on reproducing FH's. Also I have some of the brush extending above water all of the time and frogs, damsel and dragon flies love that, including my pair of pet GH's which like to perch as much as wade.

As far as catch fish I still do better off of earth struction, i.e. where channels meet underwater shoals that have drop offs that then open up to the main pond and deep water.

But I have thought about making one those condo things. But it will be next year before I could get to it.

Can't wait to see a picture of it full.

I put a couple of hedgeapple dock posts on Skull Island to anchor the pond end of a 8'x20' planned dock (so Alaska won't be the only place with a "bridge to nowhere"). I also built some medium-density structures, inspired by sputniks and porcupines, designed to attract fish and lures (on a budget). I dubbed these things "triffids" after 1) their tripartite composition (t-posts, black plastic water pipe, and insulated copper wire, all used), 2) their trilateral symmetry, and 3) the fact that seawater will dissolve them. Naturally, with all those "3"s involved, I built 2 of them.

Here's the view of Skull Island overlooking the North spawning beds


and here's a triffid. I think that in addition to being fish attractors, YP might use them for spawning structure.

You're having fun with this, aren't you! Way cool.

That is a lot of stuff in one small area. Is it just in front of where the dock is going? You keeping all of it there?

Yes and yes. I want to be able reach the area where the main structure is from the dock, with either hand tossed feed or a fishing line. I'm putting this stuff on the South side of the pond, so I can do my fishing (from shore or the dock) looking away from the sun and, hopefully, in the shade. And I don't want to spread the structure out over too much of the bottom. By the time you figure in the spawning areas, I think it's around the recommended 20%.

I am also excluding all structure from the designated seining area and from a couple of other stretches of shoreline where seining will be possible.

I hope to add some tire structures "connecting" the main structure area to the southside spawning beds via a mid-depth water route, and that may be it.

You may want to think about a sign that says "Danger submerged structure absolutely no diving from pier". We never put stuff around the piers. Under it sometimes but never where it could become a skewer.

There will be about 15' of empty submerged island in front of the edge of the dock (it will end at the two posts shown above), but it will be too shallow (3') for any diving as well. Then there's 5 feet of Halloween decorations and 5+ feet of empty slope before the first structure occurs.

Funny to think about a sign forbidding diving at one location when there is absolutely nowhere at all in either pond where it would be safe. I think I'd be ahead to post "NO DIVING, PERIOD" at both ponds, if anything. Thoughts?

Those "triffids" pipes should be a great place for FH reproduction.

...or engineering inspiration for a safe Texas A&M bonfire

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Since you need a couple of signs...

And how about a floating, solar powered gator head with light up eyes That would explain the skeleton at the bottom of the pond at least... [img][/img]

My wife has always wanted an alligator in the pond.

I-am-so-going to get a floating gator head with light up eyes when my pond is ready!

I may be done now. (Yeah, right!)

Today, I built another triffid (that's makes 3, to make the numerologists happy), added 36 steel belted radials worth of tire structure, and an old, busted-up round bale feeder that isn't worth wasting the oxy-acetylene on to fix one more time (it's in pieces, surrounding the 5' concrete tile that holds the hedge fence posts). I placed the new structures to sort of make a deep-water route from the skull island structure complex to the South side SMB nests. Here is the current view of the structure, with one of the South spawning beds and all of the North ones:

Wow it's looking good Theo. That is gonna be one fun pond to fish.

Oh and just in case anyone else was curious about the word Triffid:

According to Wikipedia:
The Triffid is a highly venomous fictional species of plant that appears to have limited intelligence and survival instincts.

But they make really good fish structure.

Now I understand. You put all that structure in one place to attract ALL the fish away from the SMB nesting area. That way the SMB will nest in safety and lots of their fry will survive.

Can we get a full pond view of all the structure?

Theo, that's beginning to look like a 'down south' pond, what with all the trinkets. A trilogy of triangular triffids. What say you damn yankee?

That's very alliteral, bm.

Every time I walk or drive around the farm, I seem to see something else that would be better in the pond than laying around where it is. In it goes.

I will have to take 3-4 shots (from the middle of the dam, I think) when I get some good light and make a panorama. Plus, I want to get a current closeup of the log cabin, as I have added some stuff to it for substance and weight.

Until then, you can see everything in two shots, from the South side (Skull Island + North SMB beds, as seen before)


and from the North side (Skull Island + South SMB beds)

How big is the pond again? It looks huge.

You guys remember how good I am at determining distance from forum photos, right?

0.45 acre, per Excavatin' Ernie.

As you begin stocking smb's, I think you play the theme from Samford and Son.

Hmmm... an old pickup truck might look good in there

IAW ewest's request, here is a panorama I put together of all the structure in the pond (my apologies for the gloomy sky, central Ohio is pretty much through with sunshine for the year). It is a splice of three photos taken from the middle of the dam, on the West side of the pond. You can see the North side SMB spawning beds on the left, the South side SMB beds on the right, and the structure area stretching from Skull Island (just right of center) over to the South side beds. The main seining area is behind and to the left of the Skull Island end of the structure, while the far right and left corners of the panorama (at either end of the dam) are usable as seondary seining areas for when I want to make more than 2-3 passes in undisturbed areas all at one time. This should be pretty close to the final structure configuration, as decent weather and unsubmerged access to the pond bottom are running out.


I also took good pictures of the log cabin in the middle of the South beds, which has had more "junk" added to it since I took a not-too-good photo of it earlier. It is finished, unless my Son Lamont brings some interesting pieces in with the next truckload.

The log cabin looks homey enough for Grady and Aunt Esther. Nice work, Fred.

Theo thanks for the pano pic. Any thoughts of deep water structure ?

You old heathen.

None. I wouldn't mind adding some two-layer tire pyramids on the deep side of the existing structure IF I get a decent day with a semi-dry pond bottom to work on (doubtful before she fills up, I think). But I'm happy with what I've got in now.

The glass is now more than half full. Our regular late Fall wet season showed up a tad late and finally saturated the ground about 3 weeks ago. Last weekend we had snow and rain which added over a foot to the pond in 36 hours.

The pond is now about 4 1/2 feet below full pool; hopefully it will fill up before any thick ice shifting can mess up my structure. As you can see, Skull Island is actually an island, and kind of creepy looking when viewed through a desolate snow storm.

Lookin' good, pal. I was flippin' thru some of the gazillion pics I took during the same fill-up phase we experienced last winter and the real freeze didn't really occur until later in January. By that time, the water level was up pretty far. There's another precip storm comin' thru this weekend. I think you're gonna be OK.
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Did your elevated seining zone dip below the surface yet?

It runs from 4 to 5 feet in depth and it's half under. The lower tier of SMB beds are wet (with the bigger rocks still above water).

The glass is always half full when you're getting a new pond!

Fatheads , Fatheads , little bitty FH.

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I hadn't put in a few dozen fatheads.

The water's a little too hard to stock FHM right now, but they go in come Spring.

I sleep at night thinking about the snails I stocked a couple of months ago, doing whatever it is snails do. Slowly.

...really slowly.

Anytime I talk about pulling the trigger with fathead minnow stockings in "new" water, I'm really just talking about a few dozen fatheads. This way, you can eyeball each minnow and make sure that Mudcat Joe has not had his way.

Where's burgermeister when you need him?

Dr Burger is booked thru the Christmas holidays, in therapy sessions with D.I.E.D. and his fish family. Initial sessions have revealed deeply rooted issues with D.I.E.D.'s inability to commit to forum monogamy. This could get ugly.

TIME FOR AN UPDATE...?
Man, the midwest got belted with rain this last week. You had to get a pretty good sip.

The pond is up to just 3 feet short of full pool - it came up a foot over the last week. I took some photos last night, but it will probably be at least Wednesday night before I can unload them from the camera and post a representative shot or two here. I will get them posted ASAP.

Theo, you must be on your own time. I'll be glad when you get back to work and have time for posting pics, long analyses of ponds, extended humor sessions with doctored photos, etc.

Okay, here's a picture from Monday night, three feet to go to reach full pool. The lower SMB Beds (far side of the pond) are completely covered and the deep water structure (in the middle) is just peeking out a little. Skull Island looks a little spookier when the graves are flooded. Bwa-Ha-Ha-Hah!

Your pond has CSI written all over it.

I can't wait to see it this summer!

Oh and I've been called "three feet short of a full pool" on several occasions..... is that a bad thing?

...only from a high dive

Winter excavating season has arrived! We are frozen enough that my excavator was able to start hauling in equipment today (the big trackhoe on a low-boy semi-trailer, for starters) to finally complete the non-pond basin portions of the job. These are removing (chipping) the biggest brush pile left from tree clearing and clearing a path through the woods behind the new pond for new fence.

See My Second Pond: Got Mulch?

Mrs. Gallus and I took advantage of the hard water on the pond yesterday to put the 2"x10" - 20 ft stringers up for the dock that will run from the shore to Skull Island. It was much easier to work on 6" of ice than in 3' of water!

Theo,
Are those "Bodark" posts used for the pier?

The two deep water posts are. I only had to sort through about 50 posts to find 2 straight enough for a dock.

I had access to some additional rootballs after my excavator cleaned up the big brushpile from the pond and cleared fencerows for some new fence. Yesterday I put another 6 rootballs in the upper SMB beds before they finish flooding - their shelf is under about 4" of water now, with rain forecast for the next two days. There's about 32"-33" left to go to full pool.

Here you can see three of the new rootballs (in shallow water in the bottom/left) with the tops of the upper SMB beds and the deep water rootballs on the South side of the pond:

The best part of all this is that, if I'm really lucky, I might actually get to fish this someday.

Wow!!!

Those were some of the best 4 pages I've ever read through.

Thanks Theo for sharing the process. I look forward to seeing the pond reach full pool and - even more so - seeing you and the family out there enjoying it.

Only 10,049 threads to get caught up on...

This new guy's highly intelligent, eh?


You're welcome. I just used the Brettski method.


Maybe after supper.

Currently about one foot below full pool. I've got 4 or 5 rootballs (from both the original and last minute placements) floating around. I will have to tow them into place, tie some weights on them, and sink them when it warms up enough that I feel safe to work in the canoe.

P.S. Both Plastic skulls floated and will have to be weighted and re-interred.

sure they're plastic....

Ahh, but the plastic gargoyle stayed down. (?)

Thats going to be beautiful come spring and again in the fall, lucky (smart) guy.

I bet that pond is filled up now, after 2.5" of rain today.

It's been full since Feb 18:

Today it was as overfull as I've seen it, 7" above full pool. The 8" drain pipe was running pretty good, and the temporary trash guard had stopped 5-6 pieces of wood that might have gone down the drain (part way? ). I'm glad Otto, Brettski, et. al. talked me in to putting it in place.

sorry to bring this back but I was wondering how your smallies are doing or if you've even added them yet

Yes, the Smallies went in last November. Story and pics here.

I haven't seen any of them yet; limited fishing in the pond this year has produced just 2 RES and innumerable nibbles (most likely from the fingerling YP, I am given to understand).

I am building a new pond in a wooded ravine. I have harvested the good trees but left other trees for bass cover. A civil engineer told me that tress left in the pond could cause a leak and I should remove them all and build any cover. But I have seen many ponds with standing timber. What is the likelyhood they would "leak"

If the standing tees are not at the dam (which they shouldn't be if it was cleaned out, cored, and compacted), I would think there would be a very negligible chance of leaks.

Professional dirt guys?

Jim K, welcome to the forum...

I'm no dirt expert either, but I don't see them causing a leak either in all likelihood. Perhaps if they have a deep root system that penetrated into a sand layer or something similar, it could cause a leak. But I think that would be a stretch...

Jim K welcome to the forum, Thanks for comming on

Theo and CJB are right as long as the roots are not under the dam you should not have any trouble

Just read whole thread, very inspiring. Motivates me to try YP HSB SMB

Hi I am new to the forum and tend to lurk before posting. But I had to post on this one. I have dreamed of building a private pond with structure such as yours. You have done an amazing job that will reward you hopefully in the years to come. I live in NE Texas with tons of lakes in the area, but ponds fishing has always been a passion for me.

Sgt Rock

Welcome to the forum.
Just think with as much rain as you have had a new pond would be full right now.

Keep comming back.