Hi. New here and was wanting to get some info on various aspects of maintenance a pond and what o expect before during and after construction. So a little background. My wife, three children and I have been living in our current home for almost 2 years and love it. Quiet farm house on 2.5 acres about 2 miles outside of a small farming community in west central Ohio. I have always loved the way ponds look on a property if well taken care of vs. a pool of any kind and enjoy fishing and the wildlife they bring in.

So I have never lived on a property that had a pond so I know next to nothing as far as taking ca of one which is why I joined this forum for future questions. Basically, my side yard to the west of me is about 3/4 acre and I am wanting a small 1/4 acre pond for recreational purposes and possible fishing (not sure what fish work well with this size of pond yet).

I have gotten some quotes ranging from $4500 up to $10,000 all depending on clay content. Hope to learn a few things and prepare myself for the upcoming construction.

Welcome to the club Keaton!

I think you will find plenty of options for a small pond as far as fish stocking goes. Some folks find it difficult to combine the swimming and stocking fish components, however. I'm not saying that it won't work by no means, but catfish tend to muddy a pond and blue gill and/or hybrid blue gill tend to nip at swimmers. It's my opinion that these types of fish best suit a smaller pond. I have stocked HBG, HSB, and RES and am incredibly impressed with the HSB, if I ever have to start over in the pond, I may just do the stripped bass with a stock, grow, remove and restock program...we'll see.

A couple concepts that you will learn pretty quick is that bass (LMB) tend to overpopulate a pond too quickly and the fish can run out of food and suffer growth stunting. Blue gill (BG) can do the same thing. The balance is what we are all after so read, read, read, and ask questions. I'm sure you can develop a pond plan by spring.

Be prepared to test your patience, however. Ponds will take there time to develop and mature. I say this with the first year in mind. I am a true believer that stocking forage fish in the pond for the first year all by themselves. I did it due to advice here at PB and give my first years growth of my stocked fish 90% credit to the massive amounts of forage minnows (FHM) that were available. It was very difficult to not stock the game fish right out of the gate.

Another piece of advice...start a log thread for your pond. Refrain from asking questions in it if you can so that it turns out to basically be a diary of your progress. I wish I had started one when I broke the old dam and started refurbishing the old pond.

Anyhow, before you get the idea that we, here at PB, are all long winded, I'll stop because it's just me (and a few others with the gift.)

Welcome! First of all I'm no pro, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Lol! Do you know how much water shed you have? You may want to try to get it in before spring, so the spring rains can help fill it. Also spring rains can make things to wet for digging. If you have a very large water shed area, you may be better off waiting til after the spring rains, so you can get some grass growing to keep things from eroding. Maybe someone that knows more than me will put their two cents in.lol!

Consider buying the Perfect Pond book from the Pond Boss store. $27 now might save you $1000s later.

Perfect Pond in store

Wow thanks for the reply guys. I will have to look into the book. I don’t know the exact amount of watershed in the area but I do now that it is pretty good as the side yard is slightly downhill from my pole barn and house so all runoff from them go right into that yard. As far as fish, well we are doing this pond more so for swimming and rec so I will definitely do my research in regards to what fish I stock and how to properly stock it. Thanks for the advice guys keep it coming.

Well I did a quick search and found https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/.

I did the Web soil survey tool and I am not sure if the results look promising or not. I know a thorough on site investigation would need to be done but this was easy enough to try and perhaps give me an idea of my soil. Ill post some screen shots and see what you guys think. It also says the PI is 17.7%.

You can have either fish or mosquitos.

How much does stocking a pond help with mosquitos? I’m guessing pretty significantly but really don’t have a clue.

If you stock with Gambusia, or even some type of sunfish, like Bluegill, the mosquitoes are completely eliminated. If no fish, you will have a big mosquito problem. The health department might even get involved if you have a mosquito pit.

I would suggest you contact your County Conservation District. Mine was very helpful.

I did call the local county NRCS and they said they will come out with my pond builder to do the test holes so I may have to wait because the builder acted like he wanted to do them next year closer to when I was wanting To start the pond.

Does anybody have any experience using the web soil survey tool and how accurate it was for them compared to what the test holes found? My soil looks to be pretty good if the wss tool is somewhat accurate, at least from what I have researched so far.

Another possibility, that I haven’t tried, is green dye. It cuts down on photosynthesis.

If you stock fish of any kind they will spawn. Possibly over spawn, and cause an O2 shortage with a resulting die off. Every fish needs a predator. So, you may need something like fatheads or gambusia matched with hybrid bluegills. Some have found that hbg have a tendency to nip swimmers. I haven’t noticed that but it has been reported here.

No real sure thing, bullet proof answers.

I don't know about your area but around here that's a lot of money for it. I had mine dug for bout 1,500. They charged 85 and hour and had it done in 3 days. Also it was bare field so nothing slowing them down to begin with.

Try 5500 for 1/8. I wanted 1/4, so closest they could go was 6k for 100x80. Not to mention they wanted the money before starting. Think I'm going to buy me equipment to dig. Unless by some miracle one of them actually calls me back.

Never pay a contractor before starting. Maybe pay in stages, if requested. I always pay on completion if it's only a few days or less for the entire job. If you pay in advance, you may never see them again!

Yeah that's what another contractor told me. i'm still calling excavators in my area with the list the county soil conservation provided. I've been trying to get one dug for 8 months. I need it for Geo so I don't keep running pump and dump.

I am seeing this rather consistently, where people want a hole dug for a pond, but cannot find an available excavator to do the work. Why is that so? Are there too few excavators out there and they can pick and choose jobs? Do they make less money on a pond than other jobs?

What gives?

I don't know about other places, but around here there are very very few small dirt movers who will work for individuals.

Many, if not most, of them are subbed out to larger operators. The larger operators are constantly contracted to developers or public works projects.

From what I can tell the good ones are always busy, but they do advertise as pond builders. Their main work is general excavation. The guy I wanted to dig the pond was just too busy and my pond is not as lucrative I guess. He kept saying a few more months, on and on until he injured his hand. Others just won't call me back. I'm tired of chasing them down. I will just buy a dozer or whatever I happen to get for a good price.

I think that many (but not all) excavators have a personality where they do what they want rather than what the customer wants, even if they say otherwise. Not sure why, but that is my experience. Best advice that I can give is to find an excavator that already wants to do what you want, or build it yourself.

I have rented excavators twice rather than buying one. These have been in the 60 to 70 hp range. I try to rent the largest one in can get that has a dozer type blade attached. I also make sure the bucket has a thumb. Total cost has run me between $4 to 5,000 per rental for a couple of weeks work. I am pretty sure you can find a rental but you may need to form a company to rent one. Hire a lawyer, form an LLC for around 4 to 500 bucks.


Before you go this route, look into you tube searching excavators/dozers stuck in ponds

Most of them think they always know better than the land owner, IME. But, I found that if I insist enough, I can get them to do more of what I want. The problem is getting someone to even show up to work.

I have actually thought of starting an LLC but wouldn't I need insurance too? I've decided to just buy equipment and maybe rent something to supplement.

I don't think you would need liability insurance working for yourself, on your owned land. Maybe accident insurance for the equipment, in case you submerge it in muck or something.

You may want to seek some legal advice on the insurance issue and LLC. If you are completely secluded and there's no chance of causing damage or injury to others while operating the machinery, the risk would/could be minimal. Although, if your property is somewhat accessible, the machinery and even your project could create an "attractive nuisance" for nearby kids, thrill seekers, etc., or bystanders around while working the area? If the LLC is responsible for any injuries or damages to others, here's where I would think you would want to be sure you have insurance protection/coverage for the LLC.

If the equipment is owned (or rented) by you personally, your personal liability coverage under your Homeowners policy should provide coverage should an incident occur (Bodily Injury or Property Damage to others). Check with your insurer to confirm. And if the equipment and job is being done personally, do you have a Personal Liability Umbrella Policy? If not, I would certainly look into one as they're very inexpensive and provide excess liability protection of $1m or more although, would likely not provide coverage under a LLC.

Few people should be without an Umbrella Policy!

Lastly, if you rent any equipment be sure there's insurance coverage for damage (including theft).

Good luck with your project and please share the experience with us as stated in above posts!

Apparently sunbelt will waive their insurance requirement for 300. That's if you want the larger dozers. I would rent one if I was any good at it. I'm still getting quotes now. If I find equipment before someone gives me a decent quote on a pond, I will just dig it myself. Have one more coming out today to look at the site. Unfortunately it's not secluded.