Hello,
I didn't know a forum would exist on the topic of ponds. But it has been a topic that interests me since I got a property which has a few derelict ponds that I have an eye to reviving. Quite small with uncertain origins but clear they were made with considerable effort and serious intentions.

Welcome to the forum!

If you will sift thru the forum you will find various threads on nearly every different topic that has to do with ponds, whether building, restoring, maintaining, or managing the fish in one, there are threads that cover nearly everything.
Without a little more info there is going to be very little anybody can advise you on directly, unless I missed something.

Welcome!

What are your goals for the ponds?

gehajake gave you good advice. If you tell us "what you got" and tell us "what you want", you can probably get an earful from this crew! (Which contains a lot of experts!)

It s good to know. For now I’ll just be getting some familiarity with this forum. I can tell you this, not only am I west of the hundredth meridian,I’m even west of the Continental Divide, situated in the Colorado River drainage, it puts me in a minority here I imagine.It means I don’t have free range over ponds or much at all in relation to water. Here every drop of water already has its predetermined destiny.

The first time I made a diversion into the old reservoir it began to fill nicely then stopped an d quickly drained, I guess out of the bottom. The water quickly found a fissure into the aquifer and was gone. I have to consider that one irredeemable and even question if it ever was put to use. That use was likely ice harvesting which was a practice along many of the creeks in the valley.

Last year the snow pack was excellent so I thought I’d take advantage and capture some excess run-off with an improvised cover over the culvert opening of a rock built dam spanning the creek. This worked out better than expected with the water backing up while not diminishing the flow to the neighbor. At that point when I had some confidence in retaining the water I set some wood in there to water it in an experiment. (A picture’s getting posted as soon as I get the mechanics of that all worked out.) I do wonder if others also use ponds to water wood which is the first reason for getting these ponds back into use.

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Those are some pretty good sized floaters! 18" or so dia?

Sounds like having some water from snow melt to the end of summer might be a benefit to you?

Based on your pic, that seems doable!

Probably close to that. I made a description when loading the picture on but it doesn’t show up unfortunately. The floating is true but not wanted. I never expected full submersion but hoped for 70 or 80% where they seem happy to stay closer to 50%. It’s something needs addressing next time.

For last year anyway. We had around two or three weeks snow-free on the mountain which kept the pond somewhat filled. I don’t rely on such favorable conditions so will have to address my retention. I had fluctuation of around a foot or more at the dam through the summer last year. '

A shot of our mountain on 4 July which provides the natural flow to the creek at my place
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E. dB, a welcome to the forum from somewhere south of you between Cortez and Dolores.
Our pond's water comes as diverted Dolores River drainage snowmelt through MVI, Montezuma Valley Irrigation.
Our home is at 6550 feet above sea level, so possibly the same fish we have could work for you. We have reproducing populations of bluegill, green sunfish, yellow perch, and large mouth bass. In addition I occasionally stock rainbow, tiger, and brown trout. The rare fingerling small mouth bass slips in through the irrigation supply pipe. 6 rather large triploid grass carp work on the weeds. And 1 goldfish about 12" long.
It seems possible that some small fish inhabit your creek. Sculpins come to mind. And any of the several minnow species out here on the West Slope. If your creek connects with a trout stream, perhaps spawning trout run up the creek at times.
The chain saw cuts on those two floating rounds look nice an straight, like your chain was properly sharpened. esshup and I are the two Chainsaw Crazies on this forum. I only ran 5 of my saws today. Scott probably made some noise, too.
On your other thread, is that the roof of an Airstream trailer beyond the corral? Our Airstream is parked within feet of our pond, and is the place where house guests ask to sleep.

That’s a lot of fish in a pond - what do I know. Is that a pond with connection to any other surface water? There are times the creek at my place gets supplemented with irrigation water when needed though I take what’s allowed of that for production.


You’ve seen some sheds and trailer of the neighbor across the road in the photo. The structures that are mine are the fences and shade, creek cutting through the corral.

The wood is what this pond business is about for me. Those floating billets are for shingles and that tree they came from is the last one my old Jonsereed cut up before breaking down for the final time and getting replaced.

Snow melt, does that mean you divert above McPhee?

Thanks for the replies.
Our irrigation water comes from McPhee, Colorado's "second largest reservoir". That concept is rather funny as the lake is not even 10 miles long and only a couple hundred yards wide. The water is cold; that's what keeps my trout alive all summer, and slows my bass growth rate.
I effect all sorts of chainsaw repairs and mods. One of the next "victims" is a big Jonsereds, a 90cc behemoth patiently waiting by the workbench. A side benefit of firing up loud, muffler modded saws outside my workshop is that it scares the pesky mallards and wigeon off the pond for a couple of hours.

LOL I only have 3 saws, a 30cc Echo, a 50cc Dolmar and a 79cc Dolmar, all built before the EPA stuck their sticky fingers in the pie. I have been toying with the idea of sending all 3 out to Mastermind to get ported.

The Echo has a 14" & 16" bar, the small Dolmar has a 20" bar, the 7900 has a 24" and a 32" reduced weight bar. 95% of the wood here is Oak or Maple. Sandy soils, so I run a semi-chisel and all of my chains have been cryo treated. I've noticed that they last longer.

With the sandy soils, if I'm cutting near dark I still see a spark once in a while even though I am cutting part of the tree that was 50' or so in the air. Dang squirrels with sand stuck to their feet are the problem I think.

By last longer do you mean between sharpenings, or the entire life of the chain?
When sawing oak I re-sharpen with every tank, regardless but my oak sawing days are behind me. Only Spruce from now on out. Yee, Hauw.
Not really, I'll miss oak on the fire. And on my workbench.

Assure that fresh cut oak doesn’t get into a pond. It has tanins that are lethal to fish. I learned that the hard way.

I'd be interested to know more Dave, like how big a pond and how much oak lead to your fish dying. My primary interest in having a pond is to water my wood prior to processing. I don't foresee much if any oak getting ponded but still good to know what to watch out for.

3 acres. When I built it, about 30 to 40 years ago, I cleared a lot of oaks and cedars. Thinking it would make good structure, I piled a lot of it in the bowl. It took up about 10% of the volume. We got a huge rain which is unusual in my area. It filled about an acre. I immediately stocked fathead minnows, bluegills and crawdads. Life was good and I started feeding my fish. Then the water turned black; crawdads started crawling up onto the bank and dieing. Fish died. I caught some fish from a creek and put them in a bucket of the water. They died within days. I pumped for a week until the water got low. Then Texas summer sunshine took care of the rest. I called the TPWD and NRCS and neither of them knew about the oaks being toxic. They do now.

I also called a guy named Lusk who was starting a new black and white magazine called Pond Boss. I told him about it and he did know it due to education in water quality at Texas A&M.

Test for yourself by cutting a piece of oak wood and putting it in a bucket of fish. I have no idea whether oaks in your area have the tanins that mine do.

I now use cedars that are no problem to fish.