Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Optimum pond shape for fishing pond?

Hey all, I have plans on building a 1 acre pond this summer. Our property is rectangular and so, I have planned on a rectangular pond. I plan on having at least 2 peninsulas but was thinking maybe a dock is better for creating habitat for my fish (blue gills, tilapia, LMB). I'm open to suggestion as far as the shape....maybe an island. What are some things you wish you would have done for your ponds? All suggestions are appreciated. I plan on going with 6-10 ft depth BTW.

I love peninsulas and prefer to let the lay of the land dictate the shape of the hole. I would consider going deeper. You're betting on rain at 6 to 10 ft and it's not nice to play with Mama Nature.

Another option to the floating dock idea is an older pontoon boat. They're not all that easy to find but Mike Spinhirne, in your area, found one dirt cheap on Craigs List.

6-10 ft is not even safe if someone decides to go for a dive into the pond. 12-15ft will give you protection in a drought and make for better swimming, plus give the fish a cool place to go in the summer

I don't suppose getting more depth is too big a problem....so at least what percentage should I dig to 12-15 ft?

Have you ever had a drought in Houston? I know you get more rain than I do but it is worth considering. If you had a reliable supply of water isn't the optimum depth for growing fish about five feet? Where my pond is I have to try and be ready to go without water in the pond for up to a year at a time and so it may drop two or three feet each year before it fills up.

AznGunner:
The shape of pond is only limited by your imagination. Just my 2 cents.
Otto

Another 2 cents from central Tex...go deeper.....g o d e e p e r
GO DEEPER....if you play games with mamma nature and your hole goes dry,well,I think you get the picture.Fish really dont care much for suntans ON the beach

Judging from the numerous ponds in my area I'd have to say that most builders tend to cut dams in straight lines or as close to it as possible. If you want curves in your dam you may have to be firm about it. Also, it will possibly cost more because of the added distance from A to B.

More curves equals more shoreline so you'd have more of the benefits and problems associated with that. I'm with DD1 about letting the land determine the shape. In designing my girlfriend's pond I'm going to do just that and maybe even exaggerate the natural shape a little depending on how it looks as we go.

Disclaimer: I have only had one small pond built.

I am south of Houston, in the Manvel area (near Hwy 288 and Hwy 6). My pond is about 200 x 140 ft. It has an average depth of 6 ft, with areas of 8 ft, and humps up to 3 ft. It has a channel 50 ft wide x 100 ft long x 10 ft deep that is used to cool the geothermal loops for the home air-conditioning. We did not go deeper because we hit ground water at that point. I decided to go with raised banks to keep the runoff water out of the pond, and better control what went in. I use my well to keep it topped off. So far (2 yrs) it has worked well. I get a little nervous and go to the well a liitle too quickly, because it is not uncommon to get a 3-4 inches of rain every month. It also has some natural walkouts that extend about 15 ft into the pond.

Have native LMB (50 7-9"), FL LMB (18 9-11"), HSB (50 8-12"), CNBG (100 4-6"), and Tilapia (130 4-6"). I hand feed daily a mixture of Aquamax 500, Aquamax 600, and some 1/16" feed I got from Todd Overton (supplied all the fish). Starting to see bunches of little fish in the shallow grass/weeds. Tilapia are feeding like crazy.

In Houston, you can usually get by with less depth. My uncle's pond in Cut N' Shoot hasn't ever been down more than 2 ft in the last 20 years. As far as structure goes, I think my dozer guy said it best when he said...

I prefer a nice peninsula to an island in a pond any day of the week. Have you ever tried to load a lawn mower into a boat?

Hey Ezylman, how deep is your uncle's pond and what water source does he rely on? Rain?

Deepest is about 6ft. It is about 1/4 of an acre and is used mainly to water his cows. It is in the middle of a pasture and the ground is pretty flat, so it doesn't really get a whole lot of runoff. The big pond is about twice as big and gets even less runoff. It has been down no more than 4 ft in the last 20 years and has a max depth of 15 ft. Neither pond is supplied by anything more than rain.

Gunner, I just checked on Google Planimeter and my uncle's 86 acre spread slopes less than 10 ft from one side to the other. It looks like the only extra drainage he might have picked up would be if the dozer sloped some of the land towards the pond. Based on this, I would say most ponds are filled primarily with just straight rainfall and not a lot of runoff.

Thanks Ezylman, you've given me some sound advice given that your uncle isn't that far from where my pond will be dug!!

Azngunner,
I am in the Conroe area (west about 8 miles). Make sure you check the soil conditions. We have two lakes in our subdivion. One hods water very well and has not dropped more than 2-3" in three years. It has about 250 acres feeding a 60 acre lake. The other is on the third round of repairs and has never been full. It loses around 500,000 gallons per day on a 36 acre lake. Costs so far to repair have mounted to over $1MM.
As far as a dock, do check Craig's list. As Dave mentioned, I got a 20" boat for $100 on a tandem axle trailer

Mike, I check CraigsList daily. So far, no hits for less than a couple of Grand.

Be sure you like the look of the pond shape since you do have to live with it. Straight lines just don't look good to most people. This can have a certain positive impact on property value.