Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Wanted to share a project we just had completed

New here. I posted this project on a couple hunting sites I frequent. Someone suggested I check out this site & share this project with you guys.


My wife & I bought our farm nearly 4 years ago. One of the main projects we wanted to get done from day one was to have a pond built on our new property. I'm happy to say, that dream is now a reality.

This is a government pond & was designed by the NRCS office. The plans were drawn 1 1/2 years ago. First, we were delayed financially, then this year, it's been wet weather. But finally, it dried up enough to get the project complete.

I'm just going to copy & paste from another site this is posted on, so if something doesn't sound like it belongs here, you'll know why.

I'm sure I'm going to have a million questions, since this is my first attempt at managing a pond.

The surface water is going to be approx 7/10th of an acre. Not a very big pond, but I believe it's going to suit our needs well.

It's 100% inside the timber. Yes, fishing will be one of it's planned uses, but not it's primary reason for being built. We're primarily wildlife managers & wanted a water source where the wildlife feels secure. I believe it will fit that need well. It's over 100 yds inside the timber from the nearest open field. It's also a mile from the nearest road.


Enough of that, now on with the pics.










Been wanting to get this started for 2 years now. Finally able to get it going. Not going to be a big pond, or even a deep pond. About 7/10 of an acre of surface water when full & about 14' for the main body. The nice part, it's 100% surrounded by timber. The closest open ground is around 100 yds away.


I'll tell ya what, I was flat worn out last night. I'm getting to fat & old to be doing what I done yesterday.

We skidded around 30 logs out of that hole. It's about 100 yds up to the clearing. My job was to get the butts cut off & the tops off, as well as hook up & unhook from the tractor. I was at a dead run ( and I mean literally) for about 3 hours straight just trying to get a handle on things. When you're paying a feller around $100 / hour, ya don't want him waiting on you.

My little brother had surgery on his hand about 6 weeks ago & he's nowhere near 100% yet, but at least he was able to drive the tractor for me.

I didn't get as many pics as I would like, but I did get some. Here they are.

I'll be sure to update this thread as he progresses. We're rained out today, so I imagine it'll be sometime next week before he gets back out there. I know my body was glad to see it raining this morning.





Sure hate seeing all this good firewood going into the brushpile. At least within a couple years, a lot of small game will have new homes.

Tuesday morning, my pond contractor called me & told me he had some more trees that needed drug out. When asked how many, he said about a dozen or so. I think he's been out of school to long & forgot how to count. We ended up pulling more like 30 more. All had to have the tops & butts cut off. My little brother & I worked on them for about 3 hours that night till it got to dangerous climbing around cutting the tops & butts. Jenny & I went back yesterday morning & worked till after lunch. But at least we've got all the trees out of there now so he can actually start building the dam.

Here's some more pics. The other thread was getting to long.

If ya look to the right of the mule at the dark hole in the timber, that's the road we're skidding the logs out.

What you see laying there still is what was left after my brother & I worked on Tuesay evening.







In the distance, you can see where's he's scraping the top soil off to put on the dam.




Per a friends recomendation, here are some of the root balls we're going to leave in the bottom of the pond for structure. I'm sure open to more ideas for underwater structure. We do have a few trees that will be left standing at the waters edge & plan to cut the trees & leave the stumps lapping in the water.

Now we're finally getting somewhere. All the trees are gone.:claphands::claphands:





First day I was out there, he told me he would push the logs up to leveler ground so I could skid them out. I had no clue he could push them like this. He had great control of where they went.

We had quite a few trees this size to skid out. Sure made ole red grunt on some of these.



Here's part of the log pile. This picture doesn't even come close to representing the amount of logs we pulled out.

Early Sept, the contractor got rain delayed for over a week. Here's some of the progress he had made before that rain.







In this next pic, this contractor shows his expereince in digging ponds. As you seen in the precious pics, he left the center out of the dam. On the north side, he took all the dirt he needed to build the north end of the dam, that way, when it rained like it did (6" overnight) he wasn't shut down very long. It only took about 2 days for it to dry enough for him to start again.

Here, the structure is nearly complete. It's kinda hard to tell it in this picture, but he left me a birm tunning across the pond. You can see the pool on the north side & there will be a very similar pool on the south side. It's about 5' high. Should make some great structure.




Here's another angle of the birm. This pic also shows I've still got some trees to remove. That's me on the far side taking down those 2 beautiful white oaks.

Just so you'll get an idea of the waterline, it's going to be right inside the edge of the timber on the far side. Guys, I can't begin to express how happy I am with the contractor that built this structure for me. I've known him since I was in high school & he was digging ponds before that. (nearly 30 years ago). When I contacted him about putting in this pond, my main concern was water clarity. The man who designed the pond from the NRCS office, highly recomended that for the best pond, the waters edge soil should not be disturbed. As you can tell, that's exactly what we've got. Also notice how he seperated the soils for me. There's top soil everywhere the ground was disturbed as well as the pond dam itself.



All said, all done. Now it's time for some lime, fertilizer & seed. I broadcast 3500# of pel lime (1000#enm per acre). Put on nearly 500# of fertilizer & seeded with smooth brome, timothy, red & ladino clover & 100# of winter wheat as a companion crop. Needless to say, I'll be having a rifle stand overlooking this pond dam. 100% in the timber freshly seeded pond dam equates into new food plot.

One of the piles of root balls for structure in the bottom of the pond.




I was able to use my old drill to seed & fertilize the dam. I was concerned it was going to be to steep on the backside, but fortunately, it wasn't.

Looks great! I can't wait to see the pictures 1 year from now when it's full and everything is growing. The wildlife is going to love it.

Pinwheel44, WELCOME to the forum!!! We Missourians are starting to make our presense known!

VERY impressive indeed! Now for the important part, CAN I BORROW YOUR SEED DRILL??????--just kidding.

When you say "government pond", it scares me. I would not consider your's to be that. The NRCS agent did his job, and thankfully, it was free and without strings attached.

What are your stocking goals? If you let Missouri stock it, it is free, BUT then your pond becomes "Waters of the State". For your size pond it would cost less than $200 to stock and it remains under YOUR control!

Did you provide a grass buffer in the inflow areas? Being in the timber, ESPECIALLY in all that oak,( Iwould estimate up to 50 tons of leaf debris per year entering the pond) I suggest you add about 30 tons of lime or it will, almost instantly become very acidic water and the fish will not thrive. You may also want to thin the trees south and east some so direct sunshine can reach the water at least 3/4 of the day. Too much shade and you will have very little planktonic life for the base of the food chain. This could be done so as to maintain the in-the-woods integrity.

I offer these suggestions because I have a couple ponds "In The Woods" that are dead, and deer the won't touch the water!

Again, WELCOME TO THE FORUM and thanks for the great pictures----WE LOVE PICS!!!!

What an extraordinarily great first post. You have come to the right place Pinwheel. As Rainman indicated we love pictures. We also love pond construction stories. By finding Pond Boss you will have access to some of the best pond meistering minds in the world (myself excluded).

Welcome to Pond Boss, we're glad you found us.

I love pics like these. You can smell the dirt, the sap, the diesel fumes ...






without paying for it yourself.

Pinwheel....Dude! Way nice.
We think alike, 'cept I won't have rifle stands. Diff'rent strokes, blah blah.
A number of those trees directly adjacent to the shoreline will die pretty quickly, but they will take some time to fall in. When they do, instant structure.

Great stuff. I also was wondering why you said gvt pond. That didnt look like gvmnt people dlong all that work. I wish I would have had time to get topsoil on my dam before rains came. Your guy did a heckuva job.

Preciate the warm welcome everyone, I'm sure as time goes by, I'm going to have a boat load of questions. As you can see from the above pics & story, I pay attention to the answers I get. When this project first started, I knew less than nothing about having a pond built. I asked a lot of questions from the guys in the NRCS office, Missouri Dept of Conservation private landowner agent, & a couple different contractors. I paid attention to the advice I was given & then done the work I was capable of doing & hired the rest.

Rainman,

I say govt pond, meaning cost share by the NRCS. They're footing most of the bill for the structure. Brush removal was 100% on my shoulders & I hope the logs go a long ways in paying for it. Yes, you're right, there are no strings attatched as long as I complete the pond to their satisfaction.

As for the MDC stocking this pond, again, there are no strings attatched to those fish either. Common myth in MO is that if the MDC helps, you have to let the public fish. Nothing further from the truth. I've got a very good friend that's a MO Conservation agent (whose also had input on this project). The discussion of fishing MDC stocked water has came up before in our conversations. My stocking goals are primarily bass, channel cat & bluegill. Would love to have some of those huge hybrid bluegill flourish in here, my little brother & mom love to catch them. The only real plan I have at this point, is to try to increase the structure before it fills up, & in the spring, stock it out of pocket, with something like chub minnows to get an established food source before I put in the game fish. I'm wide open to suggestions though, cause I'm in uncharted waters.

The oak leaf litter is a huge concern to me. I've got a fairly good understanding of soil ph & the effects of lime & plant growth. Like I said earlier, we're primarily wildlife managers & plant over 20 acres annually just for the wildlife. Getting 30 ton of lime in there is going to be a huge task, that I don't currently have the time, or resources to accomplish. What are my alternatives?

No seeding of the inlets, it's timber right to the waters edge. Too much canopy to get anything to grow. I don't want it open, because my primary purpose is for wildlife to feel safe using this water source in the daylight. We take a lot of wildlife pics. Here's an ariel to give an idea of what the surrounding are. I drew the pond as to what I think it's going to look like in shape & pretty close to location. I'm sure it's not exact. The southern side of the pond is cleared back quite a ways to allow sunlight. Not all of the pond will see 75% daily sunlight, but I'm betting over half will.

Now that I've laid out my goals of this pond, what should I do further to increase structure before the rains come? There are 2 watershed inlets that are going to be somewhat shallow at the beginning, but the rest of the banks are going to drop off quickly into deep water. Would these be good areas to create spawning structure? What materials would I use for such structure?

I've heard suggestions of using sections of pipe as structure. I've got several sections of 8' thick wall steel pipe & 8" thick wall pvc, all around 2-3' long. We've got a lot of red cedar & hedge in this part of the country, I've heard of making structures from both of them.

I'm sure the answer I get, are going to prompt more questions from me.

Again, thanks for the warm welcome. I'll keep you guys updated as this project progresses.

Pinwheel, I was not reffering to the "myth" of required trespass. I am also VERY impressed with your accomplishments and in no way intend my comments or suggestions as "knocking" your beautiful work.

The following is a quote from "comparing Stocking Options in the MDC website http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/stock/

"By stocking your pond with fish supplied by MDC, your pond becomes "waters of the state" for purposes of fishing and handling your fish. This means that you and the members of your immediate household may fish the pond without a Missouri fishing permit, but everyone else, unless they are exempt, will need to have a valid Missouri fishing permit.

Those who fish your pond must use legal methods as specified in Chapter 6 of the Wildlife Code and must abide by the statewide seasons, daily limits and length limits. This applies to the species stocked by the Department and any fish that you may later purchase and stock in your pond. Your pond will be considered waters of the state until it is drained or the entire fish population is removed."

As for the "strings attached" to the fish, some are still there, but the State has recently changed this requirement dramatically. 3 years ago the law ONLY allowed fathead minnows to be added to a State-stocked pond, UNLESS you had written approval for ANY other species, EVER. I see now that the requirement is only during the "initial" stocking period.

I'm VERY interested about how you got cost-share for the pond seeing as it is in a wooded area. That is a rare feat indeed! I have only seen the cost-share applied to "erosion prone" areas, and wooded areas never qualified before.

As for getting lime and/or limestone into the area, how did you get the equipment in and skid the logs out?

Without adding some lime and some thinning of the canopy between sunshine and the pond(I agree, don't "open" it), the only way I can see to reduce the acid that will come from the tannins in the leaf debris, would be to erect short runs of fencing in the inflow areas to trap the leaves and burn it occasionally. I think the ash left will be more basic and could offset the tannins from the leaves still reaching the pond. I am often wrong, but without sunlight to provide for aquatic plant life and the oxygen it provides, coupled with the fact that the heavy woods will prevent wind from adding "wave action" oxygenation, and the inevitable acidic water, I can't see how the fish can thrive, and I fear very few will even survive.

You have obviously put in an INCREDIBLE amount of blood, sweat, and effort into your dream, and I honestly believe that thinning the trees to allow some sunshine to directly hit the water will provide a HUGE boost to your water quality AND provide even more security to the wildlife. The wildlife, ie deer want to be able to see danger that is approaching OR that they may walk into. I'm sorry I offered way more than my alloted $.02.

Again, the place is fantastic and I want to help you avoid some of the sorrows I've experianced with a similar pond.

It's hard to tell from the pics, but there is a lot more open area here than it looks like. Including pond dam & pushed back areas, the opening in the canopy is right at 2 acres. It's going to get quite a bit of sun thoughout the majority of the day. As for wind, I believe we'll get some, especially in the summer. The dam is on the west side, & the SW is the most open area. Typically SW prevailing wind. Even though the pond is not built at the highest point in the area, it's not the lowest either. The ground continues down to the west.

I hope I didn't come off as to taking offense, because I didn't in any way. Really appreciate your input.


As for waters of the state. That does not bother me in the least. Missouri has the greatest conservation dept in the country & I do whatever I can to support them. I buy my hunting & fishing permits annually anyhow. We've had several big conservation projects on our property in the past 4 years. 2nd year, we planted 2000 new trees, third year, we established 9 acres of native wildflowers & warm season grasses. Without the MDC private land dept, we could have never gotten that done.

Sorry, missed the cost share question. Our farm is in the Salt River flood plan. Don't know the exact name of the project, but there was $750,000 available to slow the water into the salt river. The creek that runs through our property drains into the Salt. The Salt is what feeds Mark Twain lake down by Hannibal.

I've still got the skid roads into the pond area, but they're not sufficient to get a lime truck in there. 30 ton of lime would require a minimum of 2 lime truck loads. I know, because that's the amount of lime I put on my fields 2 years ago. The buggy I used to put in the pel lime will only hold about 8 ton max & the ag companies will not rent them for ag lime purposes, only pellet lime & that's way cost prohibitive. $12/ton for ag lime, vs $125/ton for pel lime.

Pinwheel, as I said in my previous post, I'm often wrong. AFTER submitting that post, I looked at your pictures and saw that a lot of ground was in direct sunlight. So, I hereby withdraw my nomination of thinning the trees!

Like you, I too am using the private land services on my 60 acres in Texas county and used the local NRCS agent to supervise some repairs on one of our ponds.

We still need to figure out a good way to reduce the tannic acid that will be a big problem in your water.

There are a LOT of really sharp people here that will help.

YOU didn't sound offended, but I often choose my words poorly and unintentionally offend. I have a real passion for ponds and this forum! I hope you are here often!

I figgure I should get a pretty good feel for what the leaf debris is going to be in the coming months. I've had a feeling from the beginning that this was going to be a problem I was going to have to find a solution for.

How evenly distributed would the lime need to be put into the structure? It might be possible to back a lime truck down to the dam in the middle of winter when everything is frozen & let him spread from one spot.

I plan to have the private land specialist & the man that designed the pond out sometime this winter & get their input. They're pretty sharp & very passionate about their work. They have yet to steer me wrong.

I just threw out the "30 tons". I'm sure you have an MFA near you and they let you use the spreader wagons for free. I don't think it would be any wider than your tractor AND they are on floatation tires. It's self-powered and I pulled one easily with my Nissan pickup.

How many feet is it from the pond to electric power? I ask because an aerator set up now would totally eliminate the heavy muck the leaves will create. I could even loan you a system till funds were available for one. I don't know if aeration would lessen the acid or not. In one of my ponds, I have a 35 acre wateshed comprised 99% of oak forest runoff. I bet I get over 50 tons of leaf debris annually and I have ZERO muck accumulation due to aeration.

There is lots of limestone in your area pretty cheap. Carthage is one of the biggest suppliers.

Lime need not be applied "evenly" but should be spread more into the shallower areas where wave action can slowly dissolve it. Limestone gravel and chat is much longer lasting, provides spawning beds and could be delivered via smaller dump trailers.

Is there any way you could build some limestone rock pile dams in the inflows? They are not pretty but they not only nuetrilize the acid, they also prevent most of the leaves from entering the water and building extre muck.

Sorry for the long winded posts! I'll leave you alone now---I need to ship out some Blue Tilapia fry.

No need to apologize for helping brainstorm solutions. We've got a limestone quarry close to us. Same place I buy my ag lime. Didn't realize Limestone (rip rap size) rock would do the same thing as ag lime. This could be positioned anywhere upstream of the inlet, right? One inlet has some errosion I wouldn't mind slowing & the other I've got a trail to about 75 yds upstream. I could probably haul smaller rock, say 1/2 to 1" to that inlet fairly easily.