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Hello to all, First off I luckily stumbled across PB in my search for help. Not an expert in anything especially computers! So I would like to thank LeighAnn for helping me with my login to purchase a book. You know what they say about 1st impressions thanks for being so helpful. My goal is to find a property to enjoy and leave behind for generations to enjoy. Property will be recreation hunting ,fishing ,camping, and 4-wheeling. I've found and purchased a property in hampshire county ,WV. We (my son and I) have trails, woods that were there when we got it. What's missing is the pond and campsite. Property is 63 acres ,a portion is power lines. Would like to have a 1 1/2 - 2 acre pond. Any help with, is it possible, design tips, local contractors. Pond would be mostly for fishing. I'm sure a hot day may call for a dip or rafting. Our intention would be to have campsite overlooking the pond. We have a site in mind showing signs of runoff ,however no real streams or good springs. Neighbors tell us it's been the worst drought in 30 yrs. So if the water will come now may be the time to dig. Just want some reassurance before I pan out thousands of $$. Is runoff enough for a pond ? 1 contractor says yes and he has a place to get clay nearby. Hopefully I can be around to see this dream come true. Nothing like a child with a smiling face to brighten up a day

Welcome to the forum! With the power lines running through the property, be aware that if they want to expand the grid they might "imminent domain" more of your property to do so. With that said, if you do any improvements to the property, stay away from the power lines. I would say stay away at least 1.5x the width of the power lines currently in place on each side of them. Catmandoo here had that problem, and that was one reason why he sold his place in Va.

I have some large transmission lines on my property. Good place for a food plot.

Welcome to Pond Boss

Many ponds are filled with surface runoff only!

You actually don't want to try to build a pond on a creek. I doubt you would be able to get the permits, and any big rain is going to try very hard to blow out your dam.

Your location generally gets plenty of rain, combined with a moderate evaporation rate. That means a "right-sized" pond should stay full most of the time.

It is difficult to estimate the watershed required to support a pond since there are so many variables - such as soil type, cover vegetation, slope, etc.

However, the estimate for your area is 1.5 to 2 acres of watershed should support an acre-foot of pond.

For example, a 2-acre pond with an average depth of 8 feet would require 16 acres of drainage (watershed) if using the 2 acres per acre foot estimate.

All of that watershed does not even need to be on your property. The surface water that drains from an uphill neighbor's property is generally yours to collect.

If it turns out that you do not have enough watershed for a 2 acre pond, then you may be able to build a 3/4 acre pond. Lots of people on Pond Boss have a lot of fun with ponds that size (or smaller)!


Do you know how to read a topographic map and estimate the watershed above a given point? If so, pull up your property and do a rough calculation for your preferred location.

While you are doing that, you can also look at the satellite image of ponds on other properties in your area. Look at the watershed that feeds those ponds and you should be able to fine tune the regional estimate that I gave you above.

Talking to your neighbors with ponds may be your best resource. You can ask what went right on their ponds, but also ask what they would do differently if they did it again. If they were the owners when the pond was constructed I suspect they will have several good pieces of advice.

Good luck on your future pond project!


P.S. If you are not confident reading the topo maps you can send me your location via a private message if you want. It will literally take me 5 minutes to pull up your property and do the calculation.

Welcome to PB! Good luck with your project.

essup - something about the purchase had me 2nd guessing myself. But guess i main concern was the pond. So with little research we gambled and went for it after searching for couple yrs only to be outbid or find it pending. Hope they don't extend it . It already has a 200' ROW Thanks for the heads up Dave - We also thought powerlines = food plot soil is probably poor and needing help. Doing soil samples now ,waiting on results. Fishin rod - I use the x-hunt ( not the best at it ) but I figure about 30 acres of watershed for the spot we picked for the pond. Never thought about using x-hunt to check other local ponds. Good idea Thanks to all the feedback

Excellent news that your rough estimate is 30 acres of watershed! That should be plenty to keep your pond well supplied most of the time.

Since you actually have a little too much watershed for your pond size, you must add an emergency spillway to your pond design plans. You can't ever have the water level in the pond overtop the dam without dire consequences.

Ok Was thinking of putting one in , also thought about a sediment pond below the dam 1 for construction 2 for restricting overflow afterwards. Any thoughts on that ?

I am not understanding something, I think?

Usually a sediment/settling pond is placed upstream of the main pond. If designed properly, it will catch a significant amount of silt and organic debris (muck) that will slowly rob depth from your main pond.

I saw one on an old Pond Boss thread where the design included a long peninsula in the middle so an excavator had an easy working bench to periodically clean out the sediment.

Building a 2-acre pond is going to take a decent amount of time and you might encounter one or more rains. Having an upstream pond might save you from having a wet worksite - which wastes a lot of machine time and expensive fuel.

You have at least two options. One is a sediment pond that is very shallow at "normal" pool level. That type is designed to grow lots of emergent plants that help trap sediment during subsequent heavy rain events.

The other option is to build it as forage, grow-out, or small bonus pond. Design it like a mini version of your main pond. Stock it as desired. Design it with an easy drainage system so you can start over with that pond any time you want.

P.S. Your main pond construction project may involve some dirt work downstream of your dam core trench. I believe most sites have a drainage channel cut to de-water the construction site if you have some groundwater or get a rain prior to back-filling the dam core. However, that type of stuff is very site specific.


I am NOT a pond construction expert. Just throwing out some ideas so you can make good plans with your pond builder.

Wasn't thinking so much for sediment coming in. Thought contractor would cut a trench to divert water coming in. Was thinking water that got in and carried sediment out of site would need contained until dam was in place .Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong. That's why I ask questions. If up stream isn't disturbed wouldn't think sediment would be an issue. There is a wash leading to the site ,maybe I should've mentioned that.