Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Test Picture from 6 month lurker

Guys,

Bear with me as this is my first crack at getting a piture loaded up here! Also this is my 1st post after months of lurking!


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That's cool. Heckuva building. I'll be in Kansas City tomorrow for a football game. Welcome, Nick.

Good luck to you and your Huskers, Bruce.

Nick - It is great to see you here!

Tell us more about that building and your Muddy Puddle!!

Since my 1st picture worked out I will post up some more and see how it works out. I will try to give you brief review of my pond.

We started construction April 2002 and officially finished the dam on St Patrick's day 2003. One very experieced dirt mover did 95% of this project by himself in 1 week short of a year. We experienced a strong drought during this period which enabled him to work alot.



After we closed up the dam we received no runoff from March 2003 to early December 2003. During this time the only water in the entire pond was a 50' diameter puddle of water. After dragging my wife on our 10th trip to inspect our "pond" my wife declared that this would never be anything more than a "Muddy Puddle" -- the name stuck!

By October 2003, I had started building our dock. By December, I had the majority of the framing done. I was just in time. Here is a picture in December 2003 of the dock just after the 1st runoff producing rain in almost a year.



Once the moisture started, it kept on coming. By March of 2004, the pond was starting to look like something. Here is a picture of the pond in March 2004:



Once it started filling, there was no stopping it! By early May, it was full! A 30 acre pond had completed filled in 5 months after setting empty for the better part of year. Here is a picture during the last storm that filled it up:



By then I had pretty much finished the dock completely. Here is a picture of the dock completed:


Here is a picture from a distance after it had completely filled:


Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. The pond was something I had dreamed of since I was a little kid. It is amazing to look at now. I cannot believe that I have it.

I put in/left alot of cover, put in some spawning beds, and did some bottom contouring (I couldn't afford to do much by the end as I was way, way over budget!!!) I wish I would have found Pond Boss before I built the pond instead of after! I am sure everyone would!

I will wrap up this post with a picture taken from the dock on Labor Day 2006:




PS - Thanks to everyone who posted directions on how to post pictures on this site. It was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I have wanted to post up some pics for a long time but always thought it would take to long. It is pretty simple!!

Nick

Nick - A grand project and wonderful results! You have no worries about posting photos, they are great!

What is in the dock house?

Nick, at 30 acres, you've got a lake, not a pond.

I'm just gonna go in the corner and sulk now!!

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
sorry....that was where my jaw landed.
I am truly awestruck. Yep, in my neck of the woods 30 ac = lake....and a magnificent specimen at that! Nick, you take WOW to a new level. Are you comfortable enough to provide approx US location?
Can you provide some more basics like the estimated amount of dirt moved, the size of the dam, various depths? What did you stock?
Well deserved congrats on making one killer entrance to the PB forum. I like the approach; lure 'em with the cool barn and sign, then bag 'em with the pond pics.
Good one, dude...very good.

Is that a crappie on that sign?

What Brettski said + an extra WOW!!

You are living my dream! Drool! What fish have you stocked?

Nick, Pond Boss, by definition only allows participation by those with water bodies of 29.5 acres of less. It's been nice knowing you.

Beautiful.

How many acres is the watershed? Was there alot of government regulations on building a lake of that size?

Thanks for everyone’s posts. I will try to answer the questions as best I can.

Answers:

I have blocked the cubic yards of dirt moved from my mind permanently but the dam is right at 5/16 mile long. The key way of the dam was the big killer! We had to dig down about 20 feet below grade to hit good clay to key into. The deepest part of the pond is right at 30’. This is at the old ditch that ran through the pond site. We were lucky to have very good clay in the pond basin. If we had not I could not have done the project.

We stocked about 200 lbs of FHM in March 04, then stocked RES and BG in Sept. 04, and LMB and CC in May 05. Somewhere along the way GSF got into the pond and they have been a battle. I removed 30,000 with traps this past summer! It has finally started to put a dent in them.

Fish on the sign is a regular old BG. This is my favorite fish to catch and eat. Give me a June evening, a fly rod with a “round dinny” popper (the best popper ever made in my opinion), and cold beer and a baseball game on the transistor radio and I am as close to heaven as I can get on earth! The sign is cut from ¼” plate steel so some detail was lost. We cut the sign with a plasma torch. The bird is a honker. My 2 favorite outdoor activities are flyrodding for bluegill (trout are a close 2nd) and hunting for Canada geese.

Watershed is right at 360 acres. The entire drainage area is a mix of ungrazed and moderately grazed pasture. The water clarity is very good. I don’t have a disk to do a reading but often in the summer I can into the water about 3’. As far as regs, we got the NRCS on the site early on. They were very helpful. I have done a lot of wetland projects with them and have nothing but positive things to say about their assistance. I know this is not true elsewhere in the US, but we have a great bunch in MO! As for the government regs, the dam height was just below the height that leads to major bureaucratic regs!

I am glad to share the info. I think the people on this site are probably the only ones that can relate to the amount of work I have put into this dream!

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've heard this.

Nick,
Very Nice Pond.
Cat 613 paddle scraper in the dirt photo, has a cat 3208 v8 diesel, 4 spd forward 2 spd reverse trans hooked to torque converter, 13 cu. yd scraper.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Bruce,

One of my fish suppliers says .... if they ever find life on Mars it will be those blankety blank, blankety blank, GD, green sunfish!!! It's pretty good when he says it.


Kent,

90% of the pond dam work was done with that one scraper. It is a good machine!!!

You Got my vote for Pond Man of the Year!!! Awesome Job!!!!!

Nick how many yards of dirt was moved on your 30 acre project? The same model scraper built my recent 4.7 acre pond and it broke me in less than 3 weeks. The project moved about 25000 cubic yards. A whole year you must of had a lot of dirt moved. Awesome mud puddle congrats.

somebody knew i'd come to life a little on this one? shoot, nick, when life gives ya lemons.....



make lemonade

your pond is truly awesome. making yer dream pond come true.....i am completely there with you.....except for the acreage.....and i agree w/ mr. condello, yer not allowed here anymore pond is too big, too nice, etc....LOL

Rockytopper,
If he moved 25,000 cu. yds. with a cat 613 he either had fantastic cycle times or put in a lot of hours.
It does make a difference if the yardage number is embankment (packed) or loose on the scraper. The 13 cu yd scraper will net only about 10 yds embankment.
10 loads an hour is fairly fast cycle time, 12 loads an hour is real good, and even that can be beaten.
A hundred cu yds embankment an hour is a pretty close estimate of what the machine normally moves.

I need to check the records to be sure but I think we moved a total of 105,000 cubic yards of compacted clay including the keyed core. Obviously the pond wasn't worked on every day for the whole year but in spurts. I will say it was a lot of rounds with the scraper! The pond basin contained alot of very good clay which helped alot. We were also lucky to hit a rocky vien that we could use to get all the rip rap for the dam. After we got the rock out we covered the rock vien with a good 18" if compacted clay. It must have worked because the pond doesn't leak.

I am glad I did the project but I would not want to do it again. It was very stressful. I was way over my head in expenses by the time it was all over.