Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Wish I'd have found this place sooner....

Jumped in with both feet and half cocked as usual...

Almost 2 years ago I bought a small piece of acreage (8 1/4) that had a little camp/cabin on it and a "pond". Ok a "watering hole". Ok, a hole in the ground with muddy water in it that the neighbor's cows occasionally tromp in.
Anyway, I always wanted to have it a little bigger but was severely limited by the layout of the land. It sits next to a small river in about a 3 acre +/- pasture. My neighbor was having one of his small ponds enlarged slightly so I got the drag line operators name and he was there digging in 48 hours! Of course I didn't know what I was getting into and $2k later I had a 'slightly' bigger hole in the ground, a really muddy pasture and no knowledge or prep work done so of course now I'm scrambling.
Some before and after pics.
Here's a before:


Here's two afters:




For some sense of scale, the tree tubes are approx 15'-18' apart.



So, the previous owner told me he dug the pond but 'had no idea' what kind of fish were in it but stated his son and nephew caught a fair number of bream in it one afternoon. Last year when the catalpas were out we fished for about 5 minutes (until 4 year old was stung by a wasp ) and my wife caught a small catfish, 12", no idea what kind.
So yesterday my 4 year old wants to go fishing. We go down there and I get him hooked up with a bream jig. I see a severly spawned out decent sized crappie near the bank that should have been dead. She was ROUGH looking. Maybe 1# . I get him casting and I put on a VERY TINY Mepps soft body and on the first cast miss landed what for me would have been probably the largest largemouth I'd have ever caught! Granted that would only take about a 4 pounder but never-the-less I couldn't believe a fish bigger than that was in there.
Saw a few small groups of fry but no idea what they are. Last summer found a couple of small )4") crappie. So the pond has at least crappie, bass, catfish and reportedly bream.
Now I need to figure out what if anything in the way of forage is worth adding. I don't intend to feed. I guess next project is figuring out how to get water in it. I'd like to put a solar pump to pump river water into it since the river is only about 50" away or so.
Random ramblings but just wanted to say 'hey' and see if anyone had some definite recommendations before I go messing anything up.

G-LSU,

A lot of folks feel crappie in a pond that size leads to management issues, long term. Do a search on Crappie on the forum for good reading.

There are a lot of good folks on the forum that are familer with your situation...I'm sure they will chime in too.

Best 'o luck, welcome to the forum.

Gator

Your from GON aren't you....

Hey, Geaux. What do you know?

Welcome to the forum.

Three recommendations come to mind.
1) If you haven't gotten grass planted to cover all that excavate dirt, do so ASAP. Preventing possible erosion will help keep that newly enlarged hole close to it's original size. It should also help the water clear up faster, which will help with #2.

2) I suggest getting a better idea on exactly what you have in there, to know your initial conditions and help determine what direction you want to take the pond in, fish-wise. A combination of methods (direct observation, fishing with different sizes/types of lures AND live bait, netting, minnow traps, seining if the pond bottom and the availability of assistance allows) will give you much more info.

3) What kind of a watershed do you have? Maybe you don't need to add river water for the pond to fill, or maybe it's not worth worrying about adding rough fish species that are in the river.

Alligator,
Yes, I have read about the problem with crappie in small ponds in several places. Problem is, they are in there already so unless I nuke it (which I'd rather not at this stage) and start over, I need to figure out a way to make the best of it. Thanks for the welcome!
Big_pond,
Yes, I used to frequent there.
Theo,
Thanks for the welcome as well.
1) That pic was immediately after the work was done. (Oddly enough it actually clears up immediately AFTER a rain.) I planted a winter mix of wheat, oats, etc.. and it took off nicely. The little island got planted as well with a willow tree on top. Despite that I do have some erosion in a few spots but I'm fighting it and it 'should' be OK. Like I said, I jumped in half cocked or would have put mats down. It's amazing how well that guy was able to slope the banks with a drag line. He was a magician.
2) The water is only 4-10' deep at high pool (there is no 'full pool' really, water level varies by a maximum of about 3') and I could actually probably buy a long seine and get after it but the island would present a challenge. I intend to try and start fishing it and recruit some help. Wish I had the tagging gear. I don't know how long I'll keep this place but the fishing hole was really done for my son in the event we wind up having it for a while.
3) There is some runoff from a ridge but most of it is channeled away and to the river. Can't say for sure what an inch of rain translates to in increased water level but it is material. We've had seems like 5+ years in a row of drought during the summer so I was hoping to kill 2 birds with one stone via the solar pump. Bring in some aeration and add to the water level. It would be a small pipe and pump just something to fight off evaporation. I assume I could filter out via screening trash fish but admitedly this is unchartered waters for me. The pump is probably a next year project now anyway.
There is no structure that I'm aware of in this little pond and there appears to be very little vegatation (just the slimey green stuff). Not sure if adding fatheads (if I can even figure out where to find them locally) will help or hurt my crappie 'problem'. I did recently seed with japanese millet hoping to draw some ducks off the river....

IMO you need to get rid of the crappie regardless of the method. You should be able to pump from the river and use a filter screen to keep the fish out; if pumping from the river is legal of course.

Geaux wrote "...but the fishing hole was really done for my son..."

Great! I see you're already good at self-rationalization. That's important around here.

Be careful, this pond stuff can suck you in!

Welcome.

EDIT: On the pumping from the river, maybe try to nonchalantly check into local regulations. I seem to recall something from the Pond Boss Convention about fines and penalties for pumping river water to you pond. It might be fine, but there could be some risk involved.

Yeah I use to be there too, have you been there latley? Where is your lake at?

BP,
Haven't been there since early last fall. Started my own much more 'peaceful' site.
My pond is in Commerce, GA (Banks county). Yours?
I've called Greg G. and eMailed him about fatheads but no response yet.
I need to figure out how to use my cast net and get to seeing what's in that hole.....