Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help 100 Acre Reservoir

Im new to all this so any info that might help me is welcome.I have a 100 acre reservoir that was holding some water in it when we bought the land but had lots of vegetation and very little open water. We drained the whole reservoir about a 2 yrs ago to try and hardin up the bottom, now the entire 100ac is grown up in cattails and some willows. We are going to fill it back up this summer. The bottom end should hold about 7+ ft of water and the top end probably will be in the 1 ft range. What do I need to do before filling it up and stocking with fish?

ByronF, first of all,welcome to the PB forum - there are experts here that will assist
I envy anyone that has a body of water that can be called areservoir..!
Where in Texas are you located?

My only comment is that cattails and willows are bad stuff in my experience, and 7+ ft of water may be on the shallow side depending upon your goals.

With more info, I'm sure the experts can give good advise.

The reservoir is located in SE Texas close to Pt.Arthur. Hopefully I can get the water deeper than that but not for sure yet. I have the ability to pump water into it to fill it up so keeping water the water level up is no problem. Im hoping to stock bluegill and bass, but first have to get the vegetation under control.

That's gonna take a lot of herbacide and, more than likely, more than one application.

Contact Lusk at the PB office and ask for a local recommendation. Contact info is on the Pond Boss home page.

Is it okay to kill it and then burn it before I start pumping water?

I don't know but have looked at that idea. I'm not sure about the effect of the ashes on the water quality and the fish. Obviously you have to do something with the dead crud. I think the cattails will rot away. The willows might just stay as structure.

I believe you might need several applications of herbicides. I don't think I have ever seen a total wipe out of vegetation.

Any possibilty of excavating it deeper before it fills back up? Now would be the best time and most cost effective time to do this. You would also be removing a great deal of the nutrient load contained in the sediment that has built up over the years in the reservoir. Shallow water areas are going to be much more prone to having aquatic vegetaion "issues" than much deeper water once it fills up.

This is a job where it would be much cheaper to deepen some areas and move the dirt relatively short distances to raise up others into islands and peninsulas.