Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam DavidV's Pond Project; Guy with a Water Bottle

Posts Transferred from FRPeeps (Frank's) Pond Project thread at the suggestion of george1.



Topo of property. Existing pond is approx 1.5 acres.


Aerial view of exisitng pond and proposed expansion.


Exisitng pond from dam



View behind exisitng dam



Behind dam prior to work


Drum over exisitng pond drain valve riser with trees cleared.


Hole in old dam caused by beaver. The trackhoe took care of that problem in a hurry!!


dam is starting to take shape



A river runs thu it after the 12" of rain in May.My pond would have been half full if the dam had been closed.















At least the bottom holds water


one of the ridges

Another ridge, will be 5' below normal pool level.


From the center of the dam


My finger is always in the wrong place


Looking from east. Ridges,


From east again



Will be adding some cedars for cover, anyone need cedar wood? I have acres of it. Boulders and other fishy things.

Second Page Posts:






















Maintenance Crew

Hope to see you at the conferanc, bring the dozer people with you they will have the time of ther life(a break from working on the equipment will do them good)

Why did George1 decide to transplant my pics? He must be a very important man. I have a bermuda carpet growing on top and down one side now after $250 worth of seed. My dozer people are dairy farmers as you know. Dairy's aren't doing very well now. Wal-Mart has milk at $1.98/gal. Feed is up. Got frogs and hogs in my pond now. Have 7200 volts near. I figure I can shock the hogs, prod the dozer guys and romance my wife and be at the conference.

george is my hero.

Ouch ...
As I explained by PM, your excellent thread interrupted (hi-jacked) Frank Peeps classic pond building thread, and I felt your thread important enough to deserve special recognician.
Moderator approval.
My apologies.

If George says it......

... we make it so.

Some grass on dam is finally growing. Bermuda.



soon to be minnow motels once I find some help unloading. Helped a contractor of mine clean off a job site today.



Went out this weekend with transit and double checked elevations. Orange line is full level.Approx 2' below top of dam. Drain on one side is within an inch of this line, the secondary drain on the opposite side of the dam is 10" above.

DavidV, re-reading your thread and looking at your pictures, it appeared in the picture showing just a little water and nearly the entire dam, that the center of the dam looked about one to twoo feet low. Is it my imagination or perhaps a panoramic shot illusion ? Maybe, but it sure looks like there is a dip, and run-off topping that monster of a berm would be all bad.

Thanks for the observation, There is a small dip in the center- about 4". Here is another pic at or close to the center with the normal (full) pool level at the bottom of the stake. I have two natural, wide, drains, one on each side that I hope will take care of a flood condition. The water will never get as high as the dam because the inflow to my exisitng pond is about 18" below the adjacent road level. I just hope that it will fill up some time soon.

Happy Birthday David!

Thank you! My wife asked what I would like for my B-day and I told her about 6" of rain directly over my new pond. Didn't happen but one can always wish. How is your project coming along? I already have fish and frogs in the new part. The fish (minnows and fry) came out the drain of the existing pond and traveled to their new home. They were all trying to swim upstream but the current was too strong. Thanks again for the thought.

I know what you mean. When I was waiting for my pond to fill I would watch the radar on weather.com every time there was a rain cloud. Without fail the best parts of the storm, the reds and yellows, always seemed to slightly miss where I wanted them to go. Hang in there, your day will come. My pond is doing fine, maturing before my eyes. It's my favorite place to be!

Here is my daughter on the right with her friend and Molly which I found at this land under our 4- wheeler. They like the old pond Ok. One can see the new berm in the background. They transferred to the new pond and gave themselves "beauty" clay baths. Pics to follow.

Haven't updated for a while. But since last update I have had 11" of rain. New pond has filled quicker than I expected. I really have my work cut out now to get that pier constructed before I am working underwater.

Just wan't to throw this out to the experts for opinions.

My exisitng pond is 1.5 acres. Stocked with LMB and BG with some fairly nice BG and LMB up to 16" with most in the 10"-14" range.

My first inclination when starting this project was to let the new pond fill to a level then open the drain valve to the existing pond and let the water levels equalize. At that point I wanted to bring someone in to clean up the shallows of the exisitng pond (15yrs old) and break the dam to allow a continuos waterway between the existing and new. I also wanted to construct a bridge over the dam opening for ease of access to the opposite side of the water (I have an entrance gate to my property on that side which may come in handy later on). The main reason for connectiong the two ponds was to have a deep area(new pond) for recreation (swimming, kayaking, water trampoline and other kids stuff) and a shallower part with inlet creeks and flats for good spawn habitat.

Any thoughts or suggestions on the following issues would be greatly appreciated:

1)What do do with existing fish when and if I drain old pond?

2)If I don't connect the two immediately, should I begin stocking the new with forage fish this fall?

3) Does anyone know where to obtain live crayfish in the NE Texas area and is it advisable to insert these into the arena?

4) What are the pro's and con's for two separate ponds? The new pond has fairly steep banks 3/1 all around on advice from a Pondmeister and I am concerned about spawning grounds if this pond remains separated. Is this a valid concern?

Here are som pic's taken recently.

Sep. 22


Typical BG in exisitng pond



Rain gauge for past week


10/10/09


Grass finally taking on dam


Looking from exisitng dam



Top of the exisitng drain valve riser. Will need good waders or a raft to access now. At least the handle is above water under the drum.


See old pond in background and exisitng dam

The longer I'm on here, the more attractive 2 separate ponds look.

Crayfish, I think are only available late Spring to late Summer.

Thank you for your reply. Why would you say two ponds are more attractive?Just curious.

The two ponds would allow creating two diverse fisheries. For instance, want to catch some big catfish? pond 1. Large LMB and CNBG, fish pond 2.

A friend down in Dallas who has property about 80 miles East of Dallas has maybe 20 different ponds on his place, from 70 ac to >5 ac. The 35ac pond is managed for trophy LMB, and he loads it up with TSH. There also are BG, RES and Crappie in it as well, but the main focus is trophy LMB. His target is 12+# in 2 more years, and he's well on his way. Another pond (around 3 ac) has a good population of CC and CNBG, and just enough LMB to keep things in line.

David

Great looking ponds! Many meisters probably wish they were facing your difficult decision right now.
Hope it's okay I chime in...I struggled with the same kind of question and ended up deciding to construct multiple ponds instead of one larger pond. I value diversity and the opportunity to experiment and learn through my successes and failures over the benefits of simply having a larger BOW. I initially believed in a iron clad correlation between BOW and fish size: Bigger the water, bigger the fish - so I was obsessed with building as large a pond as I could. Thankfully, before I began my projects, I realized fish size and the success of a project is largely dependent on the knowledge of and extensive management practices of the owner - not the size of the BOW. I'm glad I found the forum before I executed my plans.

It obviously comes down to your personal goals and - but I'd recommend keeping them separate and benefitting from experimenting and trying something different in your new pond. You have a blank canvas...how cool is that?!?

+1

Plus, if you change your mind about 2 ponds You have the luxury of being able to pull the plug and make it all one pond at any time!

I really appreciate your opinions. Will probably keep the ponds separated for now although where the old pond and new pond meet there will be some common water during high water conditions.

I have been told a few differing forage stocking options. One is 800 bluegill/200 redear, another is 600 bluegill/300 redear and yet another is 1000 bluegill/200 redear. Any opinions, good advice? Not stocking CC as yet. LMB to follow this spring.

You're far enough south that Coppernose BG would flourish. If you don't have any in the other pond, I'd look into those. Is Todd Overton close enough to get fish from?

If you have CNGB, what about some of Bruce Condello's BG's if they are available?

I don't remember if you said earlier. What are your goals (fish wise) for each pond? (or one single large pond?)

What are the sizes of the two ponds, David? One big consideration: if neither pond is going to be larger than an acre or two, you'd have a much better chance at achieving a trophy bass fishery with one larger pond of three or four or more acres than you would with a smaller pond. Big bass need lots and lots of forage, and it's generally held that a pond of an acre or less isn't going to be able to produce more than one trophy bass.

So the biggest question that needs to be addressed, both in deciding whether to keep multiple ponds or make one and in deciding what numbers to stock, is what fish is your top priority? If it's trophy bass, you're going to have a much better chance of achieving your goal with one big pond. And stocking numbers will be higher on the bluegill than any you've been told: 1250 bluegill per acre would be a good minimum if big bass are the goal, and you could go as high as 2000 where you live as bass in the Deep South (I don't know if northern TX qualifies, though I'm guessing it probably does) seem to eat through more forage and more quickly (probably due to a longer growing season) than elsewhere. You would also want to stock additional forage species such as threadfin shad and golden shiners, and after two or three years when your bass are starting to put on some size, gizzard shad to give them bigger mouthfuls and get them really huge. Crayfish could also be good to stock and have been shown to make a difference in growing trophy bass. Numbers-wise on bass you would want to go lower than what most hatcheries advise, about forty per acre; I would go with 20 F-1 bass, 10 Florida, and 10 northern-strain per acre.

If on the other hand trophy bluegill are your main focus, you'll want to go with lower numbers than any you've been told: I would recommend no more than 250 CNBG (coppernose bluegill) per acre and 200 shellcracker (higher numbers ratio-wise of shellcracker because they will get very big in a southern BOW). You would want higher numbers of bass, at least 100 per acre. And you would want to skip other forage species (TS, GSH, GS) because they'll compete directly with the bluegill for food and drastically lessen their growth. You would want to install at least a couple automatic feeders, roughly one per acre or two acres depending on your budget. And, if bluegill are the focus, don't wait to stock the bass - stock them now with the bluegill so the bluegill don't have the opportunity to get in a spawn next spring with no predation. One good spawn can overpopulate a pond with bluegill, which is good from a big-bass standpoint but disaster if big bluegill are the goal.

With either plan, you'll want to fertilize to maximize the food chain. And, most serious pondmeisters nowadays use automatic feeders even if bass are the priority because the bluegill produce more offspring due to having a better food source, and reach intermediate sizes that give bass bigger bites, more quickly.

The existing pond is 1.5 acres. BG and LMB now. The new pond is 3.5 acres (will be when full). My goals are to have a quality LMB fishery but to have some quality BG as well if that is possible.

I have contacted Todd w/ Overton. I didn't realize he was not in "Overton" TX which is fairly close to my pond. Todd recommended the 800/200 mix.

Anyone know where I can get crayfish this time of year?