Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Damateur

I am going to soon start construction on my new brood pond. The area I have selected is near my house, and if I do it right I should be able to create a half acre pond. I plan to use my JD 350B track loader and rent a pull behind soil mover.
I have read that the ideal slope on a dam is 2.5:1. Does that sound right?
Does this mean that if I want my dam to be 8 feet high and 8 feet across the top, it would be 20 feet at the base?

A 3:1 slope is recommended. Using a 3:1 slope the total width of the base of the dam would be 56 feet. 24 feet on the front, 8 feet in the middle, and another 24 feet on the back.

If it's for your brood fish, you'll likey be seining this pond - right?

I personally prefer a 2:1 slope so Herons can't do as much damage...your YOY fish will be a perfect sized snack and 3:1 slope just means they can get out further and do more damage.

Also I recommend making a portion of your pond deeper than the rest, so when you drain and seine you have all fish congregated in a smaller, isolated area than spread out all over the pond. Important design feature I wish I had thought of before I made my reproduction ponds.

Yes, I hope to someday be getting small SMB from someone and growing them up and seining them to take to my big pond.
Because of the lay of the land, I will likely have a deeper spot in the middle that can't be drained. That should be a good place to concentrate fish before seining. I can always use a pump to get it completely dry if I need to.
Thanks, I need all the advice I can get.

One thing to consider is how easy it is(n't) to walk on a wet 2:1 slope. I prefer 3:1 but that's because I need to walk on the pond bottom that is above water as the water receeds during late summer/fall.

Here is a photo of the work as it has begun.

Rocky the ChocoLab is inspecting my work. The white post that looks like it is poking out of his back is to mark the end of the drain pipe. I would like to put a slide valve on this pipe to drain the pond.
I've done all of the work so far with my little crawler. I can rent a soilmover for $400 a day. However the smallest I've found is a 7 1/2 yard. I'm worried that I might not be able to pull that with my largest tractor which is 130 HP.

I just finished seining 2:1 sloped ponds the last five days. Probably drug the seine in various water levels more times than I'd like to recall. 2:1 slopes are steep, but also help control vegetation in addition to herons. All in all, that trough idea would have been a very welcome addition to my ponds. In fact, I'm considering getting a backhoe in there next spring and adding one. Would have saved me a ton of time.

Good looking project Richard. Ended up seining around 300 SMB YOY and lots of RES/BG hybrids in my other pond. Both projects were a success - but I had a LOT to learn regarding fish seining.

TJ, how'd those cages turn out?

Since Rex was there with us picking up fish we didn't have to hastily put the cages together so I think the parts are still just that, parts, at the moment. The fish that Rex left behind were either kept in one of TJ's holding tanks on the bank or sent with Bruce to one of his tanks at the Conderosa. Whenever TJ gets a window of time I'm sure he'll put them together, with my help I hope.

TJ/Bruce, I'd love to help you guys feed and keep up with those hybrids. Would be a cool learning experience for me. I could come down about twice a month probably. Not much, I realize, but throwing that out there. How many did you end up with?

Depending upon the weather I don't think that I'll be plugging the drain until next spring. It is so dry here, that it's hard to pack the dirt. I hope to add a couple of extra feet of dirt and let it settle and sink over the winter.
I'm lucky in that my whole farm is clay, the only black ground I have is where I change oil in my tractors. There are also no rocks or sand. The spot I'm working in also has a bit of a natural ( ) shape so the dam doesn't have to be as wide as it would in most places.

Richard

How big is this new pond? Have you thought about doing a tank or dugout design without the need for a dam, core trench, etc? If it's going to be a growout pond might be an option that would save you some time/money/effort?

It will be kind of a hybrid. Because of the lay of the land and the distance I have to work with the deepest part of the pond won't be right at the base of the dam, but more toward the middle. If and when I ever want to drain it, I'll have to pump that part out. Rather than spending $400 a day to rent a soil mover that is almost too big for my tractor, I bought a used one. I'll be spending much of my free time in the next few months hauling dirt out of the middle of this pond five yards at a time.
If you get serious about digging out the middle of your pond, there's an earth mover just west of you that has a track hoe that can reach 60 feet.

If you are going to create a dam I want to suggest using an AgriDrain. They aren't expensive and eliminate the need for pumps entirely. I have two for my reproduction ponds and love them. The folks at Agridrain are super folks, too. They have sent me more free stuff from my city boy rookie mistakes...and are very patient.

Thank you for the offer on the backhoe. I absolutely want to take you up on that. Are you going to have irrigation for this pond and aeration?

Which of the Agridrain products are you referring to?
While I wish it were mine, the backhoe is actually owned by Hartman Construction.
Since this new pond is near my yard, aeration won't be a problem. I have two wells here, and while neither is a 1500 gpm irrigation well they should help keep it full.

Bullhead,

I know it's too late but if it was me I wouldn't make the broodstock pond so big. Broodstock ponds don't have to be that big and it's easier to seine a smaller pond. It's also cheaper to buy a seine for a smaller pond. I priced a new seine not to long ago for a 1/2 acre pond at about $2000.00!

I've got a publication on producing smallmouth that was sent to me by a person in Ohio recently. When I get my computer back I'd love to scan it and post it here if you're interested. It covers optimum pond size, slope, etc.

It's not too late. I still have dirt to take out and I haven't installed the vertical drain pipe. I'd love to read the info you have.