Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Plans for connecting 2 ponds

Just wanted to get some opinions on best way to connect 2 ponds. I can just dig a channel but was thinking that maybe adding an island, putting in some terrain features, etc may prove beneficial.

In this picture, the white spit is 2 feet above water. For 3-6 months a year (depending on rain), this same area can be 3' below water.

In the close-up picture, you can see the bottom of the pond - it is up to 10' deep in that picture (yes, I need to work on liming and fertilizing) before it drops off to up to 27' deep in the deepest areas.

The dimensions of the land is app. 25 yds x 70 yds.

Oh yeah, cost is a factor.

Hey Ed Beautiful place!!! It looks to me like you really don't have 2 ponds just 1 pond with a low water and a land bridge. Your choices are many...cost factor could mean X $'s to one and Y $'s to another. A couple of sticks of dynamite will blow a hole in that spit big enough to get a boat through and allow free flow of water(old school I know but cheap and effective) or a few hours of trackhoe work to remove it or cut channels on each side creating an island in the center or do nothing about the spit and figure a way to keep the water level up...there are some real pond mgmt. gurus here that can talk more intelligently about specifics and cost.....by the way when I plugged in the lat-lon #'s from your photos it took to an area with no ponds in sight...how old is this pond? it doesn't look new at all.

It looks like it'd be easy enough to get a track hoe in there without having to take hardly any trees. That's the route that I'd go with. You should be able to get it all done in a day. You could dig it out and make an island in the middle with a channed on both sides, or just dig out the whole strip of land. That might take 2 days, depending on the size of the bucket and reach of the track hoe.

Thanks for ideas. I was thinking I'd go with an island - my wife wants a little bridge. 1 or 2 days digging sounds reasonable.

How deep should I make the channels - would it make sense to dig one deeper than the other? or does it even matter? This is the pond that I want to turn into a trophy LMB fishery.

FFF - the pond is at least 40 years old. Just an old kaolin pit that never was stocked or managed. the coordinates I have are 32.782437, -83.410197. Just southeast of that one is my other pond - looks kinda like slice of pie with the tip missing.

Hey Ed Good plan. Trophy LMB have been my passion for over 30 yrs! The NW side of any pond is where the water warms first and where the bass will bed year after year if the depth and conditions are right. So I'd ask your trackhoe guy to make the west side of the cut about 4' deep (does your water level fluctuate much?). Also bass guard an area 6'ft on all sides of the nest, so I've had good luck getting them to bed lots closer by putting visual barriers every 6', which doubles their bedding density. I use cement blocks..anything to block their line of sight will work..but not Christmas trees or brush..that will just give the brim and other nest robbers a place to hide between raids and do more harm than good. Then make the east side the deepest and even the south side if you need more island dirt cause after those huge double digit sows lay thier eggs they WILL retreat to the closest deep water (scattered structure there will help hold them there and make them feel safer!) While your at it notice that neck down place to the southeast! natural holding area for bass especially on a windy day! I'd definately put some rocks if possible along that point or brushpiles or something, if theres deep water out from it excellent. Thats the kind of place you can count on to hold fish most all the time. Oh yeah one more thing it looks like you've already got a sand bottom in that bedding area, try to keep it there or even expand it to cover more of that 4' contour.

BTW everytime Google takes me to the lat-lon you gave me it goes to what looks like a cemetary at the sw corner of Dykes Rd and Salem Church, only ponds I see are south of the radio station, of course it doesn't really matter I was just curious about your watershed also back in college I dated a girl from Cochran and thought you were close and might have actually known that pond. I'm originally from Valdosta.
Good Luck and keep us posted Ken S
Decided I'd take one more look at your pic before I went downstairs and noticed that it's not oriented North-South like most Google maps! but no matter everything I said still applies it will just be a couple more weeks before they begin using it. However I would spend some time carefully evaluating the NW end of the pond for premium bedding habitat and tweak it if you can.

I'd make as deep as possible, depending on your soil type. Here in the sandy soil, if slopes are greater than 3:1 (and that's pushing it) they will erode and slowly work their way to the bottom of the pond.

A buddy had a pond dug last Fall and the contractor put a 3' or so deep trench down the center of the pond. The sides of the pond are 2:1 or slightly steeper - you can't walk straight down the sides to the water, if you do, every step you take pushes dirt and you slide about half a shoe length. That trench is completely filled in and is only 2" deeper than the surrounding pond bottom. The bottom of the pond in that area was about 60' wide or wider.

Ed good to see you moving forward. Good luck if you like get back ahold of Matt for some advice. He suggested if digging might as well drain it and get started back over, rotenone and kill the fish. Keep in mind unless water quality is changed for very acidic kalonitic soil then remains limited on production.