Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam New pond in the holler.. a saga

I'm rootin' for ya!

How's the overflow doing, I know we've had a ton of rain lately.

Full pool. Fish starting to learn the 6pm feeding thing. My favorite cherry tree stump that I liked to stand on is under water though.




I hope this is semi-normal settling. But there were two cracks about 4-5' apart across the top of the dam. About same as 4'x4' anti-seep collars... Got a lil concerned, so I opened the drain and dumped about a foot of water to get it away from the overflow pipe. I know, I'm paranoid now.

That is odd that it cracked like that with as much rain as we have been getting. I'd say it's settling from the pipe install but I'D be prepared to add some dirt to that area soon. What kind of grass did you plant, looks like it's growing pretty good?

Yeah, rains have been good for new grass. It's mostly Ky31 fescue with some perennial rye in there. Over along the spillway, I put in a pound of orchard grass. I spread 80 lbs of starter fertilizer on the dam this weekend to give it a boost and get roots/rhyzomes going. Been hand broadcasting because I don't fancy dragging my spreader on that slope. Found a few areas that didn't get seed as they were bare.. so flung another bucket full of fescue. RuralKing had red clover under $2/lb, so got a sack of that.. got a chunk of bare ground high above the pond by the woods that the deer might like to browse. Too steep to mow, so clover seems good.

Back from a 4-day weekend tending the pond. We got 2.6" of rain between 2-8am this morning. Pond got to full pool and doing well. Was interesting going out at 3:30 checking on where all the water was going.. did have some soil washed out, not on the dam but bare areas from where the dozer skinned it.

So other than an evil red eye, what do folks think of this pumpkinseed/longear outta the creek? Looks awful colorful. It looked gravid to me. Bottom side was kinda swollen.


And does this guy count against the total biomass in the pond? He wasn't looking at the young fry at all, he was cruising for the feed pellets and would pop up and snarf them. I assume folks generally say to make soup out of it and don't leave it there?

That's a beautiful fish. Did you put it in your pond?

I have a big snapper in my pond too. It doesn't seem to bother anything. Does the same as yours. Goes along picking away at the feed. I caught it once. Haven't caught it since. Stays away when I'm fishing now.

Yes, I put the PS in the pond. Just loved the coloring.

Since my first stocking of FHM and GSH ended up in the creek running thru my land, I've been down there with a cast net having some fun and cooling off. If I can tell at the creek it's junk fish, I toss it back. I bring them up to the porch and if I can't ID, I dump them in this tray with water for photos and a closer look. Not many FHM, but I've gotten GSH up to 6" long. Not sure a warden would agree the GSH are mine, but I got a receipt... Doubt they are native to this creek.

I hand feed, so if Mr Snapper wants it, he's gotta run the risk of being seen. Couple times I've come up over the dam and I hear a big splash, which I assume is him bailing in. Definitely not the plop of the frogs. He's the apex predator in there now. I'll have to decide if he stays by next year when I stock the predator fish and biomass goes up.

That's an outstanding Longear! We have snappers in all of the ponds... I don't consider them an issue.

I like having a few snappers in my pond. They're naturally a part of that ecosystem and I don't see where they're "eating all my fish" as everyone tells me. They're pretty cool in a prehistoric kinda way.

Unfortunately, sometimes when fishing for catfish we catch one and they've swallowed the hook, so we go ahead and shoot 'em. But if hooked in the mouth we can usually get the it out and let them go, although the process leaves us full of adrenaline and kinda shakey.

I'll bet that is an adrenaline rush. I have no problem with turtles. They clean up messes and I appreciate them. A big snapper is usually ancient. I've never seen anything that shows them as any kind of environment problem to a pond.

Yeah, they eat a few pellets but I doubt that a pond full of turtles could cost over $5 to $10 per year.

I used to be of the opinion that snapping turtles needed to be removed. After a ton of reading on the subject I am no longer of that opinion. I've probably got 10 or so snappers in the big pond and one that's a giant. I just consider them something else cool to look at.

I have the same sort of 'branch catcher' on my pond now that you added, minus the netting. It's probably overkill but I'd rather have those posts there to catch large branches and not need them rather than the opposite.

Has anyone else ever witnessed large snappers fighting in a pond? It is something to see. They went at it for at least twenty minutes. Looked like alligators out there. Seemed like one was always trying to roll and push the other one under water and keep it there, kind of like alligators. I would have thought breeding, but it was in the fall ( or perhaps they were?, I don't know their cycle).

I don't get more than one at a time in my pond of 1 acre on a regular basis. I thought perhaps they are territorial.

I saw that once in my pond, and suprisingly a few days later there was a dead snapper floating in the pond. I have no idea why it died. They both were in the 25# range size wise.

Well, it is time for an update. Thought I would put it in the original thread.

I stocked FHM and GSH a year ago after the dam was repaired. There are innumerable 1-5" fish in there now. I've fed them. There are frogs and tadpoles all over.

So now I believe it is time to stock the BG, RES, LMB. Did some work on the water this weekend to see where it's at. Bought titration kits and a pH meter because that's just the way I am.

There is 0 alkalinity in the pond. It's totally a runoff rain and groundwater runoff pond. I checked the pH .. it runs 6.7-6.9. I tested several spots around the pond. The inflow water was 6.2-6.4 in the mornings and up to 6.8ish in the evening. The main pond water was rather randomly going up and down during the day(no correlation vs morning, afternoon, evening), but with only a 0.2 range, I figured that's likely within instrument error. I measured the water coming out the overflow pipe and it was 6.9-7.2. So I take all that to mean that even with no alkalinity, it isn't varying greatly for now. The water is coming in more acidic, but by the time it exits, it's neutral.

I've pondered amending and with as much water is flowing through there, wonder how long it would last. Reckon a ton of crushed limestone should be easy to come by if necessary.

So the major question on my mind is will this water be ok to stock in?

A few photos from the weekend around the pond. Pond temps are coming along. In the shallows it ran 54 in the morning and 57 afternoons. Down 15' it is 50. Time to see what's going on.

Built a couple FHM hangouts. Had some old paneling that I cut into 8"x12" and ran a cord through. Tied them off across a couple shallow areaas. I figure they are due to start in soon.



Saw several square feet of what I think are toad eggs. An interesting curly-fry shaped strand. This stuff is right to the water's edge in 1/4" water and also down to maybe 4". Tis also downstream of the overflow but not as much.



I picked up a nice scale and had to play with that. It is rated for 7 kg +/- 1g. That's essentially 15 lb and down to 0.1 oz. It comes with a plastic bowl that is perfect to put in some water and zero it out. Had to play. These shots displaying in ounces as I knew they'd all be small.


I think an American Toad.





Looked like an adult FHM at 0.7 oz.

And this poor little guy couldn't even drum up 0.05 oz. But he must surely be pretty recent.


And from the overflow pool, a couple very nice refugees that went back to the pond.



Looks like a GSH in fully glory.



Should be a nice-sized croaker some day.

Was a lovely time around the pond.

Crushed limestone is available at the road construction rock pits in our country. Try there first.

Great pictures.

Pretty sure this one is a creek chub. Been several years since I've had a close look at one though.

DN - Nice pictures. The fish Chris thought was a creek chub is a common shiner. Creek chub will have a rounder body in x-section and smaller scales.

I have never seen a pond with 0 alkalinity. Lower pH suggests low alkalinity. Evidently 0 alkalinity ponds exist. I assume your test is accurate. If you have fish living in it, you can stock other fish. With such low alkalinity don't expect to see green water blooms. Ponds with low alkalinity you should feed pellets to get a prosperous fishery.

Thanks for the clarification Bill.

I used the Salifert KH/Alk titration kit that has good reviews. Maybe I should sample a few more spots. It changed color in .03 mL which puts it way down at the first increment- which they admit is the measurement error for this kit. Could be 10-20ppm as well, but it's low nonetheless. Tis why I checked pH over the course of a couple days to see if the advertised pH swings occurred.

I guess I'm open to the possibility the titration was done wrong or something. Maybe I'll go sample the year-round creek as well.

I've been feeding the forage fish. They certainly spawned prolifically last year. But putting in predators is a bigger step- wanted to confirm before proceeding.

The contractor a cpl miles away has a couple semi's worth of crushed limestone in his yard. Maybe I should see what he'd want for a few Gator's full. No way a big truck could get up to the pond.

So on the basis that forage fish seem happy, get the bigger fish in, but add limestone in the next month? That a reasonable plan given the evidence?

I just found this thread. If you hadn't updated it, I never would have seen it. I'm glad your dam is holding up well. I'm in the waiting process, as mine still needs 3-4' of water to reach the overflow pipe. You've got more rain, for sure, and more acres in your drainage area for pond size. I guess now I'll worry about my drain pipe, and if it will handle a big rain when full. I've got two of the collars on the pipe, and I watched the guys pack it with the track hoe, and a manual tamper. Hoping for the best. Our drought isn't helping.
Just curious, when you go without rain for a while, if you ever do, does your water level drop much? We haven't had rain for a few weeks, and my water level has dropped 3". I keep hearing that's normal, but I worry.
Good luck with your fish stocking, mine are going in early next week, even though I'm not at full pool.
Jeff

If your level has dropped 3" over a few weeks I would not sweat that. We are not that far apart and I would consider that normal for this area.

My wife thinks our pond leaks because the seasonal creek behind the dam keeps water in it now where she recalls it used to go dry during very dry times. She quite probably may be right, but our level drops in this pond is comparable to our old pond an eighth mile away and comparable to other ponds and pits in the area, so I don't worry about it. We did run into gravel at the bottom of the pond that likely connects to this small stream bed gravel and it was very difficult getting clay packed back in over it because of wetness, so I suspect we do have some connection with this small stream. But like I said, our pond does not seem to drop any more than anyone else in the area.

If we get wind, we can get considerable water loss from evaporation.

Great to hear the dam is holding and looks like your fish and critters are doing fine.

Is that a little salamander? Cool looking. Thanks for the pictures.