Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Digging a small pond out of a creek

Hi all. First post.
I have an excavator coming for a week in Septmember (Volvo ECR88) to clear about an acre of my woodlot. I was talking to the operator the other day who is a neighbor of mine about the possibility of digging out a small pond and he thinks we'll have enough time to do it after the clearing.

For the record, I had a DEC forester on my property about 2months ago who I ask about this very thing and he said as long as we stay on of the protected trout stream - no problem.

The potential pond site is adjacent to a small year-around creek that flows out of my neighbors pond and empties into a protected trout-stream about 200 feet away. The small overflow creek flows through a low lying area about 1/3 acre that stays pretty soggy where it makes a 90 degree bend and heads down to the larger creek.

The thought process is to dig out this low-lying wet area adjacent to the smaller stream first - maybe 10-12 feet down and then dig out the area separating the "hole" from the stream and allowing it to fill in. Basically creating a big "pool" in the creek. I figure because the stream flows year around, this would at least keep the water from becoming stagnant and I don't have to fuss with a damn or anything. The only thing I worry about in this situation if the pond quickly filling with sediment but I don't know if there is really ever a way of dealing with this. Anyway, I wanted to post and see if anyone had any words of wisdom or ideas before I give it a go. Thanks.

The amount of sediment you get depends on the type of soil I would think. Maybe plant a low growing dense ground cover upstream of the pond to catch some sediment? We have drainage ditches through farm country here that carry a lot of water at times and there are some holes dug out years ago here and there for fishing holes. Been fishing them since I was a kid and they're still there. Without screening of some sort on the pond outflow side, I wouldn't spend a lot on stocking fish because they will likely end up in the big creek when you get heavy rains.

Thank you. The soil is very rocky and the steam bed is pretty much all river rock so it may not be too bad. I'll probably dump and spread the stone I clear from the adjacent land I'm clearing in there as well so I can hopefully keep good visibility.

I don't think I'll need to stock it as I see small native brook trout in the smaller creek upstream from there so they'll find their way in and I hope the increased volume of water might attract a few larger ones. My neighbors pond is much larger so he'll help fill mine when it floods

Sounds nice. Wish we had some streams that run on rock but ours all run on yellow clay. The native trout supply is also a nice bonus. No native trout here so if we tried your plan we would end up with a pond full of bullheads, carp, and about any kind of bluegill/sunfish combination.

bhh, have you considered keeping the pond seperate from the stream, and pipe water from the stream? One pipe for inflow to pond and another for outflow back to creek. Put a valve on the inflow pipe so you could close it during heavy rain events if the stream carries alot of silt. Maybe with the pond upstream you won't have much silt anyway. If you did something like this, make sure the outflow pipe is larger than the inflow pipe because you'll probably have additional water entering from direct rain, runoff, etc.

Vamaz, I had not considered it but doing so would really eat into my available space. Its sort of a thin, longish ravine so by the time you left a few feet of earth between the stream and the pond, you would probably be reducing the width of the pond by about 1/2. It would provide a lot more control over water levels however and would make managing the fish population easier. Nice idea but I don't really have enough real-estate for that in this particular site. Thank you though.

The more I think through it, the less I think silt will be a problem actually. The neighbors pond sits right on the property line, about a 1/4 mile away, so I can control the entire creek upstream from this site and I have enough local rock to shore up any questionable areas.

If the neighbors pond will empty into yours, then whatever fish are in his pond have the possibility of ending up in yours. If your fish management goals are different than his, that could be a problem.