Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Central Texas Pond Project

Howdy boys. I'm in the research phase of getting a pond project going, just wanted to say hello and get a thread started for questions that will pop up as this progresses. I've got a 25 acre place in central texas about 30 miles south of Austin. Property is shaped almost like a perfect square. It's very hilly with about 100ft of elevation change on the property.

There is an area which has what amounts to a shallow pond right now, except it always runs dry. Whenever it rains water pools in this area against a natural berm in the land geography. Looking at the square shape of the property, this a little to the west and north of dead center target on the property.





It will pool up about 15-20ft wide by hundreds of feet in length depending on the rate of rain. At around the 1-2ft mark it spills over a low point in the berm that is cut out quite a bit from erosion. After rains the standing water will remain standing for maybe a few weeks to a month before completely going away.

From the pooling area it then flows into a really neat wet weather creek that winds through the property to the northeast corner. I wish a had better pics as this doesn't do justice, but essentially it looks like this. Some areas are super windy with really steep banks 8+ feet high. And there are actually multiple creeks that come from different points in the property, different hills, and then converge into the main creek in different places. The longest one (where the water pools at the head) runs for probably about a thousand feet with the curves. The bottom is very rocky like a river bottom and lots of tree stump waterfalls. I love it.





And eventually the main creek channel spills into an existing pond in the corner of the property at the lowest elevation point. And that's my reason for pointing out the multiple creeks as well. This pond is receiving water from multiple sources, not just the water pooling at the head of the main channel.





It's a very swampy kind of shallow pond. About 120ft in diameter, and when completely full about 6ft water depth in the middle with probably an average depth of 4ft everywhere else. I swam in there with the snakes and frogs to figure out how deep it is Since 2013 I've never seen the pond dry. I wouldn't mind expanding this pond a little though, or maybe just digging it out deeper. I like the sort of wildlife it attracts right now, but just a little more water would be cool...

At any rate, this pond fills up and then itself overflows in several places and the overflow runs onto my neighbors property into a large 20+ acre lake. That lake is maybe 200ft from my property line. And then that lake is a soil conservation reservoir, which itself flows into an overflow that goes downstream to other ponds, etc.

So what I'm wanting to do is build a 1-1.5 acre pond in the middle of my property at the head of the creek where water currently pools up. What I generally have in mind is to preserve the current berm and spillover into the creek, but dig this area out in a southward direction, so the existing pool/spill point would become the northern border/tip of the new pond.

Anybody have any tips or suggestions for me?

I'm trying to do this smart and currently in the early stages of consulting with NRCS about properly calculating the watershed and having a pond designed. I have provided them info but no response so far. Do any of you guys have much experience working with NRCS?

A friend of mine in the area has told me that it's important to dig the pond deep (15-20ft) to prevent evaporation and maintain water levels. I've been running searches online to get some information about this from a technical perspective but haven't really found anything. All I've come across is discussions of the importance of depth to sustain different species of fish. Some vague talk about how deeper is better for evaporation but nothing really specific getting into the numbers or heat transfer/thermodynamics of the problem. Does anybody know about anything like that?

Regarding stocking, the best resource I've found so far is the following TAMU publication.

http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/10/...mendations-.pdf

This seems to have great info for stocking and fish management after stocking. But it's light on specifics when it comes to pond design. It talks about having "deep" water areas of 12-16 feet to help with water fluctuations to prevent fish from dying during low water periods. Is there anybody here in a similar area (central texas) that can share some wisdom with me? What are people around here doing that works?

Running the numbers, if I dug a 20ft deep pond with 3:1 grade from the shore this is looking like over 28,000 cubic yards of dirt that I'm moving. Yikes!!! Am I crazy or is that for real? I've got some other projects, like building a vehicle bridge with culverts over a low water crossing that I can use some of the dirt for, and then a lot of roadwork maybe, leveling the private road with some more dirt. But not 2800 dump trucks worth of the stuff, good grief.

For central texas area what kind of depth is ideal for a good bass pond? And one that is able to maintain reasonable water level during long dry periods, etc.?

Sorry for the long initial post I'm not in any hurry, doing research right now, if schedule and money situation works out, maybe hoping to kick this off early next year, around February, towards the end of the winter before spring rains kick in. Maybe over the fall/winter I'll start cutting some trails so I can get the heavy equipment in there.

And that raises another question. What are people's opinions of using a large excavator vs mini/medium sized excavators? And does anybody know anybody with pond construction experience in Texas, or anywhere willing to travel here? Preferably central texas but I suppose anywhere so long as they are willing to travel to Austin area for the job. From reading other threads I'm guessing it's probably 1-2 weeks of full time work for a crew that knows what they are doing. Right now I'm 50/50 about hiring somebody to do this or just paying a buddy to help me for a couple weeks and having a go at it myself.

Aggie horns
Welcome to the forum from oakwood texas. Looks like a job for a pro. Lots to consider so you don't have a leaky pond. One of the pros will be along to answer some questions. Mike Otto would be one to send a message to.

aggiehorns,
Welcome to Pond Boss...lots of good info and helpful folks here.

Welcome to the forum.

My suggestion would be leave what you have shown in pictures as it is. If you like the nature it attracts, leave it that way. The reasoning is several fold. For one, the EPA and other official agencies frown seriously on disturbing natural wetlands and there can be some heavy fines and worse. If it is a man made wetland you might be ok but do your due diligence. The NRCS likely will have a good idea what the ruling is, but I have heard of situation where proper local and or state permits are obtained only to find out later the fed says you done been screwed. That is the first hurdle you MIGHT face (maybe not).

The other thing is that it is immeasurably harder to build a pond in an existing bog than it is to start out on dry land. I have built ponds both ways and it really sucks working in the mud. Your construction costs are going to be multiples higher working in that wetland compared to building a nice pond to one side or the other.

Which brings me to my recommendation. Talk to the NRCS and a good pond builder about building a pond ADJACENT TO the wetland. Then you not only have the best of both worlds (a nice pond AND a nice wildlife wetland) but you totally avoid messing up what you already like about the property.

Your plan reminds me of something I read that Mike Otto said something on the order of he had seen people buy a prairie only to build a pond and plant trees because they wanted a forest and others that bought a forest only to clear it of all trees and built a pond and a prairie. It baffled him why they did not just buy property like they wanted instead of buying something different and spending lots of money modifying it to suit them.

I'm not trying to be harsh or discourage you. My only intention is to help you think outside the box in your vision so you can get the best out of your property at a reasonable cost and with minimal legal hassles. Hope I accomplished that.

No worries, I appreciate the candid feedback. I do want to clarify though as I think you may have misunderstood a bit. I think we have the same attitude actually. I may have not conveyed it well. Modifying what's there is exactly what I don't want to do. I don't want to destroy the woods, damage the creek, or the existing pond in any way. I have zero intention of disturbing the flow of water as it currently exists.

I'd have to get into aerial photos and such to really explain the layout. But, in a nutshell, what's going on is I have a lot of water flowing through the property, more water than is currently being stored. I just want to build an additional pond so there is more permanent water, for fish and animals. And it also brings water to the center of the property rather than concentrated only on the corner.

What I'm proposing is that at the head of the creek, where the water currently pools up on top of normally dry ground, turning that into an inlet for a 1+ acre pond. In other words, in addition to feeding the creek/forest like it does now, it would also feed into a pond that goes in the opposite direction. The pond area I have in mind is dry ground without any standing water - ever. A 1 acre pond circular shaped is about 236ft total diameter, right? This would all be dry ground that should be easy to dig. The only area that might be a little wet is just at the northern tip, the "inlet" to the pond which would build into the area where water currently pools up. We're talking about an area that is maybe 15-20ft in size. And even that area is dry most of the time. A few weeks after a rain and the standing water left has all been sucked up by the ground. Even with digging down, we'd only be starting out with a 3:1 grade or something alone those lines around that point, so even below surface if it's a little soggy there isn't much to deal with.

Here's a sketch if this helps (not to scale).



The pond would be created in an area that is heavily wooded, but mostly with smaller trees. Very thick cluster of elm and mesquite, thousands of trees with the trunks separated by just a few feet. Sort trees. Here and there is a good sized tree, but mostly in this 1 acre area I have in mind it's a thorny jungle you have to crawl through with garden clippers. Literally impossible to even stand up and walk through it. And for the most part this area is very flat.

The idea is that the new pond (shape, size, geographic direction) would be designed in such a way that it doesn't interfere with the existing woods/creek/pond in any way. It won't disturb the beautiful oaks or other tall trees. And I would only do it based on the result of watershed study confirming the volume of water moving around and ability to support new pond + existing pond. From visual observation it definitely will support some kind of pond, how large is something that the math would need to bear out. Perhaps a full acre is ambitious. Perhaps I could support even bigger. Even if I could handle something much bigger, 1-1.5 would be more than enough for me I think.

Based on the size of the overall property though, about 25 acres, a 1 acre pond is a pretty small fraction. Respectable size, but certainly not disturbing the existing land features Rather than shaping things in a perfectly round or square way, it would be a unique kind of shape that doesn't touch any of the nice trees. Essentially putting a pond on top of brush trees that I'd probably want to clear out anyway. Certainly thin out. This thick area also has an epidemic of briars and thorny vines that needs to be cleaned up. One gets cut up pretty bad just trying to move through there. Getting all that cleaned up, a nice pond in there, and then continue thinning out the shrub trees in the larger portion of this area would make it a lot more hospitable to wildlife.

That sounds good. You are right that I did mis-interpret your intentions.

You said: "And I would only do it based on the result of watershed study confirming the volume of water moving around and ability to support new pond + existing pond."

Watershed size is very important. Too much and you have excessive flow through and problems with big rain events and too little and the pond level drops too much between major rain events. Getting the right size watershed in a watershed pond is always a compromise of some sort and the NRCS can help with the calculations and have experience with local conditions that are pertinent in your area. Also the guys in your general area will have a lot better idea and opinions on what a good watershed size would be.

My ponds have kind of a bare minimal watershed and I even terraced a farm field to bring in water to get to that point. Our average rainfall is something like 42" per year but some years we might get 20 more than that and other years ten less. Variation I sure Texas is also well used to. Some years I have excessive flow through but generally most often I could use a little more. Some regular flow through passes nutrient buildup on down stream and out of the pond and at times I could use a little more of that.

Good luck. Sounds like you have an exciting project ahead of you. Enjoy the process.

I am going to follow this thread as I am in a similar situation just up the road from you in Thorndale. I have a 30 acre place with an existing tank that needs to have the dam rebuilt and cleaned out.

Aggiehorns, welcome to Pond Boss!

You mentioned standing water after major rain events, perhaps lasting 3 to 4 weeks. That sounds like perfect habitat for mosquitoes, unfortunately. And what with Zika and other stuff going on, mosquitoes are even worse news now than they were a few years ago.

Point is, making this area into a pond with mosquito - devouring fish may be a smart move just from a health perspective.

Best of luck!