Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New property with small pond

So i picked up a house on 6 acres with a little hidden beaver pond in the bush! Its my hidden sanctuary. Since its frequented by black bears and deer my wife leaves me alone down there Some info. Its muddy , We live on a hill with a small winter runoff creek that feeds the pond till june. It doesnt dry up but drops about 4-5 feet by sept. and freezes over all winter. Theres a rogue beaver who found his way up and never left. I was told by my neihbour itused to have fish . Im going to upload a picture. My dream is to dig the pond out bigger and deeper and have a natural swimming pond once the beaver is relocated , maybe stock fish. Could anyone give some advice? Do i need a liner? will fish survive without a year long stream and do i have to have aeration or pump because its in the bush away from the house? any tips or ideas would be awesome! I should mention this is a picture of its lowest point. at the left of the picture the water will fill up to the top of the mound. and then flow over near the back of the pond

To rebuild without a fabric liner you will need to determine the if there is adequate water holding compactable clay below the topsoil. A backhoe can dig a test hole to determine soil structure.

For your northern area, I suggest you buy: https://shop.msu.edu/product_p/bulletin-e1554.htm
Then use Pond Boss Forum for the second opinions and the best advice for managing your Canada pond.

Fishing & Swimming Type Ponds: A clean water supply; adequate size and depth, a minimum size of 1/2 to 1 acre is preferred with as much of the pond as possible having a water depth of 15 feet or more throughout as much of the pond as possible as this helps avoid oxygen depletion and fish kills. Having a depth of 18-20 ft is distinctly better than 15 ft; 25ft is even better where snow cover is deep for several months. Pond depths of 10-12 ft is appropriate for southern mild winter ponds. Side slopes of 1:3 (1 vertical foot to 3 horizontal feet) to discourage aquatic plant growth; side slopes in the swimming area of 1:4 for safe entry and exit.
Minimizing the amount of shallow edge around your deep water pond will reduce emergent vegetation, most species of which grow in water less than four feet deep. For this reason, create steep slopes to a depth of four feet or more. Slopes should range from a minimum ratio of 2:1 (2 feet of horizontal per 1 foot drop) to a maximum of 3:1 (3 feet of horizontal per 1 foot drop). Minimize the amount of edge or shoreline by constructing a circular or square type pond.

Pond aeration. When rebuilding the pond try to remove enough trees to get some good wind action on the pond which will help in several ways. Importantly it will help blow some snow off the ice down to bare ice in winter to allow sunlight penetration and better natural oxygenation by plankton in the pond. In Canada, Kenders Windmills build & sell a decent windmill aerator for small ponds 0.6 ac or less. Solar powered aeration, although relatively expensive, is another option in areas without power. A deep pond with clear water (6-8ft) can perform well without artificial aeration.

The only thing I have to add to Bills comments is that you can push air in a buried airline a long ways. I've installed systems where the longest run from compressor to pond side was 1,200 feet.

If I had a choice of installing a windmill system or spending $500 more to install a grid based system I would spend the money.

Also, if you DO decide to go with a windmill system, don't use the 3/8" air line that is furnished - go with 1/2" minimum ID line. That resists freezing during the winter a lot better, and if you decide to push more than 1-2 CFM air to the pond you will have the line already in place. I would make sure I had a pop-off valve on the system to limit pressure to 30 psi and look at some sort of air line freeze protection.

When we ran the 1,200' of buried line, we used 1 1/4" poly pipe and haven't had a problem with it freezing.

I just logged back on and saw the great responses! Thank you both for the great information! Im going to do a little research on your points and then update this thread. THANKS AGAIN!