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Joined: Dec 2008
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bobad, I plan to stock with FH, RES,YP, SMB, and maybe some HSB.

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DC70 - Your idea of fish combination for your location should work well. HSB will be compatable with the other fish you plan to stock. However, I would not stock the HSB until the others, your key part of the fishery, have had time to be reproducing and become established. Initially don't over stock number of HSB per acre (5-10/ac) unless you regulary feed pellets. As you probably have learned from readings here, you always want ample forage or small fish available as a backbone to feed the predators (in your case lg YP, SMB, some HSB). Shiners would be a good addition early in the stocking history. You can always add more HSB if needed or desired. With your chosen combination, if you ever decide you want BG & LMB they can always be added later and they will eventually (5-8 yrs after intro) become the dominate two fish species in the pond - they always do.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/21/08 12:00 PM.

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There are a lot of stories good and bad about doing the work yourself. If you have the time and enjoy getting out and working in the dirt go for it.
If you run into a problem most people are glad to help, You can always call me and I will be glad to tell you what I know.

Most of the time the bad news comes from the equipment.
Watch what you buy and know a mechanic. Renting might be the best way to go, but there is usally a time table with rented equipment.

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 Originally Posted By: otto
Most of the time the bad news comes from the equipment.
Watch what you buy and know a mechanic. Renting might be the best way to go, but there is usally a time table with rented equipment.


This is where all my problem came from. Wrenching and buying parts for repairs killed my budget, but doing it all myself, I was able to build a bigger pond then I could ever afford to hire it done.

Eddie


Lake Marabou http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139488&fpart=1

It's not how many ideas you have, but how many you make happen.

3/4 and 4 acre ponds.
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Congrats on a great pond with such a small piece of equipment. I am surprised you didnt put a set of tracks on your skid steer to help with dozing the dirt up.

I toyed with the idea of excavating a 1/2 acre pond with my 30 year old backhoe but decided against it. I am glad I did. I hired a friend with a Cat excavator to dig the pond, but I moved over 4000 yards of sand and did all the landscaping. My old backhoe has moved a lot of sand in the last few years, and I have had about $3000 in repairs, doing all the repair work myself. I also bought a 5 yard dumptruck, and have sold enough sand to pay for a lot of the repairs.

Selling about $2500 worth of logs from the pond site helped defray costs as well. I still have all the equipment also.

As Eddie said very wisely, this kind of project is not for most people. It take a lot of time and patience. The right kind of friends are also a must.


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WOW. Impressive.. I have a skid steer and tracks. I am planing on building a pond about the same size... Some questions:
How many hours did you put on the Sidsteer building it? What type of breaks and wear did such work cause on your skid steer? what size bucket did you have? did you have teeth on your bucket? what would you do different if you did it with a sidsteer all over again?

Thank you for your example and photos... you are an insperation

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I owned an lx665 turbo w/tracks and tooth bar. It was a digging machine but I can also testify that the ride fell short of that of a Cadillac! 2.5 acres, thats amazing! Looks really nice!

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All I can say is WOW, nice job.


Gotta get back to fishin!
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Very cool read, great job! I can't wait to get my pond dam started! Again, great job!

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Looks like you did a great job.

I don't envy you sitting that many hours on a skid steer. It did look like you took time to keep your work area smooth. That helps.


John

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DC70 Offline OP
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Its been awhile since I've looked at this thread. Anyways to answer questions and or statements, here I go.

Sitting on a skid steer that many hours was tough. My New Holland had solid filled tires and that took away any Cadillac ride that skid steers never had in the first place. I sat on a pillow.

I used forks to break up the soil a couple of feet deep as I didn't have a bucket with teeth.

Tracks increase the load on the engine when operating the machine. If it is too wet to push dirt without tracks, then it is too wet to work the dirt. Having tracks on the machine would have only slowed me down.

There were several reasons I did this pond myself. The pond builder I wanted to build my pond died in the middle of another pond renovation he was doing for me (nothing to do with my pond). I tried 2 other contractors and they never got back with me on a price. The recession that occurred at the same time. My work was slow as a result giving me time on my hands. I really don't recommend doing this yourself, but I take pride every time I look at what I accomplished, which is daily.

Also I didn't stock it like I wanted. Fish washed down from a neighbor upstream giving me LM bass, bluegill, green sunfish, and crappie. I had stocked RE sunfish and fathead minnow before I discovered the unwanted other fish. The cool water stocking plan got revised.

Thank you for your replies and I am sorry that I was absent so long from this thread. I just had someone I know tell me they came across this thread and it prompted me to look at it again.

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