Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations survey

I was just wondering if anyone would mind sharing the amount of time and money they have put in the pond. Also the size and what kind of fish are in them thanks.

Time and money; I have no idea of. I'm not sure I want to know and damn well don't want my wife to find out.

Re fish; I have channels, bluegills, green sunfish, and LMB. In another pond I have bluegills, lmb and grass carp. I just went to a neighbors bass heavy 1/3 pond last weekend and caught a dozen 5 to 12 inch bass to restock mine after the poachers hit. I replaced them with about 25 large bluegill.

This is my first year renovating my one acre 30 year old pond in the woods. I had crappie, green sunfish, bullhead. I had a major watermeal and duckweed problem.

I started with sonar ($500.00) to fight the watermeal and duckweed. It worked great. I bought an aerator pump($195 gast 0523) off ebay brand new. I purchased 100 weighted hose and diffuser ($95) and made my own footvalve and base. Got my stainless steel cabinet and fan from an old piece of machinery at a salvage yard for weight price (a few bucks). Now I am looking into muck removal products.

I stocked 60 bass 6"-10" to add a predator to help get rid of the unwanted fish. I got the fish from a local pond ,as stated before, that was overpopulated with bass for free. I purchased bluegill and redear (80% 20%) 300 at .55 each. I added 25 channel cats at $1.25 each. I also added 5 lbs of fathead minnows for forage because all the fish caught before were very thin.

I have fished the heck out of the crappie and have taken over 250 out. My green sunfish have really fallen off in catch ratios and netting.

I have seen a complete turn around this year alone. I have a perfect natural green tint with 20" visablity or so and have a very healthy fish population. My bass and bluegill are nice fat and healthy looking. The water is also nice and healthy. I went heavy on aeration because my pond sites in the woods and has 30 years of neglect. As you know all pond are different. I joined this site and read and asked question. There is a great deal of knowledge here to help out with specific situaions and ponds.

I forgot to add the 10 triploid grass carp at 12.95 each. Time is hard to tell because I enjoy the time I spend fishing and feeding. Other than that I really have no time involved to speak of. I spent about 2 hours setting up my aerator. 30 appling the sonar. Drive time to pick up fish then 45 to add them.

As for money, this is my 7th year owning the pond/property. I've spent way over $10K in pond projects such as stocking, excavating, dam work, etc.

As far as time, who can say? I don't always work when I go there.

My pond is 6-7 acres with max depth approx. 15'.

I have:

--LMB
--SMB
--Bluegill
--Pumkinseed BG
--Brown Bullheads
--Crappie (Black)
--Yellow Perch
--Rock Bass
--Hybrid Striped Bass (5 were put in a year ago, and I've have not seen them since)
--Channel Cats (10 were put in a year ago, and I haven't seen them since; don't fish for them though)
--Trout (5 Rainbows, 5 brooks, 5 browns; put in a year ago; saw them a week later, but not after that)
--Suckers
--Fatheads/Shiners
--Grass Carp

The biggest LMB I ever saw caught was 22" long and over 5lbs. I have SMB in various year classes; the biggest one I've caught was 19" long with a 14" girth. Largest Bluegill is 8 or 9". Biggest Crappie is in the 8-10" range. Biggest bullhead is maybe 13". Biggest yellow perch is 9 or 10".

I prefer diversity in the pond.

Well such a good question as I under estimated the expense by at least 25% and am still spending............without the cost of purchasing the land, damed up a 3 finger deep bottom accross a live spring fed stream. Cost $500 to survey the waterline which came to 13 acres. $50,000 for cut burn timber 1/3 of the surface area and build a dam of 25 feet tall and 425' long. $4500 in LMB,HSB,catfish,shad,panfish not to mention running power/roads/trailer/docks/shed.........another house note to say the least and worth every penny when you sit out there in the sunset and watch those fish feed...........

This is the first year I owned my pond so far have only spent money on BG stocking. $230.00. I am next planning a spillway, dock, and adding cover to the pond. ( thanks for the tips and info from forum members) Cost ? dont know yet. I plan on doing everything right the first time but keeping costs to a minimum. I am also currently designing the house, shop, and stable for my property also. I'll keep you guys posted on my ponds progress.

Time: spend a large portion of every weekend doing something with the ponds

Money: more than I care to elaborate on

Fish:

· 3.5 acre pond has LMB (Florida, F1’s, and native but mostly Florida), HSB, grass carp, threadfin shad, gizzard shad, tilapia, fatheads, Gambusia, and CNBG

· 2 acre pond has LMB (only F1’s), grass carp, tilapia, native BG, CNBG, fatheads and Gambusia

· ¾ acre pond has LMB (natives only), grass carp, Tilapia, native BG, and Gambusia

· ¼ acre pond has small HSB and Tilapia

Other: small dozer, backhoe/front end loader, two tractors with various equipment, and 200 acres waiting for more ponds.

This weekend I’m expanding the 3.5-acre pond to include a gravel/limestone covered spawning area of about ¼ to ½ acre....currently looking for some large Pacu's to try as an experiment for pond weeds

Pond? Singular? As in one?

We intentionally bought 3 separate properties totaling 132 acres. Each had a very small 1/4 acre or smaller stock tank already in place. We expanded all 3 significantly and added 2 new ones. I paid the dirt work contractor just under $40K to do all of the work but that included a 750' white rock driveway so maybe the ponds and wetlands areas cost us $35,000.

We use the ponds for Labrador Retriever training and duck hunting. Each had some fish already present but we've added several hundred 3"-5" channel cats, LMB, crappie and bluegills.

Of course, to maintain the ponds I needed a tractor so I bought a new JD790. To get from pond to pond and transport the wife and dawgs there, needed an ATV so I bought a Kawasaki Mule. Of course I can't have a tractor and an ATV without a trailer so I got a Big Tex 8'X16' car hauler. When you have that much equipment you have to have a power washer and a place to store it, so we added a 36' X 36' x15' high steel barn. A barn's no good without water and power so a water line was run and 110/220V service was added and a welder and compressor soon followed.

It would be dangerous to have a barn with all that equipment and not keep an eye on it so we built a 4,000 sq. ft home. My 2001 F-150 crew Cab 4X4 was just fine but my wife needed new wheels so we added a Chrysler Town & Country because of all the visitors we knew we'd be having after we made the move here.

uhhhh ... what did the ponds end up costing me? What difference does it make? You only retire once so as to enjoy the fruits of your labor for the prior 40 years!

My Grandson's first lagremouth and corresponding big smile makes it all worthwhile!

Haven't spent much but doing things slowly.

25 acres.

Blue Cats
LMB
Redears
Bluegill
Tilapia
Crawfish

I've got a 1-acre pond, max depth 9 or 10 feet, now 4 years old. The excavation cost $14k (by my count, my wife says $15k) with the drainbox & draintile plus a water line from the pond to a freezeout hydrant below the dam for watering cattle. So far I have about a grand in stocking costs:

Fatheads (long gone)
Golden Shiners (up to 9")
Bluegills & Hybrid Bluegills (over 9")
Redears (over 9.5")
LMB (up to at least 16", kept crowded for large bream pond)
Channel Cats (over 24", caught a 5lbs1oz dinner for 4 tonight)
5 Grass Carp (24' - 30" or so)
1 lonely HSB (a fat and sassy 18" 2 months ago)

The pond also "costs" me the loss of two acres (one wet, one dry) removed from use as pasture/hayfield.

Time? Do you add up the time you spend loving your wife, kids, or pond?

It's the best damn toy I've ever had.

Fish in Bruce’s ponds as of 06-28-05

Chalk Pond

62 male bluegill (up to 10.75 inches)
19 female bluegill (up to 11.25 inches)
10 grass carp
tens of thousands of progeny of the hawg bluegill

Coulee Pond

102 male bluegill
Tons of age-1 bluegill (all super progeny)
23 female yellow perch (9 inch max.)
4 big redear sunfish (11 inch max.)
3 grass carp

Big Oliver

455 male bluegill (big, fat and uncatchable)
9 grass carp
38 age-2 wipers
13 age-3 wipers (20 inch max.)
1 black crappie
1 female largemouth bass (20 inches)
1 channel catfish

Firestone Pond

1,400 HSB age-0

Firestone Pond II

930 age-1 bluegill (super progeny)
27 redear sunfish

Hoover Pond

61 male bluegill
3 grass carp

7.5 years, 3,800 hours, cost....ashamed to admit

Well it doesnt sound like there are too many regrets other than cost but what fun is having money if ya cant spend it thanks for the info

I does not seem to me that anyone regrets the monetary costs, more so just aversion to discussing it or being specific. Hence why I gave a super vague range of over $10K.

One of my good friends came to my pond to fish two weeks ago. This is about 70 days after I put in some huge smallmouth. My friend is a super-avid fisherman, both fresh and salt water (in the winter, he ice fishes).

He was rigging his rod which was a 5' super-ultra light weight Loomis with 4lb. test. I picked up the rod and was just a tad more stiff than a wet noodle. I suggested that he use one of my rods because these smallies were tough. He disregarded my advice. He hooked three smallies and didn't land one of them. His girlfriend hooked two and landed both (she was using an appropriate rod for the task at hand).

That alone was worth the amount of money I spent for those SMB.

Sunil,

Couldn't agree more. My grandson caught his first LMB Sunday, on a bare hook. I couldn't have been happier...money just doesn't count in that situation.

I have a one acre pond. I built it in my backyard. I only own five acre total. I live on a dead end road in a valley surrounded by mountains. The land is flat for the most part so hauling of dirt was what cost the most for me. We took out over 400, yes that is 400, triaxle dumptruck loads of dirt. We also took clay from my deepest end and spread it in the whole pond and spent several days compacting it.

I have installed a well and all needed plumbing to get water, also have a Vertex diffuser system. Of course had to build a little well house that matches my home!

I have read here about people building one acre ponds for as little as 2-3,000 dollars. I have over 20,000 dollars in my pond.

My pond was built well and holds water real good, I spent most of the money hauling off dirt. I would much rather haul it off than create a huge bowl around the pond. My pond sits level with the lay of the land for the most part, it's real pretty.

I have enjoyed fishing in my backyard, and watching my son fish. I would not change anything about my pond or the rediculous amount of money I spent on it.

I have Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Tilapia, and some Grass Carp.

Woody,

We do often hear about the $2k 1 acre pond, but we also hear a lot about ponds that leak. Sounds like you did it right!

Thanks Meadowlark, I have no regrets. You should have seen the looks on my neighbors eyes when all the euipment showed up. Four triaxle dump trucks, 1 big track hoe, 1 big 4 wheel drive tractor with pan, and a rental compacting machine. They were very worried! Wanted to know if it was going to hold water, was it going to attract bugs, etc, etc. I was amazed out how many of my neighbors wanted dirt, but did not want to spend money to get it. They said, well you need to get rid of it anyway. I said well the guys in those dump trucks and on the equipment charge by the hour! Ended up hooking one neighbor up with all the dirt he needed for $40 a load, what a steal for him! Also had neighbors offer to buy the fish feed if they could fish whenever they wanted, another offered to buy the fertilizer if he could fish whenever he wated. Had to turn down those gracious offers as well! People in general have no idea the effort and money spent to have a pond. I hate to be so stingy with the pond but I am keeping it to myself and my family.

The reason I have posted what it cost is to give perspective pond builders an idea of what they could spend, or not spend. My pond is in the backyard, it had to turn out good, I can see it frome every window in the house. I hired the best people I could find, and spent what was needed for my situation. All situations are different.