Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Creating my Lake

That is an awesome sight, Eddie. As for your water level. Most people would yearn for a 4 inch drop in 3 wks. That is next to nothing. It should even get better. I would say things are going well. Congrats.

Eddie,
Do ya remember this thread ?

Eddie,

In cool weather, low humidity, and high winds, I think you could get up to .1" per day of evaporation. It's possible that you could have lost 1.5" or slightly more to evaporation over 3 weeks.

Add that to a little compaction and soakage, and it doesn't sound alarming.

If you didn't run into a lot of sand and gravel during construction, I wouldn't worry.

A reason for the "lag" in sealing is that it takes a while for the water to soak into the soil. As normal soil becomes wet, it becomes heavier and more plastic. The heavier and more plastic it becomes, the more it settles and compacts. The more it compacts, the more waterproof it becomes. In effect, there's an ever-decreasing loss to compaction and soakage. You should know something in a month or so.

Brettski,

Thanks for the link. I do remember it, but enjoyed reading it again. I don't think I have a leak, but the water level is dropping, so I wanted to share with everyone and ask for opinions.

When the water level was lower, it didn't change at all, now it's slowly dropping, so something has changed. I think it's normal and not a problem right now, but I'm not very knowledgable on these things.


burgermeister and bobad,

Thanks.

Eddie

Dirt is like a sponge. When it is dry, it absorbs water. Due to that and the permeability that is discussed in the link to the former thread, you will always be losing some small amount of water. The rate of absorption on a new pond has to be more than a mature one.

I can see no reason to stock tilapia this year. Without a LMB base to eat them, they are short term prey without a predator.

Eddie,

Give it a few months to stabilize...but keep an eye out for any wet areas behind the dam.

A comment on your stocking plan...the F1 LMB is a great choice for growing large catchable predators. Your supplier has some great genetics in both the LMB and CNBG. As far as stocking Tilapia are concerned this first year, my opinion is that it depends on the size of the stocker LMB and also on the water quality...i.e. if the LMB are stocked at 4 to 6 inches, they will feast on small Tilapia offspring all through the growing season and you will get algae control as a bonus. If you aren't concerned about algae and/or stock LMB smaller than 4 inches, then Tilapia won't do much for you. Otherwise, this first year, I'd stock them, in small numbers, for the algae control and for the forage they will provide your LMB.

Eddie nice deer congrats, I agree with ML and company don't be too worried yet about the pond leaking. My new pond droped 6 to 12 inches in the first 3 or 4 weeks. after the intial first catch. Sense that time it has continued to catch water and it has now stablished. No loss noted in the last 8 weeks.

Looks like 3 deer in that picture. Your gonna have to go shed hunting in a few weeks, they should be about ready to drop. Give those guys a couple years and they should be Boone and Crocket.

My pond is a year old and it came up and droped a bunch of times before it setteled this winter. I would just give it time.

Donnie

A leaky pond must be a problem in Texas, but the county in Iowa I live in, all ponds leak. I guess certain places are blessed with certain soils, and the rest make do.

Thank you for the replies and advice. It's very comforting to hear those of you with first hand experience confirm what I've read, but haven't seen myself until now. One guy told me that it would drive me crazy watching the water level change for the first few months. He was right. hahaha

I'm planning my initial stocking for next month when it starts to warm up a little. I'll have the water tested first, as it's free and local, then go from there. My plan is just Fathead Minnnows, Copper Nose Bluegill and Channel Catfish. Then wait.

The bass are the big prise, but I'm not in any sort of rush to get them in there. I counted four different spawns of minnows last year in my small pond, and think that would be perfect for the lake before I try any preditors.

I'll probably go cheap and put in the smallers bass I can get. Is there any advantage to buying bigger ones if I'm not in a rush for them to grow? I also buy plants in the smallest size and let them grow, so it's jus the way I am. hahaha

Again, thank you.
Eddie

Eddie, smaller size bass seem to have greater mortality but you can stock more of them. If you buy 2 to 4 inch, expect most to be closer to 2 than 4. Anything smaller than that, they'll eat each other.

Update on my water level. It's been a week since I last checked it and the yardsick said I was at 7 1/2 inches low. Today is says I'm 8 1/2 inches down for a loss of one inch of water in one week.

That doesn't sound too bad to me. No measurable rain, but temps were in the 60's early in the week and now they are in the 40's. We might be getting a thunderstorm tomorrow, so I'm hoping for runoff, but no biggy. I'm feeling pretty good about it not leaking and holding water.

Last night after Steph got home and it was still light out, we went for a walk down to the lake. There were ducks flying all around and several small flocks landed. We were very exited and tried to sneake up for pictures. The close we got, the more we saw. There were at least 30 wood ducks in the pond with several on the shoreline running around. There were two to three flocks flying over head. Then the ones in the water would take off in groups of five and six, but others would land of similar size.

We have no idea how many ducks were out there, but we never expected anything like that!!! Before, we'd kick up a pair or two pairs from the creek and sort of expected to see similar numbers in the lake.

This is so cool!!!!

Eddie

What an amazing sight to behold, I'll bet! It will be interesting to see if they hang around or if they are migrating. I hope we have even half your luck. In fact, I think half might be more than enough. Is it possible to have too much duckage in a no-hunt pond? My biggest fear is getting half your wood duck-luck and it sends up the "c'mon down" signal to the CG.
Have you made any decisions on nesting boxes?

Hi Brettski,

Honestly, after seeing all those wood ducks, I've changed my mind on boxes. I'm not going to make any. Whatever is going on here, it's working and I'm not gonna get involved. hahaha

There are all sorts of hardwoods all around the lake and along the creek for miles and miles. Allot of them have holes in them that must be where they are nesting.

There's no telling how many flew by. 30 is just how many she counted in the lake while trying to get some pictures.

Their call is very eiry and spooky sounding, and while trying to get some pictures, we were surrounded by them calling. I'm a duck hunter, just not on my land, and the best part was watching them lock up and come in for a landing. Just one of those magical things I really enjoy.

According the the birder websites, we're on the boarder of migratory and permanent wood ducks. We've never seen them during summer, but allot of the ducs that fly by are too fast, or up too far to identify. Could be woodies here year round.

Eddie

that is way cool eddie...in 11 years i've only seen one male and he only stayed for a couple days. my dad keeps tellin me to put up a box or two, and thanks to brettski, i now have the BEST resource possible to do so.

Eddie, are there any springs feeding your pond or are you relying on runoff now? I recall you had some spring flow - could be they are sealed off?

My new pond just north of you in Mineola is staying at a constant level, however I do have a very small above water line spring running right now. I am not seeing the level go up - but staying constant. My guess is the leaks or evaporation are being offset by incoming spring water.

The spring that is along the shoreline is dry. I'm not sure what happened, but it held water before I begun digging, and never dried up until last summer. Then it slowly lowered until it was dry. I probably ruined it by putting a road just above it and compacted the soil around it. I really don't know for sure. It was in a perfect location just a foot or so above the full water line.

There was ice over about half of it, and my small pond this morning. Tracks all over the place from hogs, deer and coyotes.

Eddie

Eddie, I had a similar situation with the springs - you may consider using a back hoe downstream from your roadway - it very well may open up the spring again when you remove the pressure of the soil. It worked for me.

Not much to update on the water level. When it rains, it's too light to cause any runoff. The ground just soaks it up.

I'm still droping an inch a week, it's getting warming and it looks like it might be dropping faster now. I'll know for sure this weekend, but I figures it's normal evaporation.

An exiting note is that the grass is starting to break through. I have to get down real close to the ground to see it, bit it's there, so I'm happy.

Saturday I was at Walmart with my wife and we spoted a minnow trap in the fishing area. It was cheap and I thought it would be fun to catch them in my small pond and let them go in the big one.

Here's my 6 year old son with the trap.



We've been getting from 20 to 40 fish a day with it.



And it's his job to catch them in the bucket, look to see if any are pregnant, and then let them go. He loves his job!!!



Eddie

nice pics eddie. i try to tell that to myself everyday...."i love my job"....keeps me goin you know.

do you know what kind of minnows they are? just curious. they look fat and happy.

do you bait the trap, or do they just go in it?

try a pan test or bucket test to see if rate of pond loss is similar to container. if its a lot more you may either have some seepage somewhere or be still getting the "soil wetting effect".

Dave,

They are fathead minnows that I put in my small pond last April. We fed them every evening, along with the channel cats, a floating catfish food. We had at least four spawn from them based on there being four different sizes swimming around the floating food.

I put a small handfull of the same catfish food in the minnow trap.

Eddie

Today it was Alissa's turn. She's 9 and a little more "skittish"(her word) when it comes to this stuff. After a little time getting used to it, she got over her fear of them and was reaching in the bucket for handfuls of minnows!!







Eddie

Sometimes if the prize is big enough, they will work together, and even get along!!! hahaha

Eddie

Eddie, your fish are gonna have a feast when you stock them. Your kids are doing just what they will probably doing when you're trying to teach 'em to fish...play with the bait.

Here's a couple pictures that my wife took of us yesterday. The boat is 10 feet long and cost $200 at a garage sale. It's about the best deal on a boat ever!!!!!

The water level is 16 inches down right now. It's still droping an inch a week, but we've been getting these little storms once or twice a week that drop a tenth to half an inch of rain. There's hardly any runoff from those showers, so it's just enough to slow down the evaporation.

A long time ago I asked about water lilies and what to choose. I had several replies, and I searched for others who also asked about them. From those suggested, I bought 8 Chromatella from www.waterplants.com for $11.50 each, plus shipping for a total of $106.

They are the entire plant wraped in newspaper with about a dozen full leaves on each, and more sprouting out. They look very healthy and I'm hopeful that they will grow. I have four underwater islands that are about 4 feet from the surface for just this reason. For me, the water lilies are more important then the fish. I just love them!!! The sides of the islands drop straight off to 8 feet or more of water. I'm hopeful that is deep enough to contain the lilies, and why I chose Chromatella. I also like the yellow flowers!!!! LOL

Eddie