Having a quality fishing pond has been my dream for many years. My goal is to purchase about 20 acres here in Iowa and build a minimum of a 1 acre pond.
The main species I want are BG, LMB, CC (for my brother in-law), and perhaps stock a few bonus walleye.
The Iowa DNR reccomends a pond depth of at least 8 feet, but I have seen alot of fish kills in ponds that were less than 12 feet during hard Iowa winters, so I want the maximum depth to be 16 feet.
Land here that would be acceptable for pond building runs about $2000 an acre. So there's about $40K just for the land.
My main focus is for large bluegills for the dinner table. The catfish would be for fun night fishing and my brother-in-law loves to catch and eat those critters. The bass would be there for catch and release (and bluegill control) and a few taken for food. The walleye are just a dream novelty fish, if I had a few dozen 2-3 pounders swimming about I would be happy.
Here's a basic layout of my idea and structures (to scale). The pond will be 200' by 400'.
The brush piles would have to be replaced every 3 to 5 years which will be easy since I can drag a few x-mas trees out on the ice. The pallet structures should last 30 years if I get good oak pallets. I put in three sand/small gravel beds to aid in bluegill spawning. And the large rock/rubble piles for cruising gamefish.
I tried to add as many desireable bottom features as possible while keeping it simple. An underwater hump with a rock pile on top, a sharp drop-off, shallow areas for spawning, structure near the dock for openwater fishing, and deepwater structure for icefishing.
Any suggestions or rough estimates on what it would cost just to dig the pond and add the sand and rock piles? The pallets and brush would be added at no cost by me.
