Last fall my wife and I purchased 35 acres in central Illinois. We have lots of ideas about what we want to do with the land, but for certain, we want to have a pond. At this point we are just in the early planning stages trying to figure out what we can do, and possible locations.
I've been reading the forums for several months to get a better idea of what goes into building a pond. As many of the posts recommend, I contacted our local NRCS office. The person I talked to seemed pretty knowledgeable and was very helpful. He provided the topo map that is attached, along with the proposed location image.
The yellow outline is the watershed that the poposed location receives. From his calculations, the watershed is about 6 acres. In our location the recommended ratio is 10 acres of watershed for each acre of surface area. So, the pond is drawn at about 1/2 acre. The NRCS person inidicated that the soils here are "Decent" but he said the builder would definitely need to dig a deep core for the dam, because the soil would be prone to seepage. He also provided a list of contractors that I can start calling on, once we get to that point.
Originally, I had hoped to do something larger, at least an acre. It does look like it would be possible to do some ground work on the north, and west of the outlined watershed, to create a diversion and get 4 or 5 more acres of watershed into the area. This is basically the remaining area in the big clearing that is not in watershed outline. That would get us enough area to support about an acre. It also might be poassible to re-work some of the ground on the south property line to divert even more watershed. I'm open to ideas people may have for ways to support an even larger pond.
You'll notice on the topo map there is a creek that runs through the property, and a flood plain. That is one restriction we have to work with. The pond can't fall in the 100 year flood plain. First, to comply with local regulations, and second, I wouldn't want a bunch of creek fish infesting my pond.
Eventually there will be a drive that follows the southern property line back to the clearing. So, if the pond location moves futher south, or expands to the south, I'll need to leave enough room for a nice big lane that can support heavy equipment.
Some day I envision a machine shed to store all the toys, four wheelers, tractors, snow mobiles, fishing equip.,etc. And a small cabin going up on the edges of that clearing, possibly overlooking the pond.
How about goals for the kind of fish I'd like to have. I've done the least amount of reading on stocking strategy, but it seems like everyone recommends knowing what you want in the pond before you start. I love to fish for catfish, and I love to Bass fish. And Blue Gill are great for the kids. So that would be my big three that I'd like to have if possible... BG, CC, LMB.
I'm going to try to keep this thread updated as I go through this process. The next time I make it out to the property I'll get some pictures of the proposed location and post them as well.
