Well im new to this,it seems like a very informative forum and i think i should be able to add some interesting subject matter.......Ihave to think where to start.....9 years ago i purchased a 100 acre piece of property. I searched extensively before buying this plot,much of New York region then New Hampshire. I had certain criterias that had to be met in finding,( in my opinion) was the perfect piece of America. I needed something remote and rugged. i needed something that looked wild and was. But most of all, i need someplace that was blessed with a supply of springs and a large pond,not shared by surrounding plots of land. I finally found what i was looking for. The perfect plot.... seemingly unaffected by the workings of man. Natural surroundings at its finestwith above all a large pond located in the middle of the plot!
The pond aprox. 7 acres in size was natural not manmade thanks to some beaver that years before decided it was also a nice place.The pond (after some detective work accomplished with a small john boat) i found to be 12 ft at its deepest 30% @8ft, 30%@5ft 20%@3ft, 10%below3ft, 10%above 8ft. The pond is fed by several springs that surround the pond and has an average outflow of perhaps 65gal/min, the water ph is neutral and the water clarity is very clear year round.
now.....lets get to what is really unique about this paticular ecosystem......years before it was one big pond, it exsisted as several smaller ponds (created by the beaver) one small pond fed into the next...into the next...down the line. I found this out talking to some of the older natives.....These ponds where loaded with native brookies( you could catch your limit in 20 min....then go back for more, it had seemed like an inexhaustible supply of frsh trout for the dinner table.
Then it happened......a freak thunder storm....one perhaps worse then anything encounterd in recent memory...proceeded to dump huge amounts of rain on the land. The first beaver dam started to over fill from runoff( caused by inappropriate logging practices), and overfill it did causing the dam to break apart.The sudden huge rush of water slammned into the next beaver dam, breaking it up, and so the domino effect... down to the next dam below that one ,then the next, right down the line........all was lost....and all that remained was a small little brook that twisted and winded through the scenic little valley.
It remained like this for a few years....that is untill the beaver decided the surrounding food source merited some major construction. And so they built back a large channel dam much larger then anything before. The pond that followed grew to the size it is now about 7 acres, much larger then anything before. Maybe a few months later, a new custodian came to the land, happy to be there and appreciate all it had to offer, and that was me...
ok .....if your still with me i guess your interested . Lets get to the problems. one of the things i wanted to accomplish with this pond was trout production ... after the washouts the fish never came back so i tried stocking brookies , that didnt work my guess is the pond got so big water temp became a factor, August bottom temp reached 70 degress. next i tried rainbows with no luck. Lately ive been considering LMB any suggestions?
There are photos of my pond on next page.
