Thanks for the kind words dlyle! I double-checked Zetts' catalog and they do list smallmouth although they say "very limited quantity" http://zettsfishhatchery.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CompleteCatalog.pdf I put a call into Zetts and left a message. I have no problem stocking forage in early spring then introducing smallmouth in the fall. I know it would be ideal to let the pond sit for a full year before adding predators but if smallies are only available in fall then I will just have to stock more forage fish this spring to account for the shortened breeding time.

Well I went up to the farm Saturday morning expecting to start making smallmouth beds and placing various cover only to learn that we have to postpone that a week as the rains on Friday slowed us down just a bit. There is still a bit of dirt that needs to be moved and the emergency spillway needs to be completed. Now I will be going down next Saturday to lay out the structure. On the good side this means that the porcupine attractors I ordered should be in by then and I won't have to dump them in to an already-filling pond. The construction guys are moving the rest of the dirt today and the posts for the dock are being added tomorrow. We have a ton of rocks left over from the excavation and we have a truckful of gravel being delivered Wednesday. The guys will be making a 15' wide, 20' deep, 4" thick gravel bed on the right shoreline (as you face the dam) on Thursday. Here are some updated pictures:

Here is one of the springs, taken from where the emergency spillway will be:


Here is the spring from the top of the dam:


The dock is going to be installed on the shoreline on the right:


Here is where the emergency spillway will be, we are getting short on dirt so we are digging into a hill away from the pond and bringing more dirt in to build the walls for the spillway which will channell that water into the creek:


Closer view of where the mouth of the spillway will be:


The right shoreline (the light brown part) is going to contain the gravel bed:


This is our shallowest area, at the opposite end of the dam. The creek comes through here, I will be making some smallmouth beds here:


This area already has a nice brush pile:


Here is the waterfall, unfortunately the leaves have covered a lot of the water flow so you cannot see how much water is coming through:


Here is the spring-fed creek above the waterfall:



Last edited by RockvilleMDAngler; 02/27/12 01:58 PM.