Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? How does one make an existing pond larger?

CJD, I did exactly what you are contemplating. I drained the pond with a trash pump to concentrate the fish into the deepest part of the pond. I then built a dam between them and the area that I was digging out. I dug the existing pond deeper in the previous shallow areas, and enlarged it at the same time. I dug it deeper than I wanted, because I knew when I breached the dam that a lot of dirt would be washed into the new deeper area of the pond.

When the water and fish flushed into the new part of the pond, I scooped out as much of the muck from the old part of the pond, removed any dirt from the dam that didn't wash into the new section of the pond and prayed for rain.

I added a million golden shiner fry to the old pond where the fish were being held, I had an aeration system running in there, I also added 25 pounds of FHM since I wasn't feeding the fish while the construction was going on. I lost 2 fish, which I think was pretty good.

I went from 7' max depth to 22', increased the surface area from 1/3 or 1/4 acre to 1+ acres, depending on the water level.

Enough dirt washed in during the dam breach and the next weeks torrential rain that the 22' deep area is now 18' deep at max pond water level.