Hello!
I've lurked here a little bit in the past, but finally decided to join today. My wife and I just purchased 15 acres and built a house, and the property included 3 small ponds which are about 100 yards behind my house. The house/structures shown to the east are the neighbors property. My house is to the south. It is kind of a unique setup, as the ponds are in series. Here is a GE image of the setup.
This shows how the ponds receive flow. The main flow comes from a culvert on a county rd about 200 yards away that runs down a ditch. Pond 1 flows into Pond 2 and then flows into Pond 3. The blue lines represent culverts. There was a berm that was built up by the PO that also captures runoff going down the hill and pipes into Pond 3 from the south. When we bought the place, the berm was pretty short, only may 30 yard long or so, and wasn't catching much water. As soon we bought the place, I had it extended about 150 yards up the hill.
As you can see, Pond 3 is very low. It does not hold water well at all. We've had lots of rain recently, and it is pretty close to full now, but I can already tell that it is dropping. When we first starting looking at this place last year, it was completely dry, and the other 2 still were holding water. Pond 1 was low, but still had a good bit of water, Pond 2 was almost full still and crystal clear, which makes me think there may be a seep or something draining into it from the ground.
As far as I know, there were no (at least not many) fish in any of these. Maybe just a few minnows/sunfish. I have caught A LOT of crawfish (and big!) in traps out of Pond 1. I have since added about 100-150 various species of BG/sunfish into Pond 1. I love to fish for yellow cats (flatheads) in the nearby lakes and rivers, so I am essentially using it as a bait pond right now. Over time, I would like to make it into more of a big BG pond. Pond 3 I would like to make a LMB/BG pond. But first order of business there is to get it sealed.
I have had many ideas on modifying the setup completely, such as combining 1 and 2, just expanding 2, and even combining all 3. Combining all 3 would make about a 1.5 acre pond. But the wife is against me doing that for whatever reason.
I just got a new phone, and I haven't taken any new pics yet. I'll update as soon as I do.
