Thanks for your interest Rainman. I of course am new to this. I am only trying to put back what was there when I started in 1999. The lake had grass carp which have since grown huge and died. I have 11 small replacements coming. Then a few Tilapia I am estimating 6. $54 worth at 18 a pound.
I used to catch large black crappie (from fingertip to mid forearm), Large bluegill )(full hand size) and an occasional bass (not bigger than 3 pounds or so). I also fished for channels one night and caught 3 in about an hour that would go about 5 or 6 pounds.
That is what I was trying to get back to but starting out small in the 2 to 4 inch range to start. I will add some shiners and a few (30 to 40 LMB) in the fall.
Anyway, that is the plan. If it goes haywire, I will start from scratch again.
As far as the cost of re-digging the lake I agree that equipment is expensive and I have ran some of it. I look at it this way. To do the job, they need a small dozer in the lake bed, a track hoe that can move to 3 or 4 places along the edge and a dump truck to haul muck 400ft and dump it. I figured if when the lake bed was ready, they went in full force it would take about 5 days of work for three workers. This may be some off the mark but it is close. To me that is no where close to $47,000 dollars worth of work. The guy that said $15,000 to $30,000 would in my experience come in closer to the $30,000. And it told me that he did not have very much experience or he would be able to get the parameters a lot closer.
It is something like buying a new car and the salesman saying to sign all the papers so it is obligating. Then upon delivery, I would pay between 15 and 30 thousand for the car. I bet the average car price in that arrangement would be $29,999. :-)
