Bill, you are beautiful. Thank you for the suggestions! Catfish, striped bass, and sunfish of some variety if I have my abbreviations right (I'll have to go check now... I did have them right!) sound really cool! I'm a big fan of unorthodox, so keep those ideas coming. Since I seem to be the only one around with this kind of pond I feel unorthodox!

Every swimming pond that I'm seeing has a split between swimming area and plant areas but that seems bland so if I could alter that a bit by adding some life in the main swimming section it'd be great.

I really hope I can make all this work, if for no other reason than to come back and tell you all how much I appreciate the help and to provide progress pictures and info. It seems as though this technique is pretty common in Europe. Maybe in the good ol' US we just find creeks or dirty swimming holes to hop in, but if things go as I can only hope for now I'd like mine to be an oasis and a work of art.

My girlfriend has given me the go ahead to turn the entire front yard into a pond (probably acre to 1.5 acres), but while I don't think that'll happen it's nice to have her support!

You guys really are pretty cool, thanks for welcoming me in with open fish arms!

Last edited by aighead; 12/19/16 08:23 PM.
Snort Coffee is a podcast about goofy stuff. Hope to add ponding to my list of hobbies.