"it depends" lol. Here is my experience. I bought a similar sized plot of land with a 2.5 acre pond already on it. When I looked at the pond it appeared to be very old and it was winter time so I did not have the chance to go out and verify how deep it was. All I knew was that it had a lot of water coming into it so there was a lot of potential and it held that water well. After making a very low ball offer on the place my offer was accepted and I was the new owner.

The first thing I noticed was how shallow the pond was. It was hard to believe because it was such a big body of water but was 3-4' deep all the way across!! There were no established fish.. a few bull heads and a few bluegill but nothing more.


My first year of ownership I decided to drain the pond and have it dredged out deeper. This is where there is a very big difference in an existing pond vs new pond in my opinion. The pond drained quickly but the mucky bottom took several months to dry out before it could be workable. Once it was workable the cost to hire out the machinery was about 20k. Keep in mind I got several quotes that were higher. The reason for the cost was that reworking this pond was a "mud job". To build a new pond is more of a "dirt job". Despite having months to dry out across the summer, the contractor still buried his excavator with a 70' boom in the muck. It was a muddy mess and all of the muck had to be moved to a nearby location. Muck is much harder to move than dirt in my opinion because it does not grade up well. This adds time and money to the project.

I think in my particular case, a piece of property without a pond would have been cheaper to do. With that being said I am still 100% satisfied with the outcome of my project as it was a great learning experience and the final result is exactly what I wanted. I now have fish stocked and all is well. The remainder of the property is beautiful rolling land with two ravines and some tillable acreage as well. I was able to get it for $4k. / acre which is low in this area. Just go for the best deal and find a way to make it work one way or another.