Thanks for the input guys! I am really trying to avoid poles in the water and I am not sure how well concrete anchors and cables or chains would work with my situation. My pond has about 3 foot of free board and it WILL use it eventually (I have too much watershed) and last winter was its first and it was dry, the pond went down about 1 foot. That's potentially 4 foot of travel that I need to account for in my anchoring system.

One thing to add, my little 1/4 acre pond is very well sheltered from wind so no constant wave action or side loading, just the occasional storm.

I am thinking about, similar to what Brian said, trying to dig two deep holes for sonotubes (or square forms) and attach the hinge plates to each concrete pillar. This should resist the side to side motion where a big chunk o' concrete might eventually shift back and forth and end up "walking" into the pond. The trick here is, how deep can I go before throwing in the towel? Only one way to find out, I plan to start digging this weekend if the weather allows.

Fish on!,
Noel