Greetings Pondsters!
Shawn here, checking in from Portland Oregon. Since our youngest is due to finish high school soon, we will happily be relocating to Texas! The Mrs. is an Oregon native raised around horses and I'm from Arizona raised around bass fishing. We intend to find a piece of property suitable to fill both of our dreams of pasture and pond. Disclaimer: I believe horses are beautiful and majestic animals...... as long as they don't come anywhere near my fishing pond.
As I currently do not own fishing pond, I've spent the last couple months researching. I plan to order a couple books from the website that have been recommended in many posts. Perfect Pond and Just Add Water by Lusk and Otto. I believe that 90% of the information that I need to make an informed decision will be covered in the books. The other 10% I'll have to dig around in the forum some more and rely on member intel. The biggest hurdle we have right now is locating a pre-purchase land consultant to hire that has knowledge of pond design and construction. I want to test and inspect to make sure that a water structure is a viable option and not a waste of money. I'm sure in time we will find proper representation.
I want to create a balanced fishery that will one day produce trophies with time and patience. Of course the family will want to pop by and take a swim and one day I'll teach grandkids how to fish on it. My horse pasture up here in Oregon is about 3 acres and I think that's a good size for my dream pond. Plus the Mrs has been spending money on horses for the past nine years, so I need to catch up on pond spending! I plan to start from scratch and establish a food chain before introducing any LMB to the equation. I have read that it could take one to two years before added LMB, not a problem at all. Anything worth doing is worth doing right!
We are not Rockefellers but have been saving money for retirement for a while. That being said, I hope to hire a management company to help me establish the lake for the first year or two. I have no idea how much this cost but if I need to, I can put the Mrs back to work.
I hope to have them there from day one, through forage introduction and until my predator fish are established and surveyed. I just look at it like going to college again but more fun.
I did recently find a nice piece of property in Lamar County but after researching, it's a quarter section away from a floodplain. That's the other thing fellow Pondsters..... where in Texas? Everyone loves their hometown and county but with so many counties and the vastness of Texas, we are truly overwhelmed on trying to find the best area. Are there more Pond friendly Geographic locations in Texas that can also support pastureland? One of many questions on my mind.
I appreciate you all taking the time to read my first post and introduction. I look forward to getting to know as many of you as I can and learning from each other. Need to chime in at any time with any advice or just to say hi. Thank you and have a great day!
Shawn
