Hi! I'm new to the pond world, always wanted a bass pond. I always figured I'd retire in the south east where everything is clay.
But now considering buying 20 acres of a mountain community outside Roanoke VA. Wooded lots in the Appalachians. Is it possible to build a traditional bass pond (3 acres?) in such geography? Does it just depend on the lot? Is earth moving feasible in such an area? Or does it all depend on the contours and damming up and shaping existing contour lines? Will a bass pond do well in the woods r would we need to make a meadow? Thanks!

Hello Jeff and welcome to Pond Boss. Hang on and an expert should be along to answer your questions.

Jeff R.,

I live about 200 miles NNW of you in the mountains. We have dozens, and probably 100s of ponds with a 25 mile radius of me. I'm 2.5 miles off US Route 50, and I believe we've counted about 20 ponds between our house and the highway.

Certainly it will depend on a lot of factors. You need a reasonable watershed to catch water. You need something to dam up. You need reasonable clay without too many big rocks. You will need sunlight, so you can't have trees nearly up to the edge all the way around. I've got trees within 20 feet of the East and West side of my pond.

I'm not much into bass, but I grow some pretty decent citation size bluegill and catfish in my pond. The overpopulated and skinny bass are just in there to keep the bluegill under control. I put trout in for the winter.

Find a good excavating company, or contact the local NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) office. I know there are offices in Harrisonburg, Roanoke, and Christianburg. One of them should have a pond specialist.

There are a lot of resources here on the forum. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Ken

Welcome from a little further down the blue ridge! You can check out ariel maps and a topo map of you area here: http://www.acme.com/planimeter/ also there is a tool that tells you the area of any space you box in.

Thanks! That's a great start.
Do you have to have a stream to dm up or can natural waterfall keep it full?

No, you don't need a stream. Actually, a stream usually provides way too much water. Around here, we need about five to 10 acres acres of watershed to keep a one acre pond filled. That is a very rough estimate, and depends on a lot of factors. My 0.7 acre pond drains about 15-20 acres, but is seldom very far below full pool (when water goes out the primary drain). I'm currently down about two inches from full pool, and except for a one inch rain two night ago, we've been without rain for over three weeks, and the temperature has been kind of hot.

Ken

Jeff, If you find property that has a stream or waterfall above the area where you could put a pond it sure can make life easier to run a siphon pipe down to keep your pond full.
The most important thing would be to have a filter box at the inlet side to keep unwanted species out.
I get 95GPM from above a waterfall down to my pond 300ft away.

I can only run water in the winter when it's above 15 degrees.