Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond, want good fishing...

OK, I'm ready to pull the trigger on a pond, here are the details, please let me know what you think.

Use: Fishing

Location: SE Alabama near FL border.

Size: I'm not sure yet, 1/4 to 1/2 acre?

Geology: I have a slight valley with about 10+ acres drainage. Where I live it's not quite steep enough to build up a dam. So, I'll need to dig out my pond so I don't flood the neighbors property. I also have a slow spring where I want the pond dug. It's dry now (middle of a BAD drought) but I have about an acre around it where the grass/weeds are growing very well so I'm guessing it's still wet underneath.

So, I'm looking at 1/4-1/2 acre dug out of wet ground. Last fall a guy came out (recommended by the County Extension agent) and told me about $5-7,000, he'd have to shoot it first to narrow it down. My guess is I won't have a dam, just a lower spot where the water already goes for overflow. How will no dam affect the price? Anyone have an idea of what it should cost? Any recomendations who to hire?

I'm thinking I want decent BG and big LMB fishing. So, after reading around here (VERY ibformative site BTW) that I'd be best off with FEMALE only LMB (can they be sexed reliably?) and some BG as food. The BG should be fruitful and provide good "kiddy" fishing and the LMB should grow BIG with all that food. I'll have to restock every few years due to mortality and "eating". Does this sound like a plan? What do female only LMB and BGs cost?

Oh, and since it's pretty much a spring fed pond I'm guessing I'll need aeration? The pond guy suggested I go 6' deep. Is that OK?

Thank you all!

Congratulations!

1) Watch out for that spring. As you can read here in lots of posts, they can reverse flow and suck pond water instead of providing it. If your topography, rainfall, evaporation, and watershed area promise enough runoff to keep the pond full, you'd probably be better off sealing the spring when you excavate. I know we had a simply excellent example of how to plug all those factors together and get an answer on runoff sufficiency, but can't recall if it was here or in the magazine. Ewest, do you remember?

2) Since with an excavated pond you have to remove a volume of dirt equal to the volume of water, they tend to be more expensive than impounded ponds (where you move the dam volume and get additional water volume from the area behind the dam). But if I'm thinking right, the difference in cost between the two should decrease as ponds get smaller, and may be negligable for a 1/4-1/2 acre pond. Since you have some slope in your valley, I bet your pond would be best described as a combination of the two techniques.

Best way to check cost is by local comparisons with existing ponds of similar size/technique. Next best (maybe better actually, but I'd say harder to do) is figuring the volume of dirt to be moved and the distance, figuring the number of hours for a dozer/scraper/sheepsfoot roller that will be required, and applying local excavator rates. The worst is to get a estimate from halfway across the country. That said. I'd be happy if the 1/4 to 1/2 acre pond I'll be putting in next ran in the $5K - $7k range.

3) Have you considered just stocking Redears instead of BG? With the lower reproduction rate, RES might match up really well to the limited number of predators you'll have with female-only LMB.

4) I don't think the need for aeration depends much on spring fed versus runoff. But you can start figuring on providing aeration since it has many benefits. Like the cost of the fish you stock, the cost of aeration is usually quite small compared with the cost of the pond itself.

Thank you for your advice...

1. The area around the spring is always nice and green. It's not a spring in the sense of a hole where water comes running out...it's more like a low spot where the water collects. I live in the "red clay hills". This part of AL is rolling hills of red clay with no rocks. I think where I live it's just a low spot where the water collects and can't percolate out. It flows out of the lowest side of this "bowl" slowly...more like a slow trickle. When it's flowing. It's the beginning of a small stream.

2. I have slope WAY upstream but where I want the pond (the only place it will work) it's flat. Some slight hills go UP on each side but it's flat all the way across my property into the neighbors. Think of it as a big flat valley that spreads out flat upstream with some hills sticking out of the valley at the mouth and all of it in a bowl. ANY dam, even a few feet would be higher than the neighbors property and water would back all the way uo into his land.

So, $5-7k is HIGH for a 1/2 acre dug out pond?

3. RES? You mean those killers? Are you sure? I don't want my bass hiding in the corners and pissing themselves...

So you're saying that BG reproduce too fast and I'll have too many with just 100 or so bass to eat them? You're saying that RES would reproduce slower? But wouldn't there be too few for fishing?

I've read that aeration is good for the fish and good to keep the alge away...correct? That way I shouldn't need anything to eat the alge?

Thanks...

Recent (since fuel got higher) comparative prices from near you are the best comparison.

LOL!

How could you prove the bass are that scared - they're in the water. That's the only reason I'll swim with MY Redears.

My good friend and PB Research Librarian (frocked) ewest just reminded me today that RES reproduce about half as much as BG. I think the lower numbers would still provide plenty to fish without running the stunting risk of BG (which I would worry about more with limited predator numbers). If you decided you wanted the BG anyway (for more forage or fishing numbers or the red on the ear tabs upsetting your neighbor's brangus bull), you could always add adult BG later. They do very well together with RES.

Did I mention that RES have the largest growth potential of any Lepomis species?

Good for the fish? - yes (40,000 more words of info available for expansion from various sources).

Good to keep algae away? - I would rather say than in many situations, aeration can be helpful in preventing unwanted (filamentous) algae (AKA pond scum or moss). But algae control is a VERY complicated subject with many different problems and treatments. Look through a number of posts under aeration and plant control and you can probably see why most of us won't make too many blanket statements on these two subject.