Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New Pond South of Houston

All right finally had a little less than 1/2 acre pond put in last weekend after dreaming and researching this for quite some time. Just wanted to post a couple of pics and see if anyone has any advice or observations. It is about 5-6 foot deep on average with one underwater finger and island. I plan on adding dome logs and a couple of concrete covers that I have avaialable on my land. Once I get some water in it I hope to make it a bBG and LMB heaven. Hope the pic loaded.

Congratulations LiveOak! I'll leave the advice to the experts but you are well on your way to pond ownership - let the adventure begin!

Welcome Liveoak. Neat looking place.

Sooner or later, the island will washout over time. Pile a bunch of rocks on it before it fills. You might want to scatter a couple of cedars around the edge for small fish to hide in.

Send off a water sample to A & M when the pond fills and if it ever rains again in Texas. Post the results here and we can tell you if anything is needed to optimize fish production.

You will probably need to use a feeder for the BG. Have you considered aeration?

Do you want big BG or Big LMB? The 2 are seldom possible. The general rule of thumb is 100 pounds of predators per acre but that may be optimistic. And, the BG are also predators of their own young. Fishing Heaven means different things to different people.

After the pond fills and you are OK on water quality, stock about 3 or 4 pounds of fathead minnows and about 750 2 to 3 inch bluegill. Let the BG overpopulate and then, in the Fall, add some bass. Personally, I would add about 25 bass to that mix. Assuming you want larger bass, cull all small bass caught after the first year. Those guys are spawning machines and can quickly diminish the BG forage base.

For a good understanding of this stuff, contact the Pond Boss office and order Lusks books "Raising Trophy Bass" and "Perfect Pond..Want One?". They answer questions that you won't know enough to ask for quite a few years. I still refer to them quite often.

Hang around, have fun, make friends, and don't believe anything that Jeff says. He's from California and you know how they are.

If you want to take a real short cut on learning, come to the Conference April 14-16. It'll be a lot of fun and you (and I) will learn a lot.

Thanks for all the advice Dave. Yes I am also concerned with the lack of rain lately here in south Texas but hurricane season is just around the corner. The tropical storm that hit northern Mexico last 4th of July gave us about 14 inches of rain in a couple of days and the present location of the pond was about 15 - 20 inches underwater and my home was on an island itself for about 48 hours. So there is hope but hopefully more a gradual rainfall over time.

My perference would be lager bass with plentiful supply of bluegill.

Yes I will send a water sample to A&M and will aerate the pond. Presently trying to decide on electric or windmill power aeration. Any advice here?

I also plan to put rocks over and around the island and have already place a couple large logs at the base of the island and underwater finger.

Cannot make this year's conference but plan on a future one for sure.

Again thanks for the advice and information. This site is an awesome resource of information.

Unopened bags of concrete might be easier to transport, handle, position and possibly cheaper than "real rocks" - unless you have free access to nearby rocks of decent size (not likely south of Houston). Once the bags are covered by water, the concrete will harden and the bags will deteriorate fairly quickly.
Just a thought....

I hadn't considered the location re the rocks. Concrete is a better idea.

In North Texas we don't have a hurricane season but I will never run short of rocks.

Windmills are nice, but may not provide aeration at night. This is the critical time for aeration.

Thanks this is a geat idea! Concrete bags should definitely be more economical.

OH SNAP!!!

I have 47 good posts to my name so that remark is totally unfounded.


Occasionally I say something that is believable.


Granted it is a rare occasion but it does happen.

Bags of concrete also make fairly decent and relatively economical bulkheads (stabilized with rebar hammered vertically through the bags once they're in position). Best bet is to secure some of the rebar-stabilizers to anchors that are buried 15+' behind the bulkhead to better insure that the stacked-bags won't tilt or fall over into the pond.
Great way to gain shoreline depth and reduce the chance of weed/algae growth at key access-points.

was it compressed when you had it put in. I only ask cause ours 1/2 acre we put in last fall wasn't and we are paying for it now. I believe it is not holding water because of this. So we are trying to get a sheep roller in and hope it helps. Just saying this cause if it wasn't do it now while you have no water