Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat My Second Pond: Structure

That's very alliteral, bm.

Every time I walk or drive around the farm, I seem to see something else that would be better in the pond than laying around where it is. In it goes.

I will have to take 3-4 shots (from the middle of the dam, I think) when I get some good light and make a panorama. Plus, I want to get a current closeup of the log cabin, as I have added some stuff to it for substance and weight.

Until then, you can see everything in two shots, from the South side (Skull Island + North SMB beds, as seen before)


and from the North side (Skull Island + South SMB beds)

How big is the pond again? It looks huge.

You guys remember how good I am at determining distance from forum photos, right?

0.45 acre, per Excavatin' Ernie.

As you begin stocking smb's, I think you play the theme from Samford and Son.

Hmmm... an old pickup truck might look good in there

IAW ewest's request, here is a panorama I put together of all the structure in the pond (my apologies for the gloomy sky, central Ohio is pretty much through with sunshine for the year). It is a splice of three photos taken from the middle of the dam, on the West side of the pond. You can see the North side SMB spawning beds on the left, the South side SMB beds on the right, and the structure area stretching from Skull Island (just right of center) over to the South side beds. The main seining area is behind and to the left of the Skull Island end of the structure, while the far right and left corners of the panorama (at either end of the dam) are usable as seondary seining areas for when I want to make more than 2-3 passes in undisturbed areas all at one time. This should be pretty close to the final structure configuration, as decent weather and unsubmerged access to the pond bottom are running out.


I also took good pictures of the log cabin in the middle of the South beds, which has had more "junk" added to it since I took a not-too-good photo of it earlier. It is finished, unless my Son Lamont brings some interesting pieces in with the next truckload.

The log cabin looks homey enough for Grady and Aunt Esther. Nice work, Fred.

Theo thanks for the pano pic. Any thoughts of deep water structure ?

You old heathen.

None. I wouldn't mind adding some two-layer tire pyramids on the deep side of the existing structure IF I get a decent day with a semi-dry pond bottom to work on (doubtful before she fills up, I think). But I'm happy with what I've got in now.

The glass is now more than half full. Our regular late Fall wet season showed up a tad late and finally saturated the ground about 3 weeks ago. Last weekend we had snow and rain which added over a foot to the pond in 36 hours.

The pond is now about 4 1/2 feet below full pool; hopefully it will fill up before any thick ice shifting can mess up my structure. As you can see, Skull Island is actually an island, and kind of creepy looking when viewed through a desolate snow storm.

Lookin' good, pal. I was flippin' thru some of the gazillion pics I took during the same fill-up phase we experienced last winter and the real freeze didn't really occur until later in January. By that time, the water level was up pretty far. There's another precip storm comin' thru this weekend. I think you're gonna be OK.
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Did your elevated seining zone dip below the surface yet?

It runs from 4 to 5 feet in depth and it's half under. The lower tier of SMB beds are wet (with the bigger rocks still above water).

The glass is always half full when you're getting a new pond!

Fatheads , Fatheads , little bitty FH.

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I hadn't put in a few dozen fatheads.

The water's a little too hard to stock FHM right now, but they go in come Spring.

I sleep at night thinking about the snails I stocked a couple of months ago, doing whatever it is snails do. Slowly.

...really slowly.

Anytime I talk about pulling the trigger with fathead minnow stockings in "new" water, I'm really just talking about a few dozen fatheads. This way, you can eyeball each minnow and make sure that Mudcat Joe has not had his way.

Where's burgermeister when you need him?

Dr Burger is booked thru the Christmas holidays, in therapy sessions with D.I.E.D. and his fish family. Initial sessions have revealed deeply rooted issues with D.I.E.D.'s inability to commit to forum monogamy. This could get ugly.

TIME FOR AN UPDATE...?
Man, the midwest got belted with rain this last week. You had to get a pretty good sip.

The pond is up to just 3 feet short of full pool - it came up a foot over the last week. I took some photos last night, but it will probably be at least Wednesday night before I can unload them from the camera and post a representative shot or two here. I will get them posted ASAP.

Theo, you must be on your own time. I'll be glad when you get back to work and have time for posting pics, long analyses of ponds, extended humor sessions with doctored photos, etc.

Okay, here's a picture from Monday night, three feet to go to reach full pool. The lower SMB Beds (far side of the pond) are completely covered and the deep water structure (in the middle) is just peeking out a little. Skull Island looks a little spookier when the graves are flooded. Bwa-Ha-Ha-Hah!

Your pond has CSI written all over it.

I can't wait to see it this summer!

Oh and I've been called "three feet short of a full pool" on several occasions..... is that a bad thing?