Hey there pond enthusiasts! Guess there's a forum for just about everything out there. And ponds really "float my boat" (pun intended), so I had to post something.
Being a marine biologist with North Carolina, I became the default "biological engineer" for my parents new pond. The site started out as an abandoned hog house and waste lagoon. But with state assistance, the solid and liquid waste was removed to fertilize a nearby field. Since I've always wanted a nice sized pond to manage (hence the name "Mesocosm"), the folks decided to expand the hog lagoon into a 1 acre fish pond. Of course, Mesocosm thinks a pond is like a tiny little ocean. ~lol
The first picture below shows the empty pond basin overgrown in vegetation. A 3' deep shelf occupies the foreground and covers about 25% of the pond area. The rest of the pond slopes down to 6' deep (recommended depth for our area). The pond is current filled with well water and stocked with the standard largemouth bass (50), bluegill (350), redear (150), and channel catfish (50) fishery. I intent to plant native littoral zone plants (including select aquatic plants) on the shelf area this coming spring. The piles of block fragments should serve as refuge for young catfish coming out of the spawning cavities. Btw, the rocks came from the old hog house foundation. I expect the grass to grow out to the block reefs, where resident crayfish can eat in relative safety (in theory).
The patches of cedar tree logs are part of what I call "bass condominiums." Each patch has a 4x4' sheet of wooden lattice attached to the top middle. The subsurface platforms are for shading the bass, while also discouraging wading bird activity. The shade platforms are about 1-2' deep. And attached to the top of each platform are several fake lily pads. The lily pads provide another layer of shade while also outlining the structure for fishing. When the bass are all grown up I plan on exploring the sites with my underwater video camera. Btw, visibility in the pond has been 2-3 feet.
The light house was my folks idea. It's a 1/2 scale replica of the Roanoke River lighthouse. It actually has a draw bridge and paddleboat bay underneath. The picture was taken near a small dock along the shoreline. There's a lot more to this story, but this is probably enough. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty exciting about the project and how it evolves.
Cheers
SC
