I completed a 2 1/2 acre pond early last fall here in south central Arkansas and has filled to about 2 acres now. There is about 10+ feet in the deepest section and I need about 3 - 4 more feet to reach the spillway. There are tons of oaks, gum, hickory, and pines pushed into the middle of the pond with a huge tree each 50 feet with the roots to the bank. The pond is about 900+ feet long in the shape of a backwards 1/4 moon. The dozer man made plenty of humps, trenches, ridges, peninsulas, and dropoffs. As the pond was filling, my wife and I use pvc pipe of all sizes and other plastic goodies, to make fish attractors and a minnow beds with tires, concrete blocks and chicken wire. I also every 100 feet across the dam made piles of concrete blocks going from where the waters edge will be to about eight foot deep. The dam is about 560 feet long and solid red clay as is most of the soil under the pond. The pond is solely filled by rain water and run off.
I stocked 38 pounds of fathead minnows last November and stocked the Blue gills, red ears, coppernose, and bass in December. I also stocked some fresh water clams, ramshorn snails, trapdoor snails and very small and young bullfrogs in October. I threw out 150 pounds of cotton seed meal and also 300 pounds of lime in October.
I have a Vertec aerator with tree difuser heads but have not used it yet. I figure I will start using it in May.
The color of the water is a mirror black with visibility of only about 4 or 5 inches. Is this water color exceptable or do I need to do something else?
