Thanks Rainman, that clears things up. The spring area was always soft and wet, though it only had standing water in the basin area after a rain. Now I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't have the dam moved forward of the spring area(right now it would be off the front toe about five feet). That at least would give me someplace to push the rest of my slash that didn't burn since I can't do anything else with that land. That though, would knock about .25 acres out of my proposed basin area and I would either have to move the basin up or accept a smaller size...
How small can one effectively manage for a Bass/bluegill pond? One acre seemed as small as one should realistically go. But it seems like .75 surface acres could be handled as long as the depth was sufficient and harvesting maintained. I will be fertilizing and utilizing a colony of black soldier flies for some additional forage. The BSF colony is mainly to get rid of the offal from my free range chicken slaughter, not primarily for forage, though they should be getting about 4# a day of grubs off the colony. I would think that fertilization and an initial stocking of 50 F1 bass, 400 CN, 100 RE and 50 CC would be sufficient for .75 acres if I move the dam up.
I'll have to check out that book.
Thanks,
Eddie Aday
Asgard Farm
Home of Asgard Alpacas
