I am in the process of digging out and old farm pond, it had 8-10 ft of mud in it before we got to somewhat solid clay in about half of the pond. About half of the pond will now be between 13-20 ft deep and the rest will be graded out at a 3-1 slope rate except for the deep end that has a solid clay wall of about ten feet before it starts to slope. The pond is 225ft by 210ft. I now think that we are either close to the water table or it is spring fed, in the deep half of the pond the water is rising about 1-2 inches per day without a drop of rain in several weeks. The current deep part of the pond is probably going to stay with deep dozer ruts that are now under water, I think this would be beneficial to habit for the fish. I am planning to put in two five foot tall PVC Pipe trees and I am not sure at what depth to place them. We are planning on put in a fixed structure dock in on the deep end (not sure wood or pipe base). We will be placing rocks or gravel wear the water comes in the pond. I will be running an aerator that will work in about 6-9ft of water with two different diffusers. How soon after the pond fills should I start adding fish? I want to stock it with catfish and bass (will eat more catfish) and would like crappie but I have read that my pond will be too small. Any suggestion would be great.
