Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond, want good fishing...

Congratulations!

1) Watch out for that spring. As you can read here in lots of posts, they can reverse flow and suck pond water instead of providing it. If your topography, rainfall, evaporation, and watershed area promise enough runoff to keep the pond full, you'd probably be better off sealing the spring when you excavate. I know we had a simply excellent example of how to plug all those factors together and get an answer on runoff sufficiency, but can't recall if it was here or in the magazine. Ewest, do you remember?

2) Since with an excavated pond you have to remove a volume of dirt equal to the volume of water, they tend to be more expensive than impounded ponds (where you move the dam volume and get additional water volume from the area behind the dam). But if I'm thinking right, the difference in cost between the two should decrease as ponds get smaller, and may be negligable for a 1/4-1/2 acre pond. Since you have some slope in your valley, I bet your pond would be best described as a combination of the two techniques.

Best way to check cost is by local comparisons with existing ponds of similar size/technique. Next best (maybe better actually, but I'd say harder to do) is figuring the volume of dirt to be moved and the distance, figuring the number of hours for a dozer/scraper/sheepsfoot roller that will be required, and applying local excavator rates. The worst is to get a estimate from halfway across the country. That said. I'd be happy if the 1/4 to 1/2 acre pond I'll be putting in next ran in the $5K - $7k range.

3) Have you considered just stocking Redears instead of BG? With the lower reproduction rate, RES might match up really well to the limited number of predators you'll have with female-only LMB.

4) I don't think the need for aeration depends much on spring fed versus runoff. But you can start figuring on providing aeration since it has many benefits. Like the cost of the fish you stock, the cost of aeration is usually quite small compared with the cost of the pond itself.