May I interject some food for thought Cougar: my contractor suggested a nice gradual slope for the kids, just in case they fell in, sinec you have a new yungin, you may want to put some thought into it. Hope you don't mind but I pasted a post here for some feedback, not to steal your thunder.
I have lots of questions, but for starters I would like to say thanks, for all the info you have compiled here and all the seemingly good advice. I have been reading for a few days now, hit and miss and I could not stand it anymore.
I live in extreme Western Kentucky, about 10 miles from the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and, as the crow flies, about a mile from the Ohio River. Last summer, I became the owner of what I hope will eventually be a 3 acre backyard oasis. I have pics to post, but they will have to wait for the moment. I had the thing dug, limed with 12 tons of lime, partially lined with 8" rip rap (to which I later added almost twice the original amount, up to 125 tons now, 50 tons placed by hand!), 15 tons of "birds eye" brown gravel(the kind used for landscaping, for fish beds), placed a few large tree trunks(I had all the cleared trees burnt, buried, or removed) and once I got some water(it filled up quite a bit last spring and has yet to reach that level this year), I threw in 50 lbs of fatheads. That was in April 2008, in November 2008, I added 150 channel catfish, 1200 bluegill fingerlings. This spring, I am going to add 300 red eared sunfish, and 150 black crappie fingerlings, before I receive 360 largemouth bass fingerlings in late May.
The pond is to be 14' or so at the center of the levee and goes to zero at the ends. The center is to be 5-6' due to a mound formed by the burial of the unburned roots, with an area of 9' on either side rising to zero. I placed 5 areas of the birds eye gravel in the shallow depths at various locations.
I would like to know if I need to fertilize this pond to give these fish some food or if there is enough for them naturally. There is a pic of the water color (somewhere in the grey-green scale). Air temp this time of year is mid 40s at night to mid 60s in the day time, although today is rather cool at 43 deg. There is no vegetation in this pond yet, and I wonder about food for the red ears in a year or so.
I also am concerned about my water level; I do not get a lot of runoff in this location and would like some advice on a well. Along with that, I may as well ask about aeration. I am looking for a sustained fishery for pleasure and fun with my kids. Trophy bass is probably not my goal, maybe large bluegill and descent crappie.
http://picasaweb.google.com/saroberts02/PicsToPondBoss?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPxrICRi83JAg#
