Thanks for all the great information! I was really glad to see the posts from the three of you. Cecil, I checked out your website and the pics of your fish posted on this forum and all I can say is You da man! You sure produce some monsters!
The way I have the pond scraped out right now it is in an L shape with the middle rounded out. The L is made of three 40'X40' squares, so with the rounded out area we are looking at somewhere around 5000 sq ft. The widest part is 66 feet. We are on a limited budget, so I don�t think I can afford a reputable pond builder, but an excavator might be possible. Due to the width of the pond, if I had a slope of 2:1 I should be able to get a deep spot of 15� in the middle of the pond and 10� on the sides.
I would like to build this as a bass pond in case I have trouble reaching the temps I will need for trout. How much shallow areas will be needed for YP and SMB + FH? Will a 2:1 slope create enough of these? Will these shallows contribute too much to warming for trout? Instead of shallow areas should I go with 5-6� deep �shallows� with sunken Christmas trees?
I read that YP and SMB like cooler water (no optimal growth temps were mentioned), would they work in a trout pond?
Cecil, I have some thoughts about cooling and have replied to your posting �Another way to cool a small trout pond?�
