Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My Pond Project

I've been working on this project since before the convention this fall. I figured it was time to get around to posting some pics.

As a refresher, I wanted to build a pond for family recreation. The property is pretty neat, containing a good size spring coming out of a cave.

Here is what the cave and spring initially looked like:

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The water from inside the cave actually comes from two directions; this is the main "branch" of the spring inside the cave:

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The water from the spring turned the entire potential pond area into something of a swamp. We decided to build a diversion ditch in July to divert the water around the entire pond site. here are pictures of the diversion ditch and mini-dam to accomplish this. You can see the original landscape behind the mini-dam:

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We ultimately decided to leave the "mini dam" in place, but provided it with some big boulders found on site and a nice rock cover. This backs the water up into the mouth of the cave a little; it forms a shallow pool (about 3').

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Another unusual thing we did was build what essentially amounts to a large retaining wall. This was made from large concrete blocks made from excess concrete at the local plant. These blocks are 6' x 2' x 2'. The idea was to make a place to sit/stand/fish/play witha sharp dropoff. I thought I'd be able to place these with the tractor. It turns out they required the backhoe because of weight. This wall will eventually get a rock top as well.

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We also had a large number of limestone rocks/boulders on the site. I moved a number of these in with the tractor for habitat. We also had a number of massive boulders that the dozer moved around. We planted three of these in part of the middle of the pond where they would stick out. One of them is big and flat enough to provide a fishing platform. I also built a shallow (about 2 feet) gravelled strip to access these rocks by wading. Sorry, can't find great photos of these. In the first photo you can also see part of the fairly large "mound" that we built in the deep end of the pond. This comes up to approximately 2' of the surface and drops off to over 8' all the way around it.

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The finished product was about 1.3-1.5 acres. It took approximately 60 hours to fill up when we rediverted the spring. Here are some pictures of finished pond.

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We've put 100 lbs of trout in it 6-10"; we're going to see if they can make it through our summers. If not, the plan will be to try HSB in a put-and-take mostly for our boys (8 and 11). We realize we have no meaningful forage base and feed with an automatic feeder.

Wow, MoMule -- that is gorgeous! It would do a heart good to sit and view that piece of ground! Let's hope the trout make it through the summer!

Wow that looks amazing.

Do you know how much flow you get from the spring and the water temperature?

Temperature of incoming water is around 56-57 degrees. My efforts to measure the flow put "normal" flow anywhere from 500gpm to several times that. It may get lower than that during very dry times.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!
That is a great project - best of luck with the trout.

Wow, Mule, what a beautiful project! That spring and the cave are absolutely amazing! How fortunate to have something like that on your property! So how far back in there have you gone exploring?

The pool/waterfall run for the spring is an incredible idea - very nicely executed! Thanks for sharing the project. I look forward to seeing updates as you progress.

Beautiful!

It seems that you did a great job of planning out good cover and a variety of depths. I love the cave!

You'll enjoy this for the rest of your life and then others will enjoy it for all of theirs!

Well done, sir!

Wow! Absolutely amazing...

It would seem to me you should be able to support trout in that pond. Perhaps in lower numbers than the original numbers you stocked. Even if the trout do survive, you can still consider stocking HSB. The trout and HSB should do fine together. If you feed, you should be able to grow some real nice fish. Your boys are gonna have a lot of fun fishing there! I can't wait to see the pictures once the vegetation fills in around the pond edge.

Keep us updated!

That's a fantastic pond set up, really neat having a cave and spring,
I'll bet your trout can make it if the spring flow stays over 100 GPM.
Great Pond.

That looks GREAT!!!! How deep is the pond now?

That is absolutely amazingly beautiful. Awesome!

Wow, That is about as good as it gets.

Esshup, the deep end by the dam (far from the cave) is somewhere around 14 feet; in front of the "retaining wall" is a channel about 8 ft; the flat where the 3 rocks stick out is about 5-6 ft with a 2-3 ft strip bisecting it; the neck near the waterfall is about 3-5 feet.

What species of trout did you stock? Anything besides trout go in? FHM or other forage or you just relying on pellets and natural forage?

The pool in the cave actually had a rather solid population of critters. Most noticeably--sculpin, darters, crayfish and two types of minnows. I also found a number of caddis fly larvae among other things. I'm not positive on the minnows, but I think they may be Stonerollers (an ozark stream minnow that appears to "graze" on algae). So, I anticipate that the pond will end up with all of the above despite no affirmative stocking. The only trout I could reasonably source appeared to be RBT. Thus, about 370 RBT went in. I may add some add'l forage later, but I'd like to see how the things already there do. If nothing else, the pool near the cave may be able to serve as a sort of incubator for forage. I'd love to add some Browns, "Tiger" or Brook trout, but sourcing is a problem.

With that much water going into the pond, I'm betting that the RBT will last the summer.

The pool above the pond will be an excellent "incubator" as you put it. It appears the water fall between the pool and the pond will prevent the trout from moving up into the pool, however the sculpin and darters will most definitely move into the pond. I am curious as to what species of minnow they are. If you can get a photo or two of them, post them and I'll identify them for you. If I had to guess, I would say they are most likely like stonerollers though. Stone rollers don't prefer cold small streams like that. If I had a guess, I would say 1 species is definitely blacknose daces. They prefer small cold to cool water streams. They need moving water to reproduce so, they won't reproduce in your pond, but they can survive in it. The other species of minnow could be any of a number of species.

If the rainbows don't do so well, the brown trout are a bit more tolerant or higher temps and lower DO's, so they may do better.

Again, congrats on the pond... It is one of my favorites I have seen on here!

You can consider yourself one of the luckiest people in north america owning that piece of land WOW

Stunning!
Kinda answers the question "how do I take a gift from Mother Nature and make it better".

very,very cool

10 lbs of fhm into the upper pool I bet will provide a constant "trickle" of forage into the main pond

Wow this has to be one of the all time best ponds ever presented on this site. Simply incredable.

I think the most surprising thing about this particular site is that no prior owner ever built any type of pond on it. The prior owner apparently started to build a pond in the same location, but abandoned the project after getting his dozer stuck at least twice. In any event, we're very happy with "Phase I" and look forward to adding another pond (or more) below this one and hopefully a cabin. The incredible October rains really delayed the completion of this pond and the start of the second.

I LOVE the idea of using the concrete excess blocks. What made you think of it? What kinda cost for those monsters?

Mule where are you planning on placing the cabin compared to pond #1?

I would like to second & third some of the others' accolades. Really cool stuff! What part of MO is your pond located, if you don't mind my asking? du