Welcome boomer, i dont think i have seen anyone here that has a "uniform" size pond. Everyone makes it the way they want it, and it needs to be lots deeper than 5 ft. Like Brettski says above, if its shallow and large it will evaporate with the sun. Make it at steep enough on the sides that the "pucker factor" is an issue while you are in the dozer/tractor making the sides. My personal opinion is that you should make different levels of depth. My pond has 6 ft/12 ft/ and 18 ft depths (all fairly large areas) and the sides are about a 3 to 1. I have 2 areas that would look like a boat ramp and they are only about 200 sq ft. total. My areator sits in the deep hole on the bottom with 4 stone diffusers. I hate cleaning catfish so i dont have any. Put in minnows as soon as you start getting water in the pond. Way before you put in anything else, you still have time to decide what fish you want in. Focus on bottom contours, placing structure in b4 water, rocks, logs, pvc pipe, what ever makes you happy. As long as you have spawning area for the minnows (read creating forage section) panfish, and an area for bass you should be fine. Its not like you have an old rock mine with flat walls 50ft deep, you just have a hole in the ground like most of us. Plan to run pvc pipe to the pond with electricity (you will want it later on) water, and another for the areator. Put them all in the same ditch and just cap off the ends till you are ready to use them. You will be glad you did. The best thing you can do is read, draw, make notes, read more, ask, ask, ask questions...we give answers for free here. You will also get more than one opinion on some things as well.
Last edited by rcn11thacr; 04/15/10 08:28 PM.
