Hey Art, Welcome!
Sounds like you are going to have quite a pond there with many possibilities.
I know your DNR manages a number of deep ponds in your State. Maybe you could give them a call and get some ideas.
We have quite a few in MI in the 40 to 60 foot range, mostly converted sand and gravel pits.
One gravel pit I use to fish before it was turned into a camp ground, was a SMB Heaven, that was fantastic!
Another one that was slightly connected to the Grand River in the days before the gestapo took over was just teeming with WE, a real great place to fish.
In a sand pit I was looking at about 8 years ago. MSU researchers were raising Coho in net pens. When they shut down the sand pit operation it was dredged to 60 feet deep. Then they put in about 3 acres of shallow area, the BG nests were abundant. Unfortunately the seven figure asking price was a bit too steep for me. He did get 990,000.00 for the place from a developer, then the housing crash. Now there are a lot of developed empty lots surrounding it.
The recommendations I received locally for my pond is to average 12-15 feet with no less than 25% at 25 feet deep.
Deep ponds are a good thing because you can avoid summer kills and winter kills due to DO depletion. Plus you wont have such a nasty weed problem.
Up North, at least around here, we are not in LMB country. I can honestly say that I have never personally met anyone that intentionally rigged up for LMB.
Sounds like it will really be awesome Art.
Last edited by JKB; 05/20/10 01:31 PM. Reason: Thanks TJ
