Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Can I turn this into a forage pond?

This is the same pond I posted about here earlier today. It's half an acre, 16 feet at the deepest. It's spring fed and at the end where the spring/stream comes in is what I've been told was "the old pond." What I think happened was that several years ago (30-50 maybe) they added a new larger dam to the valley a ways downstream. And they cut a gap in the old dam so that it would be one body of water. Here's a photo of the gap. There's thick grass growing on the old dam right now.


As you can see I've almost completely drained the pond. I want to get rid of the bluegill population and stock CC in the fall. But after reading about the benefits of a forage pond and the fun I've had feeding the bluegill I've removed from this pond to the bass in another pond, I'm wondering if there would be a way to separate the old pond again and use it as a forage pond. Probably with bluegill. Is it realistic to think that I could keep the two ponds separate, mainly I don't want bluegill to take over the catfish pond again.

What would be the best way to separate the two ponds? Is there a way to put a screen between the two sections? Or would I need to fill in the old dam and have some kind of overflow pipe?

Here are some more photos.
A closer shot of the gap in the old dam. I'm planning to get that old tree out regardless of what else I do.


A shot of the old pond. It's .07 acres according to http://acme.com/planimeter/. It's about three feet deep when it has water in it and has a 12-18" layer of muck on the bottom. So it could be 4-4.5 feet deep. I'm planning to cut off those stumps with my chainsaw.

If bluegill are upstream of your nearby CC pond, they're going to end up in the CC pond at some point. A rainstorm will overflow the pond and bring them in.

If you want a forage pond, you'll be better off with a forage species that won't take over the catfish pond. FHM are an obvious choice, it won't be a problem if they get into the catfish pond and they can endure the terrible temperature/DO conditions that a tiny, shallow pond might experience.

Yeah, FHM makes sense. Good suggestion. Any thoughts on how to keep the CC out? (And most of the FHM in?)

I'm not sure what the difference in water levels will be between the two ponds. You could install an overflow pipe through the dam of the upper pond when you rebuild it, so that instead of water flowing over the spillway, it would go through the pipe when the pond went above full pool.

This would drain water from the center of the forage pond rather than the edges, and you could install some kind of screen around the pipe to keep larger FHM from getting into it.

If the water level of the upper pond is higher than that of the lower pond at full pool by several feet the outflow end of the pipe could be in the air so that CC couldn't get in. You could also put a screen on the outflow end.

If you install a pipe and the ponds are close together, you might want to run it long enough that the outflow dumps directly into the lower pond. It'll prevent washing in mud, and any FHM that end up making the incredible voyage downstream will colonize the lower pond rather than becoming fertilizer.

Would it work to put some sort of screen in the gap in the old dam to separate the two parts of the pond? That sounds easier than bringing dirt in to fill in the dam and setting up the overflow pipe. Has anyone tried something like this before?

Nathan, great idea! What you are referring to is a "blocking net."

Ewest on blocking nets

Cecil on blocking nets

Cecil on blocking nets complete with good photos of the design.

Thanks for the links, JHAP. I think I can do that fairly easily. Now I need to decide what size mesh to use. Do you think I should size it to keep the CC out, so it could be fairly big? Or to keep the FHM (or Tilapia) in, which would need to be quite small? I would like to be able to trap or sein the forage pond and put what I catch in my bass pond. Would the small fish generally stay in that part of the pond to avoid CC predation? Or will they fill the whole pond?

Nathan, lets get some feed back from Cecil or Ewest. I don't know anything about this stuff, I just know how to link.