Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? small pond cleanout start to finish

1st picture is of a small 4 point buck they were in full rut and chasing does into the prairies which made this cleanout job fun. i usually get impatient and dont like to deal with a cleanout but will post these pictures of how i did this one in a very short period of time about 11 hours start to finish which i think is fast even on a small one.
2nd picture is just of the mud in the pond about 4 to 5 ft of it in most places
3rd picture is of my impatience i tried to push some mud on the dam i've tried it a hundred times it aint worked yet. it just gets slick,boggy,and unworkable
4th picture i begin moving mud to back end of pond mixing with very dry dirt as i go. this is the smart thing to do if possible. most ponds go dry and need cleaned in drought like conditions so put that dry dirt to use. even thou you have to push it out of the pond backwards its less steep and easier to get it out of the pond that way and you dont have a lot of mud behind the dam to deal with when it dries naturally
5th picture i begin moving the mud in middle to the sides to where i can get to it to push it out the back. i've tried to get right in the middle and push it out usually getting stuck so be patient and work it out gradually there is nothing fast or easy about cleaning a pond out
6th picture all mud is out of pond

7th picture looks like i'm building a dam in the upper end
8th picture i am about done pushing mud back through the pond to the dam no slippin slidin etc.
9th finally done and its dry enough i'm not leaving to much of a rut trying to finish the backside of the dam. the pond is much deeper and a little bigger typical of a cleanout

With the red soil, it looks like it's easy to tell when you've hit the pond bottom. A couple of those pics looked like it was a bit soupy.

it was real soupy till it got mixed with the dry dirt

cleaned out several small ponds lately. my son is running the trackhoe and getting me to firm ground before i bring the dozer in on the small ones and throwing the mud out to me on the bigger ones as i push it away. we have had no rain to speak of since july so some of the older shallow ponds are drying up around here. will post all of them in the next few days. this first one only had 4' of mud in it 6 trackhoe hours 3.9 dozer hours and it was done. 10' deep when it was done 4' deep when we started

Sounds easy, it looks i can do it in the same way, thanks for the details.

another bout 1/3 acre pond about a 1/4 mile nw of the 1.25 acre on another post. 14' deep when all was done. this one also had a lot of mud for its size and it had to be taken out the back end. didnt want to take any chances of the mud making it to the lake which you can see thru the dam cut. this was day one

what a difference a day makes snow and 15 degrees. stuffed trees in the mud to try and hold it in place. took some pictures of the shale we ripped up its excellent pond building material and really soaks up the moistures when you go to breaking it up just a pain to rip up and deal with when its this hard. i've always thought these hills can be quit challenging to build a pond in

Tim, pic 007 looks like it was taken on Hawaii of a lava flow. I take it there is enough clay even with the shale to get a good seal?

Tim, you are one busy dude! Wish you were in our area - I've got a great project for you!

Great looking work, as always!

yes essup we have excellent shale around here its just prying them rocks up to get to it. most of it will test between 17 and 22 plasticity index. the testing agencys say our shale is a form of clay.

here is a pond that was real low so we made a cul d sac out in the pond. the mud was dry enough we could shape it so it made for a quick semi cleanout and a useful place to put the dirt and mud. 9' deep upon completion in the cleaned out areas. if you look back to the post building a easy pond i thought i fought rain the entire job. we have had none to speak of since then and that was 6 months ago so the august and september heat really have our ponds low owner said this pond has never been this low he's 65.

heres another one that was fairly easy 10' deep at completion. made it deeper after the mud was out

another not so easy one with county road right behind it so went to the side with the mud. 14 ft deep when done

small spring fed pond lots of rocks and mud here. pic 19 is where spring surfaces

So, Tim, what's the likelihood of seeing some good "after" pics of some of these projects?

not a problem todd i usually am around most of these ponds hunting so i'll take some pictures and take some of others i have built or rebuilt over the years. just need some rain to fill these recent ones.

just completed this one. its about a 60 yr old pond that owner said always leaked. you will see where we cored on the front to prevent this. lots of dirt here and didnt want to raise the water level a lot to save the pecan trees. so we built a point out in the pond to get upper end dug down.

I like what you did with the rocks. Do you use a dozer to smooth out the bottom once the majority of dirt is removed with the track hoe?

only use the trackhoe to remove the mud and place rocks. then ttotally rebuild dam with dozer. usually raise the dam when possible and make it good as new

Thanks!