New to the forum.
I am currently working on my brother's farm that has a small pond that has been established for what we know of well over 10-15 years. When I say small, I mean small....80 x 60 yrds approximately. We are not sure, but we believe it may be spring fed. A couple have things have led us to believe this. One thing, during the drought we were under at the end of 2010 it sustain relatively stable water levels, even when others around us dried up are dropped severely. Second thing, in the heat of the summer the water is unusually cool and in cold weather, water is consdierably warmer than you might think it would be. The depth of the pond is unknown, I can only guess by fishing it, that is is around 8 ft deep at its deepest point. This pond holds and maintains fish well. The first time i fished, it i caught over 12 bass in about 30 minutes. I see no signs of sunfish, but my brother has transplanted some from Lake Fork. As well as the 2 lbs of minnows we dumpe in every so often. Everything seems to be alive and thriving well.
Last summer he rented a bull dozer and cleared a bunch on old fence lines and underbrush. While he had the dozer the idea of adding on to the existing pond. He dug out on the out side of the pond, making sure not to disturb the existing pond. He added dirt to the dam and made another side a dam as well. The idea is once that rain fills the new section, it will overflow into the existing pond ,with the added hieght to the dams, and make one pond. Thus tripling the size of the pond. The new additon is all but 6" from touching the exhisting pond.
Here is the problem.....the new addition has never cleared up. East texas clay has not alowed it to do so. We are a critical stage now to where we are worried if the new additon does reach the exhisting pond that the clarity in the exhisting pond will deminish. After reading online until my eyes were blurry I cam across the ol' "add a teaspoon of vinegar" trick. I did this and it was a wierd result. The water in the jar did not do what I would call settle. It seemed to only seperate. the website I was reading was very vague, but I figured.. hey, easy test why not? The clay all seemed to go into a cloudy mixture at the bottum of the jar. ANY slight movement of the jar disturbs the bottum layer drastically. Here is my concern. We did this addition to be able to have more fishing area, and to give the fish more room and better structure. but if the bottum layer of water is going to be cloudy then would the fish swimming it it, wind, lures being dragged through it continually keep the water cloudy? We are currently OPEN for suggestion. We have been leaning towards gypsum, but wonder if with the East Texas soil, if lime is not the way to go. Cost is a factor in bad economy, but we dont want to lose any fish over this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Exhisting pond :
New addition :
Where they meet :
Pic of water sample with vinegar added :
