Thank you, Gentlemen. I appreciate the kind words. A lot of time and effort, trial and error went into this project. It is very gratifying to see the results this Spring.
All photos I attached are of one of the four ponds, from various angles and vantage points.
Dave, yes, the water will drop several vertical feet from maximum pool by the end of summer. The pond pictured stays full and will spill all Summer in a wet year such as this year. It has a great natural spring in addition to the seasonal creek flowing through. In a dry year, it will drop down 1-2 feet. Two of the ponds will drop 5-8 vertical feet, depending upon how wet the Winter was.
No trout, though. Bluegill, crappie and largemouth bass. The spring-fed pond could support German Brown, I beleive, but Rainbow's would likely not survive. My Dad considered trout way back when, but decided against them.
We have never fed the fish, never aerated, never stocked any fish. They do well on their own. We have a few GBH nests in the big pines in the pictures and I have seen a few osprey this Spring. They get the dumb and lame fish, I guess. Of course, that's the only ones I can catch, so I suppose that makes these fishing birds my competitors!
