I bought the land back in October and it had a pond that was about 40 years old on it. The dam was leaking and brush and trees had taken over around the entire perimeter of the pond. The pond was shallow, less than 3 ft and crystal clear. The bottom was completely covered in a coarse tough stringy algae. Below that was a silt layer that was waste deep, I found out by wading into it one day, I still have not found one of my rubber boots.

I found a fella that was highly recommended as a pond builder. He told me what he would do and it sounded good to me. He went and got his big ole John Deere Dozer and went to work that afternoon. The dam was pushed down completely, a new footing went down into the clay that lies below the pasture topsoil. After all the pond bottom muck was pushed out into the pasture he built a new dam core with clay pushed out of the pond bottom. What I ended up with is a brand new pond twice as big as the original and about 9 ft deep behind the dam.

Then it sat, waiting on the rain, and waited, and waited some more. Finally in December we got a hard rain and it filled up about half way. That rain, pounding against that clay bottom, made it pretty muddy water though. By mid January we had gotten enough rain to fill it up and test the spillways on either side of the dam that lets the overflow run out into the pasture.

Now its been a couple of months and there is no sign that the water has cleared even a little bit. The water that runs off 6 to 8 acres of very well grassed pasture looks clear where I see it running into the pond. We have seeded the pond perimeter and dam with a mixture of rye and Bahia grass. I mulched the area with seed hay. The rye grass is up and I expect the Bahia to start coming up when it starts warming up.

I want this 1/2 acre pond to be a Hybrid Bluegill pond. The Pasture it is in will be my new homes front yard. Our horses will be fenced out of the immediate pond area and have limited access to the pasture outside that fence, they have their own playground on the back of our property.

I feel like I have rambled quite a while, but if any of you can get a feel for what my next step should be in growing this pond I sure would appreciate it.

Thanks