Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction HELLO

Hello, I am Brad from Oregon and I have been reading on the PB forums for a few weeks and decided to join.

I live on a peninsula with a high water table and have acres of pure clay that I am planning on building a 3/4 acre bass/blue gill pond on.

Enjoyed learning so far and hope to learn more so I am fully prepared to do this right the first time.

Thanks.

Welcome aboard man! I only found and joined PBF a couple months ago. It is like finding that light at the end of the tunnel. People here share your passion and understand the dream. Make sure you grab a subscription to PBM, a ton of great stuff in there!

Welcome!

Bill D.

Welcome Rowdy B from Texas:)

This is a fun site where you can learn a lot about all aspects of fish and pond management and have a lot of fun


Pat W

Be careful man. Pat drinks Falstaff and tosses the bottles in the pond for "bottle reef" structure! Just joking....kind of....sort of...

Sorry Brad, my job is to harass Pat...

Please give us some details on your goals for the pond, etc.

Rowdy Brad,
Welcome to Pond Boss...tons of good information here...

Thanks.

Sure thing. I am going to have a 3/4 acre pond (would be 30 acres if I had room) that will be a trophy bass pond. The land will be excavated and left with approximately 10 foot birm around it about 4 feet tall with 3-1 slope. We have a high water table and besides a nearby well there is no water sources.

The soil is thick clay (actual breakdown in soil thread) which seems great for holding water. Initial plan was to till in .25 inches of bentonite throughout the dry top few inches of surface, but now seems like I may need to add some soil to mixture then compact.

Will have a 1/2 hp pump leading to 2 diffusers with weighted line from deepest area. Depths will go from 2' to 7', not counting the birm adding more depth.

Welcome to PondBoss RW!

Keep in mind that a trophy LMB pond of 3/4 acre may mean very few fish, and smart/hookshy specimens at that. If a 1 acre pond will support 80 lbs of LMB, and each one of those fish weighs five pounds, you've only got 12 fish to keep you busy...and they will wise up to catch and release pretty quickly.

Those numbers are not set in stone and there's room for tweaking and fine tuning, just something to think about.

In addition to what Sprkplug said considering the limited number of trophy sized LMB that can thrive in 3/4 ac, consider using pellet raised HSB instead of or with the LMB. Pellet feeding the predators will allow the pond to grow more large predators per acre compared to a natural food based system. With increased fish poundage per acre comes increased water quality issues. Also research hook shy fish and creating hook smart bass.
For starters see these links:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=260611

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=192855

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=22028

For an extensive education on growing bass in ponds study these LMB posts from the Arcives Common Q&A Section:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255372#Post255372

+1 on everything stated above and especially on stocking the Hybrid Striped Bass (HSB). An excellent suggestion that you would not regret if your goal was mainly LMB and BG.

My goal too was trophy LMB in my 2 ac pond, and no small task especially for a rube like me! If I had it to do all over I would be in better shape after 2 years but having the HSB in there is making it all worth while!

Stocked at 5-7" in Sept 2012 they're now pushing 3 lbs and the fight they give is tough to beat!

Welcome, keep reading and researching and be patient!