Hey everyone. I have a lot to talk about so I'll break this down I'm paraghphs.
I overestimated the size. I eyeballed the water line and was way off. A builder was nice enough to shoot it. I haven't GPS the acreage yet but it's more like a 1.8 acre pond. Now he told me a lot of that could and will need to be dug out for the dam material. Which would be 120yrds long and 24' high. So he thinks in the end it will be a little over 2 acres.
The dam like I said is quit big I'll need to take pictures next weekend. But I don't think he has the dirt for it. I see rocks sticking out of the soil but all three builders didn't seem to worried about it. They all are pretty sure there's more dirt under it. Even in the gravel bottom creek bed. There are Some big trees(maybe 28" in diameter) in the creek and two contractors told me that if there wasn't soil underneatheath it they wouldn't be able to stand there.
I had the NRCS come out with a reputable government contractor but it was raining and so the NRCS guy didn't even get out of the vehicle. He said he just wanted to know where it is so he could look up the soil and topo maps. Him and The contractor came out and they both didn't seem to excited about it. The contractor thought there was dirt under the rock layer but he did think I had enough to build the dam I wanted. i guess I'll wait for the soil analyst, then have some trenches dug to see if I have the dirt needed.
One thing that made my pond so much smaller is the amount of free board they wanted. They wanted 5'. But I have a 1.2 acre pond 400 yards away that has like 2' of freeboard and it's fine. My dad said he just didn't cut down the pipe to extend the freeboard when it was built. Been there 35 years and has a small 5" overflow pipe and about 26 acres of watershed. This guy said he could cut it down to 4' freeboard with a 12" pipe, it has 34 acres of watershed. I guess I might have to forget to cut the pipe to. It's going to have the spillway.
Something I was wanting to have is like a couple of shallow areas 2' deep. I usually catch a lot of bass in places like this that are shallow and have a lot of aquatic vegetation. It would be a cheap way to up the acreage of the pond to. is this a good idea?
This has turned out to be a lot more of a planning and learning curve and money pit than I expected. But one things for sure, I am 31 years old and have had so much fun with ponds. Ponds are just who I am. And if this new pond cost 25k and last 40 years that's only about $650 dollars a year. Sounds cheap when I put it like that.
Last edited by Fastmarvelousmax; 11/29/15 12:59 PM.
