Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond Renovation Questions in S. Louisiana

Yard Drainage Issues Leading to Replacement of Clay Pipe


Two Weeks after Building and Installing Wood Duck Boxes - Surprise!


Young Wood Duck with Pekings and Mallards
(The mother and 12 siblings left within a day of hatching)

Beginning in Early July 2020, FA began to appear


Neighbor insisted on refurbishing and reinstalling fountain, I didn't argue, odd though the arrangement may be.


Bluegill, 5mo


Stocking Bass 6mo after Bluegill
For anyone curious, the pond is about 3/4 acre and tapers in maximum (center) depth from about 8ft (10%) - 10-12ft (40%) - 15-16ft (50%). We stocked 1400-1500 HBG in February, 100 RES in March, 120 LMB in July.


Feeding Bluegill (and ducks!), July 2020

After the 3.5 free pallets of sod in May, I laid 20 more in July - heat index was only 113F! I laid another 18 in September to finish things out.


Watering sod with pond water, 2in Harbor Freight Pump, and Nozzle


Watering Sod on Berm

Based on my reading on this site, I figured my pond shouldn't have more than 2-3 ducks. My mother in law became over-enthusiastic at Tractor Supply and bought five. Those five ate tens of thousands of frog eggs, tadpoles, and salamander eggs in a single weekend and acted ravenously hungry all the time. In addition to the natural wildlife appearing, it was clear that I was going to have an overpopulation issue. Thus, not all 5 made it to old age.

Pond is just about finished! Oct 2020. Only took 2 years! Still have some vegetation work ahead next spring - cypress trees, lilies, louisiana iris, etc.

And will have to think about wildlife management. In addition to the remaining male and female mallard, we have a snowy egret or two, a cormorant, a great white egret or two, and a great blue hero who frequent the pond. My concerns for the fish population were only in the back of my mind until I recently saw a 10-12" fish in the mouth of the heron!

Looking really good!

Cormorant can eat a pound of fish per day. We did a fish population survey on a 7/8 acre pond that had 5 of them visiting and 80% of the fish in the pond had signs of escaping from the cormorants. Some had infection setting in from the beak marks.....

@essup, yikes! In that case I need to come up with a plan. Looks like bird deterrence is tough thing to be selective with, but Cormorants look to be bad for fish and vegetation alike from what I've now read. Thanks for the heads up.