Been saving my pennies and reading the the pond boss threads for years and I really appreciate all the great info on here. Now that I have the funds, I’m hoping to start construction this summer. I want to do this right the first time. My pond goals are: look good from the back porch, Fishing (other than the common largemouth bass/bluegill), small beach for swimming, and hopefully relatively low maintenance (other than an aeration system and maybe feeding once or twice a week).
The pond location is in a shallow valley and the US soil mapping says it a silty clay loam (I’m planning on doing some test pits in early summer to confirm). The total watershed area is approximately 7 acres, and I was hoping for a 1 to 1.5 acre pond. Because the valley is shallow, there is still significant excavation required to achieve a pond of 8 ft deep as well as about 30% of the pond area at 14 ft deep. I was also planning on setting it up so that I could drain the pond and could have the overflow pulled from the bottom or top of the pond. Pond would be roughly lima bean shaped (hopefully my attachment worked).
I’m also considering a small pond of about 30ft x 50ft upstream of the main pond so that I can raise forage fish or experiment. For forage, I was thinking I would add bluntnose or fathead minnow and spotfin shiner if I can source them (maybe Bill Cody can help me out
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Wanted to get some thoughts on my plan and had had a few questions I was hoping to get feedback on:
1- Would it be a significant benefit to make the pond a bit larger? If I’m able to acquire a bit of extra land, I could make the pond up to about 2 acres.
2 - I’ve read that Mat Rayl in Russiaville IN, and hoosier pond pros may be good options for pond builders. Any other suggestions on good pond builders just north of the Fort Wayne Indiana area?
3- Suggestions for fish structure or bedding areas?
4- I assume I would start with the FHM and spotfin shiners, then add YP and RES, then finally add the SMB and a few WE (as a bonus fish). Thoughts or guidance on this stocking plan?
Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!
