Greetings,
I just lucked into this forum while exploring pond aeration options and thought it'd be perfect to get a few opinions about a pond/lake expansion on our family�s farm.
First of all our main pond has been built in 2 and a half major renovations/expansions. This will be #3 in the major category. Our farm abuts a tract of wetland (which is federally protected, we can never touch it) consisting of some 135 acres to the north of the pond site. What was a drain in a cornfield we converted into the impoundment pictured some 10-12 years ago.
Anyhow, while excavating the latest expansion which backs up to the hill our house sits on we hit a shelf of shale. I've read that's bad for pond bottoms. However, I know for a fact that when we built the main pond we were into shale near the dam and we have had no problem with leakage or maintaining the water level. I suspect that possibly the water table is so high in this bottom that there is no seepage through fractures in the shale or that there is no fracture in the bed of shale at all. Also the shale in the expansion sits to the south while the fall of the watershed is to the north. Would that impact the flow of the water into or out of the pond through the shale?
Now onto black crappie. I'm pretty sure I'm going to introduce them once the expansion is completed should we tie the expansion in with the main body of water. I wanted to know if anyone had any horror stories or encouragement concerning crappie. I manage the impoundment pretty strictly and it produces slab bluegill and lunker bass along with some great cats but it also has some resident species we never introduced. Some are listed as undesirable by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife including Green Sunfish and a Shiner species that looks like a 4-7 inch tarpon. The sunfish have been in there since we first dug the pond and seem to have little to no effect which is why I'm seriously contemplating the introduction of Crappie. The warnings against Green Sunfish or as we call them, warmouth, seem to be more severe than anything I've read against crappie.
Looking forward to reading some responses and to contributing some of my expierence to the forum.
Thanks for any thoughts in advance,
KC
This is a shot of the impoundment and expansion from the base of the hill where our house rests.
This is an image of the old impoundment looking north towards the dam.
Another shot looking north.
The shale in the expansion looking south.
A screwed up wide angle image of the shelf in the new expansion.
