My name is Jay, this might be a tad long and I apologize for that. I am in central NC (zone 7b) and have never heard of Pond Boss. I found it when I was looking on Youtube for some Wood Duck info. I am impressed and just subscribed to the magazine. A little back story FWIW. We bought 15 acres for ourselves from what the wife and her sister inherited from their parents. I can vaguely remember a pond on the property which is why I wanted that piece of land. When we drove the property a couple of years ago you couldn't see the land, much less a pond if there was one because the dogfennel was so high. We eventually found the pond but it had been neglected for many years. Sadly it was also severely covered with duckweed. The pond is about two acres in size and from what I can determine so far about six feet deep? As far as age I can remember fishing it when we were dating. We have been married 40 years and dated years before that so I'm guessing it's at least 60 years old if not older? It has a simple spillway which has apparently worked for years and may have a spring flowing into the pond but I can't verify that yet? The dam was about a foot from breaking which was the first thing I fixed with the spillway second. The spillway had gotten overgrown, blocked, etc and the water was running over the dam and back under itself eroding itself if that makes sense? We had someone come in and brush cut around two sides of it. The third side will be done at a later date and the fourth side will be left for nature to do as she wants to hide a house across from us. The duckweed has been taken care of and it's gone. We have built a new house which overlooks the pond when we are sitting on our back porch and love that! To go from what it was to what it is now is incredible! I still have a lot of work to do but taking it one day at a time. I have lots of questions but I am still in the process of reading the forum and searching for the topics I have questions for. Again, sorry for this being so long and thanks for having me!
Jay
Last edited by Benchedthatpiece; 06/16/2511:49 PM.
I understand the desire to hide an ugly house. We have a junkyard of a property just across one of our property lines.
However, you do want to keep clearing trees and underbrush that are putting roots into your dam and/or putting leaves or needles into your pond.
I would consider planting some relatively faster-growing trees that do well in NC that you and your wife like for the appearance, wildlife habitat, etc. You can also have a lower visual border planting some nice bushes. (My wife likes it when I plant lilac bushes since they still thrive in our poor soils.)
If you get them established now, in a few years you will be able to clear out that fourth side as you see fit.
I'm big into photography so I hope I can include the pond in that aspect. I also love wildlife. We have deer, wild turkeys, bobcat, coyote, etc in our yard so I hope the pond will help them. I saw a coyote pup walking across the dam this evening which was cool! I would love to get some Wood Ducks nesting. I know it had Bass and Bluegill. I stocked Bass, Bluegill and Catfish last October I think it was? I can hear the frogs as I type this and love that. I am enjoying reading this forum and already learning things. I will check out the FB you mentioned. Thanks!
Jay
Originally Posted by Learninboutfish
Welcome
Great background intro!
It sounds like you've made a lot of improvements.
What are your goals for the pond?
Do you know what types of fish already exist?
The forum is an excellent resource. Lots of experts in all areas of pond management.
I would encourage you to join Bob's Tuesday night, Pond Boss, Facebook live at 6:30 CT.
I have cleaned off about 70% the dam, but have some more on the back side to do this winter when the poison ivy is low and snakes are not as bad. We have talked about planting some Deodar Cedars or something like that on the other side. At this point you can't even walk on the other side because of the thorns and poison ivy. If there is a positive there, it would be keeping them from fishing from that side. They have already approached me wanting to fish the pond and I politely said NO! : )
The few trees we do have around the pond do drop a lot of leaves but for the time being I'm being selective about what I'm taking out. Once you cut a tree down it's gone forever. Oh she has already started talking about what "we" need to plant. However when I'm out planting and look around, half of "we" is sitting in the house watching TV or something. There is a nice little berm around part of the pond we want to incorporate the design.
I'm finding the biggest problem I'm having with the pond is the time to work on it and enjoy it. Retirement is not what I thought it would be, it's killing me with everything that needs to be done. Thanks!
Originally Posted by FishinRod
Welcome to Pond Boss, Jay!
I understand the desire to hide an ugly house. We have a junkyard of a property just across one of our property lines.
However, you do want to keep clearing trees and underbrush that are putting roots into your dam and/or putting leaves or needles into your pond.
I would consider planting some relatively faster-growing trees that do well in NC that you and your wife like for the appearance, wildlife habitat, etc. You can also have a lower visual border planting some nice bushes. (My wife likes it when I plant lilac bushes since they still thrive in our poor soils.)
If you get them established now, in a few years you will be able to clear out that fourth side as you see fit.
The forum is an excellent resource. Lots of experts in all areas of pond management.
I would encourage you to join Bob's Tuesday night, Pond Boss, Facebook live at 6:30 CT.
Originally Posted by Benchedthatpiece
I'm big into photography so I hope I can include the pond in that aspect. I also love wildlife. We have deer, wild turkeys, bobcat, coyote, etc in our yard so I hope the pond will help them. I saw a coyote pup walking across the dam this evening which was cool! I would love to get some Wood Ducks nesting. I know it had Bass and Bluegill. I stocked Bass, Bluegill and Catfish last October I think it was? I can hear the frogs as I type this and love that. I am enjoying reading this forum and already learning things. I will check out the FB you mentioned. Thanks!
Jay
Posting pictures has been a challenge for some as they cannot exceed 2MB. Any picture from a modern phone is much larger than that so you have to reduce the size. There are a few methods to doing that.
Pictures help with understanding challenges and answering questions. I'm happy to assist if you need any technical assistance with posting them.
2 Acre, Completed July 2022, CC,BG, Sept. 2022, LMB June 2023, GSF, YBH invasion in 2022. BG, CNBG, RES, 2025, TP seasonal.
It will take me forever to find some pics as they are mixed in with the thousands of train pics I take. However I did remember this video I had that might give you at least an idea? It has come so far since the video was made. If videos are not allowed, please delete it?
Posting pictures has been a challenge for some as they cannot exceed 2MB. Any picture from a modern phone is much larger than that so you have to reduce the size. There are a few methods to doing that.
Pictures help with understanding challenges and answering questions. I'm happy to assist if you need any technical assistance with posting them.[/quote]
Jay, in my limited experience, duckweed remains a problem until you get a mat of vegetation growing out from the bank. You'll still have duckweed but it will be locked up in the vegetation instead of freely drifting around the pond.
So far, I have not seen a sign of duckweed returning and it has been close to a year I think? I don't have any vegetation growing from the bank at the moment. The only problem I have now is some muddy water from all the recent rains but that usually clears up. Keeping my fingers crossed for good luck!
Originally Posted by Dudley Landry
Jay, in my limited experience, duckweed remains a problem until you get a mat of vegetation growing out from the bank. You'll still have duckweed but it will be locked up in the vegetation instead of freely drifting around the pond.
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