Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site "pondering" a pond site

There are several nice ponds within a half mile of me, all in the 800-820 level, except one is at 785. Bodes well.

As stated, I like the thought of a pond following the shape of a ravine. I've come to realize its going to be difficult to get the pond surface area size I'd like, with the ravines I have. The problem is to stay under a 20ft dam height, I have to move the dam upstream, making the surface area smaller than I hoped. So I try different surface contour levels and dam locations to try and maximize the surface area, and minimize the dam height.

Here's a pond at the 804-contour level in my ideal ravine:


The problem is at the 804 level, its still pretty low in the ravine, as you can see by the remaining contour lines. These contours are in 1 foot increments: