Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Another 6 feet, please!

Another 6 or 7 feet is all I need! My patience is running low.. pond was finished in August 2005 and it has taken until now to get this much water.

If I could get another 2 or 3 feet I would start putting some fish in. I have done the jar test. The water settles out very well, but it does get very muddy after a big rain event (all two of them in the last 6 months). Hopefully, we'll be discussing stocking strategies in a few weeks. I may just try to develop a crappie pond (I know.. I've been reading all of the posts about crappie, but I'm willing to experiment some).

Pond will be about 1 surface acre when full. North Texas needs more rain!!

Pond (April 30, 2006)
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If I hadn't know better I would have thought I wrote this! :rolleyes:

5.5 inches of rain since mine was completed in October 2005! I feel your pain!

We got a 4.6 inch rain last Friday night. It was great. However, the water level came up only about a foot in one pond and a foot and a half in another one. Both are really muddy. Catfish feed voraciously but BG aren't doing much of anything without sunlight penetration. Water levels have been so low that exposed banks are contributing a lot of mud anytime it does rain even a little bit. I went by a neighbors 25 acre lake and it was red colored. My wife actually got a 4WD 4 wheeler stuck in some deep muddy, sandy muck.

My brush piles in the draws leading to the ponds caught tons of dead leaves and silt.

...DD's "Better Homes and Gardens" beautification landscaping returns predicted dividends. B-ski (and Theo?) consider rescinding mocking levity of Texan's home improvement practices.

Brettski, being rather unsightly myself, I like them but they have one drawback. Just how do you get rid of tons of dead leaves? My land looks like nature gone nuts. This place just ain't what you would call manicured.

You're not turning into one of those people in the subdivision next door who expects me to rake leaves every fall in my woods, are you?

Mow-em if possible. Get you a good riding mower and keep going around with the discharge pointed toward the middle. Most of them will turn into powder if they are real dry and you can heard them into a pile and burn them, bag them or keep running over them until they are gone. I have done this many times and I am always surprised how fast they disappear.

Well, I received another 3 to 4 inches of rain during the week, and the pond went up about 2 feet. It is about a half acre of surface area, and will more than double in size when full. Still have probably another 7 feet of depth before I get to spillway level, but it now has about 8 feet of water in it. I'll be calling some fish farms this week. Any advice on how long I should wait before putting fish in? Jar test showed that the water will settle out OK.

Current thinking is FH minnows, CNBG, RE sunfish, Black Crappie, LMB, and some HSB. I will be predator heavy, as other threads suggest, to control the crappie.

Gary, do an alkilinity test prior to stocking. Check visibility. Until the mud settles and you have a fertile pond, don't stock.

I feel your pain...........closed my Dam almost 2 years ago this June..still only half full.......in East Texas...........

Thanks for the advice Dave. I will definitely do the alkalinity test. Quick question... once the pond clears, and I do stock with fish, how do the various species handle it when it gets muddy from another rain. Can most, or all species, handle muddy water for a week?

Thanks for all the help. I've been lurking and reading since August of last year.

Yeah, they can handle it for a week. However, with prolonged mud, no photosynthesis occurs. Mine was muddy this year for months due to exposed banks. Recent rains brought in a lot of fresh water and raised it above the level of the exposed dirt. My visibility went from 4 inches to 10 in a week. I'll find out soon just what kind of shape I'm in.

GaryTexas I was talking to Dave and it looks like the drought is continuing. May should be our wettest month and I have only received 30% of May's normal rainfall. I wish I could have a little of the rain from the Northeast not all of it just about 6 inches. I just wish we could get our normal rain of 4.5 inches. Dave have you had any more rain? What kind of shape are they in?

Both of my one acre ponds have come up about 3 ft. The one by the house still needs about another 4 ft. I think I may have enought to survive until Fall.