Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Guess there isn't any turning back now......

Hey guys,

I took my boys up to the farm today and we went out with our trackhoe and busted the levee on our pond. Here is what it looked like to start with:



When the water started to flow I could tell why we were having such a weed growth problem because the perimeter of the pond edge was only approx in 6" of water.


We watched it drain for approximately 6 hours and it was still going when we left. I thought it would have drained alot quicker than that though.

In these two pics you can see the flat ledge that was actually underwater in the pond.




We had a few surprises under the water as it started to come down


This is the top of the levee with all of these small scrub trees growing on it. I am going to take all of these out with our dozer this next spring.



All in all I don't think the renovation is going to be quite as bad as I intially anticipated. I know that I am going to take 3' of dirt out around the perimeter of the pond and depending on how deep the center is I will probably end up taking some of it out as well. I was expecting the middle of the pond to be much more shallow so I was pleasantly surprised. I am going to be using a kubota 50hp tractor 4x4, cat trackhoe and our d4lgp dozer to renovate this pond. This is probably the first time that I have felt that my equipment may be a little too small to do this job but I am planning on doing this job myself. I estimate the pond to be 3/4 to maybe 1 acre and my only plan is to deepen it around the edges and some in the middle to remove the silt/muck that has filled in over the years and then before I repair the levee I am going to put in a pier over the water with a walkway from the waters edge. I'm hoping I can do the dirt work in a few weekends but that may be a little optimistic. Unfortunately we didn't harvest many fish and the mud was too thick for us to walk out in it. I sunk up to my waist trying to get out there to retrieve a few fish so I imagine the varmints in our area are going to have a field day for the next week or so. If I am lucky I may be able to go out later this week to see if it drained completely out but it may have to wait until next weekend.


Any advice/suggestions on what else I should look at while doing this project?

Take pics while it is down and then think about bottom contours and structure. Maybe a small beach/spawning area near the pier. A place to access by car/truck or put in a boat by trailer.

lee,

What do you plan to do with all of the dirt?

Gator

I have another empty/dried up pond a couple hundred yards away that will take all of the spoils so I am planning on putting it up there.

Are you hoping to eradicate 100% of the fish? Are there any rough fish, because now's the time to get them out.

What fish will be in the pond eventually?

I am planning on taking it to dry ground by removing all of the silt/mud so yes I am planning on removing all of the fish. There are no rough fish in it but it had a severely stunted bass population and a mediocre bream population. I am hoping to restock with bass/brim with an emphasis on true trophy bass. I have a few stren feeders from our last farm and I will probably start a feeding program once the pond gets re-stocked. I'm hoping to begin the dirt work probably mid-spring if the weather allows.

I have done some work around Memphis and soils in some areas can be suspect. My suggestion is to read the soils as you remove them and make sure the pond bottom wasn't sealed with a clay liner. If all the soils are native soils, and they are clay-based, you are okay. If not, you may move away the best soils only to find dirt that someone else covered up.

Bob,

I am not planning on going crazy with the excavation but I am wanting to try to deepen the edges around it so the weed growth doesn't become a problem again. I doubt the original owner of the pond installed clay in the bottom because he was only using it for a cattle pond from what I have been told.