Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Pond Structure

Welcome Sara, like Brettski, I just turned green. I'm not a pro, but that's never stopped me.

The first step would be to do some thinking about some detailed goals for the pond/lake. If you don't know where you're going, almost any road will take you there. But, you might not like the destination. An 18 acre Hill Country lake ought to be done right.

The general rule of thumb is that structure should be placed no deeper than 10 ft. However, consider that Texas water holes can vary in depth according to rain.

The biggest consideration is the shape and depth of the impoundment. Have you done any contouring? If not, is it too late? The old saying is that 90% of the fish will always live in 10% of the water. However, I think that can be vastly improved; depending on construction of fish highways and natural attractants. Humps, ridges, dropoffs, dozed out ditches, rock piles etc. will draw and hold fish. Shallow brush piles are needed for small fish to hide and grow. Bass like fluffy stuff to orient on.

Be very careful of vegetation. This stuff can get invasive. I would look for a pro, in your area. Ask for references and go look over their work.

Stocking can be done when you have dependable water depth and water quality. What you stock will be dependent on your goals.

Who you use to stock it can also be important. There are some really good Pro's to check with. However, like all professions, there are some shady characters to stay away from. If you do some research here, you will run into some good ones. Ask some of the guys here about their experience with certain "pro's".

Bob Lusk, Harrel Arms, Todd Overton, Trent Lewis, Kenneth Henneke and Malcolm Johnson all have good reputations. All of these guys can do the whole thing for you. Be very careful.

My normal advice is to subscribe to Pond Boss mag. That will be the least expensive and most rewarding step in the process. Take a look at the advertisers. Lusk doesn't accept advertising dollars from scam artists. The best book I have found is "Raising Trophy Bass" by Lusk. I've bought three of them, loaned them out and not gotten them back. Take a look for back issues listed in the Mag that interest you and order them. You can get a quicker education there than anyplace I know of.

Oh yeah, keep your checkbook handy.