Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Clay pit to pond, need advice

I am new to the forum and have very much enjoyed reading all of the information here. I haven’t been able to find what I’m looking for so I’ll go ahead and ask.

I purchased a property that has 4 acre woods with a .5 acre pit on the south end of it. The pit has to be over 100 years old and will completely fill with water in wet years and dry up in a drought. When full it holds about 4’ of water. I would like to clear the trees and brush away from the edges, with the exception of one neat old sycamore tree, and dig it down to about 10’ of average depth. It is surrounded by farm ground that we farm so I would control the nutrient load on the cropping acres and also plant a grass water way where it fills to reduce sediment entering the pond.

We have a quote for the project which I think it reasonable. My question is for $5-10k would it be worth it in the long run to add .2-.4 of an acre to the get the pond size closer to 1 acre? We would like to use the pond for fishing and swimming, probably would stick to LMB and BG, maybe some cats and RES. Trying to figure out from a maintenance and fish population standpoint what would be the easiest to maintain in the long run. Thanks!

Rod, here we need roughly 10 acres of watershed for a 1 ac pond.

I doubt it.

It is difficult to compact dry clay materials. Especially if your tree root hole is 6' deep.