Originally Posted by smokey
TX Chris, Welcome to the forum. I am also from East Tx but a good way from you. My suggestion to you is if you have a small boat or know anyone that has one it wouldn't be hard to find out the depth of the ponds. Put a cheap depth finder on the trolling motor and you can tell the depth. I would suggest that you map your ponds on graph paper for future reference. There is also a backhoe that is called a long reach that can reach out and clean up or dig a hole for you.

The sellers left a small boat next to the big pond - it's maybe 10' but it floats. I'm going to take a paddle and a measuring reel with a weight soon so I can get some measurements in each pond.

I'm in the Civil industry and have a GPS field instrument so I'm planning to do a complete survey of the entire property to develop a contour map and tree survey that I'll be able to use for watershed studies and for placing the house we're planning to start in the next 12 months or less.