The pond is almost exclusively fed by surface water via a seasonal (that is currently diverted so I have less of a water battle to fight). I have only seen this drainage go dry a month or two in the few years that I've owned the property. I expect there will be some ground water influence as well but that will probably be the minority. I base that thought on crude a test hole I dug a few years ago with a shovel. I went about 2-3' deep and a shovel blade wide, then let it sit for 15 minutes. When I came back, the water level was halfway up the blade on my shovel and seemed to be seeping in from the sides of the hole.

The vast majority of the water supply will be surface water via the seasonal drainage that I now have temporarily diverted around the pond. One scoop with the excavator will allow all of that water flow to go directly into the pond. Somewhere along the way I calculated that it will be about 3.8 million gallons at full pool, and I sincerely expect it will fill in less than a week, then start draining out the natural path of the seasonal drainage. That's a LOT of water turnover it seems to me. I collected a water bottle full to send to the university lab in Texas to be analyzed but haven't sent it yet.

I have considered the idea of a sediment pond upstream as well and could probably fit a 20-25' circle in the space I have without cutting down a bunch of trees. I am considering raising baitfish in it (common shiners and/or fatheads) and using them for bait as well as supplemental food for the fish. I'll need a cage of some sort to contain them.

The water flowing in is always clear (never cloudy), and ice tea colored. I haven't tested it with a Secchi disk yet but I will in the Spring. I suspect there may be some sediment in it that I can't see, so it's probably worth my time to have a place for it to collect and have easy access to dredge it out. Upstream is all woods so no need to worry about crop fields, fertilizer, etc.

I got about the first third of the pond dug before Spring last year, then deployed overseas for about six months. It filled in a few days and stayed full and overflowing via the natural seasonal drainage path the entire time I was gone. When I got back I was pleased to find that the shoreline weed growth was restricted to water 2' deep or less. I suspect that the tannin stained water is preventing sunlight penetration. I took a couple swims in it and was surprised at how cool the water was below about 2-3' deep. I thought that the darker color may absorb more sunlight causing the water to get warmer, but that didn't seem to happen. Maybe the water turnover rate is playing a big part in keeping it cool.

I was expecting a deep muck layer when I was wading and swimming but was happy to find that only 2-3" of the basin was soft. Deeper than that, it was completely dry. That's some dense clay!

My fishery will be SMB, YP and brook trout with bull frogs, calico crayfish, fathead minnows and common shiner as my forage. I found a shiner and a crayfish that found there way into it already, along with thousands of bullfrog tadpoles. I didn't take a temperature on the water this Summer when I was swimming in it unfortunately, but it seemed cool enough to support trout as long as I have adequate DO. I'll take any recommendations on a reliable DO meter that is also affordable.

esshup: I'm running about 200' of discharge hose. I suspect that since I'm pumping uphill about 15', I'm not getting the full 25k gallons/hr that my pumps are rated for but they are serving their purpose. Running six 6" diesel pumps at once sounds like draining the Mississippi River! That makes my water flow look like chump change! Hopefully they have much bigger digging and hauling capabilities than I have so they can tear into your project like a pit crew and get it done quickly. Burning that much diesel will get costly otherwise.

I sincerely appreciate the feedback from everyone. If I can help anyone else's project in any way, let me know and I'll be happy to share what I have learned after digging 0.9 ponds so far.

Tally at the end of the day today: 1214 dump truck loads of material moved in total, about 300 to go.