Close to 1 Acre in size.
Only have 2 pictures right now, will add some more soon.
I made hand drawing of existing elevations and dimensions.

Glad to get any feedback!

hello fellow alabamian..i am curious what the source of your water supply will be? it looks kinda dry. keep the pics coming..

hey neighbor,

It does get dry here some, especially lately with state-wide burn restrictions. Water source will be rainwater from watershed. Your question reminded me of another picture I had:


I went into the woods (opposite side from house) about 600 feet where there was a terrace that routed water behind my pond site. I rerouted it so that it dumps water into the narrow end of the pond (just left of the water). If it's a hard enough rain it will flow for several days.

i didnt realize how much of a difference a small watershed could do until i built my pond. i have a 12" pipe in my pond, when we get a quick 1" rain my pond will jump 4" over full pool with the 12" pipe doing all it can do..my pond stays full luckily due to a small stream, but it was hard for me to imagine 1" of rain causing the pond to jump 4"....12" pipe of water leaving at the same time is a huge amount too...

How much watershed do you have? That will be critical in determing pond size. Also when it comes time for the pond construction I suggest diversfying the depths more to help satisfy the habitat needs for the species you plan to stock.

scott, glad your pond is doing so well. Mine is supposed to take a 8 inch riser pipe.

Greg, I have 2.25 acres that can contribute to the pond. Some of that is wooded. That doesn't include the wet weather creek in my picture. I have only tied into a half of it's potential and could get the rest with some work. Most of the time it's not flowing though.

I figure the pond will be 8/10 of an acre.

How does that sound to you? The state guy and the pond contractor felt like I had enough watershed, but they didn't measure it, like I did. They just went by eye.

Took some pictures today:

That is a 3:1 might be a little low on some years to keep it full for our part of the world. Usually 5-10:1. Doable though and I can tell your doing your homework. Good news is you will not need a huge outlet system to handle excessive water. What is plan on outlet, suggest siphon system (6")if you have enough fall on backside of dam. Couple with a good wide emergency spillway.

I like doable, gives me a shot at making it work.

Current plan is for 8" pvc riser pipe going down to a 'T' which incorporates a valve on one side and an exit 6" pipe out the other. This 'T' will be a few feet above pond bottom. I have a spot picked out for emergency spillway but may need to take down a few trees to get it wider. I don't know how wide it should be for this pond. The spot I have picked will run slightly downhill (I'm thinking for 30') then increase more downhill.

I'll need to read up on the siphon system, but contractor and I didn't discuss it. What is advantage? I guess dam slope will be 3:1 both sides. I'm thinking that's standard minimum, but it will depend on how much material we can accumulate from on site excavation. Might be tough to get that much out of existing grade.

I have couple of questions:

What would be a good bank slope if water level varies some years?

For my narrow end, what would be good shallow depth that wouldn't promote weed growth and help fish that like shallow areas. I'm thinking it would extend maybe 50 feet into pond then increase in depth. Am saying that without any research though.

3:1 is the steepest that I'd make it. 4:1 or 5:1 is even better. If the water level drops, you still want to be able to walk to the water's edge, or mow that area without worrying about sliding into the pond.



That all depends on the water clarity in the pond. If sunlight can get to the bottom (no matter what depth) then weeds will grow. If you can keep the clarity 18"-24" then a 36" depth would work fine.

That makes really good sense. thanks esshup.

Soil Test results are in:

Soil Group 1 = Sandy Soil
PH = 5.3

Extractable nutrients in pounds per acre
Phosphorus= 2
Potassium = 103
Magnesium = 120
Calcium = 412
Lime-Stone (recommendation)= 1.5 tons/acre

I am not surprised to see a low PH, but the soil group really confuses me. As advised by test lab, I took sample of clay which was obtained by digging a 24 inch hole in 3 areas to get to what seemed to me good clay. (I made some of it into baseball size balls and it's dried out and still a very solid ball). For the sample, I dried out the 'clay' and crushed it into smaller pieces then sent it in. It did not want to break up and I had to work at it to separate it. If I need to do another soil sample doing it differently, that will be no problem.

Anyone have an idea of how the Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium look for a fish pond?

Regarding lime, I'm thinking 4 tons for this .8 acre pond. The test said that up to 2 to 3 times the recommendation can be added for increased longevity without harming the fish.

Other than the soil test, I have now read 'Perfect Pond...Want One? and 'Water Weeds and Algae' (both of which I found well written and definitely enjoyed reading both), but that's the extent of progress made so far.

Look at these 2 links to learn more. Pond fertilizer will supplement the P & K (Phosphorus, Potassium) and N.

http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater/where/ponds/pondbook.pdf

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/CategoryDetails/whichcategory/25/

http://pdacrsp.oregonstate.edu/pubs/pondsoil.pdf
This might be a good read for you I think?

Great references guys, thanks.

Andedammen, That should be required reading for all (especially newbies like me). I couldn't stop reading it until I finished it. It really helped me get a better understanding of how different aspects tie together for a better fishing pond. I do have a couple of questions from reading it and will try to put them into form but will need to give it some thought first.

Really an awesome read, thanks.

I sure am glad that I was advised to take a soil sample, and I now plan on taking another sample once pond bottom is constructed.

Been busy but made good progress. We worked till 8pm several nights trying to shoot the gap on rain cycles. Here's some pics of the work done:

Looks good Zander.

How much freeboard do you have on the dam?

thanks Chris,

I have 2' of freeboard.

some other specs:

Top of dam 12 feet wide.
Core cut 14 wide and around 12 feet deep when hit rock shelf.
Depth at overflow riser pipe when full approx 12'
Depth at narrow point and around perimeter generally 5 feet.
Water in pic is about 30", has risen another foot yesterday.

Cleaned it up some by changing to attachments, sorry it took so long to figure it out. Couldn't find the first two, must have lost them.

Finally got the lime delivered, put in 4 tons.

Also tied in to a few more acres of watershed by diverting rainwater to mouth of pondsite. Waiting for some rain now.

Time for a monthly update

I spoke to Ted at ForeverGreen today. He was very helpful and easy to talk to. Looks like I'll be getting a Vertex system from him soon.