"On Gunny's Pond" - 01/17/07 08:47 PM
Or should I say "In".
I wanted to use my first post to thank everybody for being so knowledgable (opinionated?) about anything having to do with ponds that they've made me read threads through to their entirety. I studied Meadowlark's 9 page thread on crappie ponds for six hours! Thanks guys..... I think. I'm especially excited to find so many fellow "Texans" doing exactly what I plan to be doing.
Anyhow, to the point: I'm planning for retirement and am in the early stages but one of my goals is to have our very own crappie pond. I'll be enlisting Todd's help with this as we're possibly thinking about moving from our current location in Plano to the Centerville or Lufkin areas. I believe Lufkin might win for the mere fact that it has a MALL and I have a WIFE.
I took the time to make an initial drawing of the pond design I had in my head and incorporated some things I saw that Brettski and others of you did. I need help from some folks here please to let me know if what I'm doing will work.
I'm soliciting ideas on the trench, mounds, shelves and placement/type of structure. I certainly want to do a couple of Brettski trees cuz they look like fun! Do I need cribs? Should I put cinder block structures in because I'm dealing with crappies? Should I add footings and put a shoreline fishing pier in? I especially need thoughts on depth!!!! Any and all ideas are welcome.
My thoughts on the stock would be FHM first, establish a sustaining population, then black crappies (when?), then a dozen same sex HSB. I believe gambusia will establish their own population. I'm not a LMB nor a BG fan.
The dark blue is the main body of the pond and probably 2-3 acres. The gradual transition to the shallow end was hard to achieve with MS Paint so I just tried to explain it with depths. It's purpose is to be surrounded by oak trees, wader shallow and 3-5 acres of duck habitat cuz I'm also a part time duck hunter.
Again, I welcome any and all ideas! And if ewest chimes in, which I would certainly encourage, please limit your famous (or infamous) "links to other discussions" because I think I've read them all!!!! haha I also get so lost following links within links that I sometimes never make it back to the original thread. :p
If our plan comes to fruition like many of the members here have achieved, I plan on posting all updates to the design, selection of the 40 acre property, selection of the pond site, and then the pic's of all phases, if this is acceptable to the owners of this board.
Thanks a ton guys, Gunny
I wanted to use my first post to thank everybody for being so knowledgable (opinionated?) about anything having to do with ponds that they've made me read threads through to their entirety. I studied Meadowlark's 9 page thread on crappie ponds for six hours! Thanks guys..... I think. I'm especially excited to find so many fellow "Texans" doing exactly what I plan to be doing.
Anyhow, to the point: I'm planning for retirement and am in the early stages but one of my goals is to have our very own crappie pond. I'll be enlisting Todd's help with this as we're possibly thinking about moving from our current location in Plano to the Centerville or Lufkin areas. I believe Lufkin might win for the mere fact that it has a MALL and I have a WIFE.
I took the time to make an initial drawing of the pond design I had in my head and incorporated some things I saw that Brettski and others of you did. I need help from some folks here please to let me know if what I'm doing will work.
I'm soliciting ideas on the trench, mounds, shelves and placement/type of structure. I certainly want to do a couple of Brettski trees cuz they look like fun! Do I need cribs? Should I put cinder block structures in because I'm dealing with crappies? Should I add footings and put a shoreline fishing pier in? I especially need thoughts on depth!!!! Any and all ideas are welcome.
My thoughts on the stock would be FHM first, establish a sustaining population, then black crappies (when?), then a dozen same sex HSB. I believe gambusia will establish their own population. I'm not a LMB nor a BG fan.
The dark blue is the main body of the pond and probably 2-3 acres. The gradual transition to the shallow end was hard to achieve with MS Paint so I just tried to explain it with depths. It's purpose is to be surrounded by oak trees, wader shallow and 3-5 acres of duck habitat cuz I'm also a part time duck hunter.
Again, I welcome any and all ideas! And if ewest chimes in, which I would certainly encourage, please limit your famous (or infamous) "links to other discussions" because I think I've read them all!!!! haha I also get so lost following links within links that I sometimes never make it back to the original thread. :p
If our plan comes to fruition like many of the members here have achieved, I plan on posting all updates to the design, selection of the 40 acre property, selection of the pond site, and then the pic's of all phases, if this is acceptable to the owners of this board.
Thanks a ton guys, Gunny