Hello all, long time lurker, infrequent poster here.

So we just purchased a 185 acre farm in East central KY. We were very excited about fishing as it has 1/2 mile of KY river frontage and 5 ponds, one being 2.5 acres. It turns out livestock has had access to the ponds and the 2.5 acre pond is only about 4 ft deep at the deepest. I am told the fishing in the pond was great, not buy owner, but by people who had permission to fish. I have fished a total of about 10 hours, without a single bite. All conditions, all types of bait. Fished for bass, bluegill, and cat. i have seen one carp. Also see fingerlings breaching every so often. I believe the river breached the dam at some point this spring. Is it possible the fish absconded? All of them? I had a pond built and stocked at our last farm, and after 3-5 yrs were catching 5# bass. I have been pond fishing all my life in the south, Im 46.

I want to reclaim this pond, but where to start? How do you find a pond builder that isnt just somebody with a bulldozer?
I tried the extension but they were no help really.

I know what I want, just unsure of the best way to get there.

All advice and suggestions welcome.

Welcome to the forum
Sounds like you need to get Bob Lusk involved.
If the dam was breached by high water it surely is possible that a lot of fish went with it. My question is, can you raise the level around it to keep your fish in if that is even feasible......

Spurdie,

I am in the southeast corner of KY and not found a lot of true pond builders in this part of the state. Check with your local NRCS they should be able to help more than the extension office. Check out www.grayconstruction.net they are in middle TN, but will travel some into KY (unfortunately not as far east as me). I am in no way a pond expert, but this sounds like a big renovation at 2.5 acres and only 4 feet deep, with the acreage you might want to consider a new build, especially if this is close enough to get river flooded.

Dustin

2.5 acres only 4 ft deep seems to me to be a prime candidate for winter kills. Agree on starting over.

You can drain it but need to understand that the junk on the bottom is generally the consistency of pudding. Getting it out is tough.

You could build a brand-new one twice the size for half the money of mucking the old one out. Surely there's another site on your 185 acres that would work and you can hunt ducks on the other one?

Wouldnt know how to go about involving Bob Lusk. The flood was a rare occurance, ie only happened once in 30 years. But I believe you could keep it from happening again.

I talked to gray construction last week, hoping they could at least point me in the right direction but no luck. As far as a new build, this is really the only spot that would work. Ill see if I can get a google earth pic.

Maybe because of the fact that they often fish there, and the fish becomes less. You should agree that outsiders do not do this thing there. You can make an agreement. It also happens that it is not the season for fishing, and it becomes much less because you need to wait until they multiply, and there will be more of them. Therefore, in order not to bother, I am engaged in cattle breeding on my farm, which I recently purchased. I can say that I like this business, unlike fishing, but everyone has their own, in principle, and fishing is something someone wants... I have a lot of friends who are fans of it.

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