Hi, I am new here and have a question. I have built my dam and want to keep muskrats out of it. I was thinking of facing it at the waterline with chain link fence, but concerned that the holes might be too big and they could still get through. Any help would be appreciated.

I've used chain link to deter muskrats. Negative is - it will decay after about 20 yrs depending on water sediment chemistry which can be anoxic and corrosive. When not installed very flat against the bottom pond contour rats can find a spot where fence has an uplifted pucker and do their digging - make sure the fence lies very flat or stake it down. It is hard to see uplifts under water. New pond not much of a problem with seeing uplifts. During drought the water level can go down far enough that the rats will be able to dig in below the bottom line or edge of fence. I had one rat dig its entry hole in 5 ft of water when stone went down 3ft deep - unbelievable to me. For my new pond - I rip raped down to at least 6 ft deep which was about 12-15ft bottom length and that so far has worked well.

I heard about doing that too, was curious how it would work, even thought of putting several inches of soil over it, my biggest fear was of after a few years of rusting it would be horrible for some body to try to wade into the water in bare ft.