Pat W. is in the process of building a small forage pond that will support and eventually transition into his 5 acre pond up in Oakwood, TX.

A photo shot from the ponds edge looking back towards the soon to be forage pond.


A photo shot from the new forage pond area back towards the 5 acre pond.


A pretty smooth transition on to the dam.

Personally, I think it's pretty impressive that Pat accomplished this solely by himself and a front end loader. He's got much more patience than I have. I fished with Pat up there last June and it took a 4WD to get through that bad spot.
Charlie

A forage/grow-out pond IMO, is the most important addition to any pond/lake in existance..
Good job Pat!
George

Good luck with the grow out pond Pat. I want one also. I used my front end loader to move some dirt when clearing out a wildlife food plot, and came to realize, it take a lot of time and effort to move dirt around with the tractor's front end loader. Yours looks good based on the pics, so I hope it works as planned. Did u add valve gates to the piping in the pics?

Tracy

Tracy
You be right about its a lot of work moving
Dirt and hard digging clay to cover those 24" culverts. This is my spillway so I might lose all in the forage pond but I doubt it cause of lack of rain here. I will pump water into forage pond and see what happens. It's about 4' deep in solid clay so it should hold water.... I hope. Those pesky bass seem to eat up everything in sight so I can't afford another 1 K $
For bait so got to raise them myself

Looking good Pat!

Thanks Bill
Hope the forage area is deep enough... 4'
It's been a chore but fun! Wonder how many FHMs can pull out of there?

What are the dimensions of the pond? Are you growin out FHM, BG or what's the plan?

Do you plan on feeding the forage pond ? I figure you could raise more FHM that way, but the way those little dudes reproduce you may not have to.

Size isn't comepleted yet - depends how much clay for all the road and spillway needs, prob will be 50w X 75-100' long+-
Am planning on feeding

Mr W, wondered where ya been. This pretty well explains it.
Gotta laugh about what you Texas fellas think of as a forage pond. My big ol pond is 100x100 and I find keeping it in line is a chore.
I've been real tempted ta build a forage pond of about 20x20 but am just too cheap. No I don't have a loader.
Good ta have ya back, miss pickin at ya. (Bill D is too easy of a target).
Do ya have Spotfin shiners or Bluntnose minnows down there? Bill Cody introduced me to those and they are great little fish.

I believe I see a box blade on the tractor.

Love it Bob-O
It's only gonna wind up as big as the amount of clay needed to finish

DD1
That is a 6' box blade but haven't used it much till I raise the scarfers to not dig so much. Just learning to do all this road work.... Fun

I agree! You put in a lot of hard work Pat. Time to sit back with a cold Falstaff and add to that bottle reef yer building!

Ahhh Falstaff, originated and brewed in my hometown of Ft Wayne, In. My Social Studies teachers first job was at that brewery. Do ya think that had anything ta do with my social grace?