Hello All...

Building a new home about 50 miles south of Houston.. New pond excavated to build up the house and shop pad.. Don't have the numbers yet on surface size. Depth is approx 12ft from grade / 14ft from top of levee.. Hard to see in the pics but the pond is kidney shaped and ~260' at its longest. Just finished the excavation and house pad this past week.. For scale, the kiddos in the bottom are 10yrs old and ~5ft tall..
Any and all words of wisdom are welcome.

The entire bowl of the pond is in heavy clay, no significant sand encountered in test holes or in excavation. popped another test hole in the bottom approx 5ft further down and only found clay..

I will be getting with the aeration sponsors here on the site shortly to discuss aeration requirements. Water will be from a dedicated well and run over a course of crushed limestone for aeration / alk prior to pond entry.

Havent decided on a stocking plan yet, but leaning towards CNBG and LMB. Built a 5ft x 20ft shelf along the back wall in what will be approx 5 ft of water that will receive a generous layer of pea gravel or crushed limestone for bedding.

Dock will likely be an arched bridge across the narrowest section.

All commentary and suggestions are welcome. It will likely be months before the well is punched and filling begins so I would love to have all of my necessities covered prior to filling..

JT

Nice looking pics and sounds like you have a good plan. Having recently refilled my BOW from a well, I suggest testing your well water and seeing what you have before you pump. If you are going to be keeping your level constant with the well water, it may be worth it to have whatever treatment that you deem needed in the well water flow rather than just at the exit point in the pond. That can save money later on down the road.

You will be asked: What is your goal for the pond? Big CNBG?, Trophy LMB? Balance?

Good luck and welcome!

John

Very good decision, and welcome aboard.

How will the pond drain?

Nice! And welcome to the forum!

Plan and place cover in the pond before it fills up. Much easier to do than doing it in the water.

Regarding drainage.. I have a few sections of 8" pipe that I'll place through the levee just above ground level before filling.. The pond does not collect drainage, it's only source of water will be the well + direct rain. The problem I am more concerned with is keeping flood water out.. The elevation is very low, I am actually building my home up over 7 feet.. With a very heavy rain in the area there is often 12-18" of water standing on the ground in this area.. I'll need some sort of screen to prevent fish loss, I expect the drain pipe will likely let in more water over the course of its life than it releases..

Floods were exactly what I thinking about. I know this hurricane season is projected to be light, but I might use the well water to help get some Bermuda established, especially on the dam. You could water the seed/sod with the well, and let the runoff fill the pond at the same time. Kind of a win, win.

Interesting scenario, keep us up to date on how this goes.

Great suggestion.

Agreed.. Great suggestion and thanks! I have a little dirt work to do (drag harrow to smooth the levee and property so it doesn't beat me to death mowing) before planting grass, but it is definitely going to be one of the very next steps..

For clarification there is no official "dam".. The topography around here is as flat as a pancake.. The pond is dug out and the levee is built up ~2ft from grade primarily to retain fish when the flood water rises..

Where at in south houston? I am south of houston as well. Working on revamping .25 acre pond in Hitchcock tx. The pics of the spot look great

I'm a little west of Angleton off Hwy 35.. Lemme know if I can help with your project in any way.. Would be nice to get a little south texas collaboration going!

We are in close proximity of one another. I am a little east of angelton not far off of fm 2004 and highway 6 intersection. Would be nice to get a south texas group going as those boys from the east get all the love

Not far at all! In the next couple of weeks I am going to be building some synthetic structure for the pond.. I'll holler at ya when it gets closer and we can build some for yours as well if ya need some.

Sounds good jtodd I would love to help

I am in Houston as well. My ponds are up in La Grange but still looking for pond advise and ideas all the time. I go by both of y'all all the time, fish out of both Galveston and Freeport most every other week. Looks like a great pond plus you have a fish farm close by.

Rob C

JT, been thinking about this. How are you planning to keep your stocking under control with the flooding? Keeping fish out/in could be a huge issue. Maybe somebody else that's experienced this will chime in.

FirelsHot... Obviously this is a big concern for me.. I took the time to speak with all of the adjacent neighbors (some of which have been resident for 30+ years) on their experiences with the flood waters.. I then took that information and had a great conversation with one of the county superintendants that deal with roads and ditches.. He knew the area well and indicated that it is extremely rare (he has never seen it happen) that the flood waters rise enough to cover the road surfaces in the imeadiate area, which aligned with what I was told by the neighbors.. So I built my levees ~12" higher than the road surface..

My only real concern at this point is intrusion / escape through the overflow pipes, which I am hoping to manage in large part with some type of screen over the end of the pipes themselves. I want a screen with a big enough mesh that it doesnt clog with fine floating debris, but is weak enough structurally to collapse and be displaced if if does become clogged and develop even the slightest of head..

JT

Fishtruck how big are your ponds in la grange? Looking for advice on what to stock in my newly aquired pond its approximately a quarter acre. Work been making it tough to spend any time fishing but so far have only seen frogs crawfish and turles. In the next couple weeks ill get a break from work if you and jt are up for it maybe we can get together and see if the "never stocked" pond is indeed empty.

Here is the google shot. Old pic and pond is approximately three foot down in pic

I'm in! Just lemme know when... I few a few trips for work over the next couple of weeks but it's spotty..

I am hoping that I may have a well and power to run it within the month so I can start filling my hole in the ground.. At this point I am confident it will hold water.. 3 days ago we got a pretty good rain shower for about 20 minutes that put about 8 inches of water in the two deeper holes.. As far as I can tell it is all still there, cant even see any appreciable loss from evaporation.