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I have a couple of questions about this pond, but let me give some info about the pond first... I'm considering buying some acreage in the upstate of South Carolina that this pond is on. My guess is that the pond is around 1 acre in size. I also checked the depth from various places in the pond and the depth ranges from 13ft deep on the end where the damn is, to 7.5ft deep in the shallow end, with most of the depth being 11ft to 13ft deep. The shape of the pond is long and more narrow. At the widest end (the deep end) I could come pretty close to casting close to the bank on the other side if i had a big crank bait on the line that weighed a lot, thus being able to cast very far. I do know the pond has been there at least since the early 1950's, it was drained and re-stocked in 1987 with largemouth bass and brim, the water is very clear with the bottom being very clean with no muck and it also has some nice smaller sized lily pads in a couple of places. I dropped an anchor it various places down to the bottom and not once did i bring up any muck, dirt or anything on the anchor. I can see fish when walking along the edge of the bank and they top the water in the evenings. A gentleman that lives across the street from the property says he knows there are big bass in there, because his grandson has caught some big ones the 2 or 3 times he has fished it, but I don't know that I can trust fish stories.



My questions are...

- Can a pond that's 1 acre and is not any deeper then 15ft grow really big largemouth bass or any really big fish for that matter?

- Should I be concerned about the shape of the pond and how it's as narrow as it is?



Below is a link where you can view a few pictures of the pond. You can see some of the small lily pads in one of the pictures and another picture shows how clear the water is where a tree has fallen into the pond.

http://picasaweb.google.com/thatwebsitegirl/Pond?feat=directlink#

The quality of the pond is what will cause us to buy the acerage, so thanks for any and all feedback you can give. I grew up as a kid fishing in ponds and would love to own a good place of my own that I could manage.

Thanks!!

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Narrow doesn't bother me much. And, one acre can grow a couple of really big fish but not many.

If you're looking for a trophy bass fishery with lots of huge bass, you will need to look for a bigger water hole.

The NORMAL balanced pond can support about 100 pounds of predators. Remember that predators includes most fish without respect to size. It takes 10 pounds of forage, usually bluegill, for a bass to gain one pound. The best forage/prey for bass is 1/4 to 1/3 their size. So, the limiting factor isn't the size of the pond as it is the opportunity for it to keep generating forage of the appropriate size(s) for the bass to keep growing without expending too much energy.

All of those factors considered, a one acre pond can be a great fishing hole that creates some really enjoyable family fishing. However, due to the constraints listed above, it will seldom produce real wall hangers.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Yeah, as it always does come down to on this forum, it all depends on exactly what you want.

On an aesthetic note, that pond looks beautiful to me.

I'm just a noob though, wait for more experts who can better help you.


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Nice looking pond. I agree with Dave. Can the pond be extened in the future? Also big is a realtive term, depending on the location and the person. A 5lb bass in up north is big where as a 5 lb bass in S.Texas is good. Same holds true for the individual.

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The pond sits in the middle of a 30 acre plat of land that is located in the far northern part of Greenville, SC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns. Only about a 50min drive from Asheville, NC. The pond sits in-between 2 big hills, with the dam end being the only part where the ground does not rise up from the water level of the pond. I don't know much about building a pond, but I feel certain the shallow end could be dug out to make the pond bigger/deeper in that area. I'm sure if the pond was drained it could be dug out deeper in the deep end too...I guess. A stream feeds the pond, with water pouring out of the overflow pipe all 3 times we've looked at the property.

Is it possible to raise the level of the dam in order to make the the pond bigger/deeper?

Thanks to all who will respond with their thoughts & opinions!

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Anything is possible with money... All depends on what your budget is! Very nice looking property though. I am a fan of starting from scratch so I get just what I want.

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What I want from the pond is to be able to manage it and grow some big fish. I love to catch big Largemouth Bass & bigger then hand size Bluegill, so I would not be too happy if in a few years my biggest Bass were 2 or 3 pounds. I'm not saying I need to be able to grow a bunch of Bass in the 8 to 12 pound range, but being able to catch 5 to 8 pound bass is what I'm looking for. Catch and let them go back home, so I can catch them again one day.

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IF you want to catch good numbers of 5- 8 lb bass you need a bigger pond. If you want to catch a few that size and good many 2-4 lb bass that is doable in this pond.


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I agree with most everything that has been said above, with the exception of the opinion expressed that huge bass can't be grown in small water.

Years ago I used to work with a very narrow pond that could be cast across in most places along its length; I would be amazed if it were an acre total, though it was probably a tenth of a mile long at least. It may have been an acre...But it had some HUGE bass in it. That's the only body of water I ever fished in which I had more bass break me off than I landed; I'd go so far as to say it was the norm rather than the exception. It was an old phosphate pit, had been stocked more than sixty years prior by TVA after they finished mining the area; the first time I ever fished it I caught ten to fifteen (this was twenty-two years ago) bluegill that would have averaged 12 ounces or better. And almost every time I fished it for bass, it was an exercise in heartbreak; the pond was full of wood, mostly trees that grew in the water but also a good bit of fallen timber; I would throw a plastic worm around some of that cover in the deeper portion of the pond (which was only around six feet, perhaps eight in a couple spots), get a hit, hook a fish that made a washtub-sized boil or two, the fish would strip off line and hang me up, snap the line and leave me wondering just how big a bass can get in TN, and why I wasn't using heavier than fourteen-pound test. This happened numerous times in several different spots in the pond.

Greg is right in that you can't grow as many large fish in a smaller body of water; that's true with any species; there's just less total oxygen, less total plankton, less total invertebrates to feed the bluegill, less carrying capacity. But you can grow a few bass to monster size.

If you have the capability to enlarge the pond, you can always, always do more with a bigger pond than a smaller one. But don't go deeper; unless you install an aeration system, the deeper water won't be used by the fish for much of the year due to the thermocline, and can actually cause a fish kill if the pond turns over. The way to expand is outward, not downward. Inundate new ground and you directly increase the carrying capacity of the pond.

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To calrify yes you can grow a 12 lb bass in a 1/4 acre pond but doubt you will have mnay others to go with it. My point is if you want good numbers of large bass to catch that is tough on smaller waters I don;t care what you do.

Walt also one thing to note is a one acre phosphate pit might having the carrying capacity of a 10 acre pond.


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Yes, Greg, I did think of that after reading Eric's post about phosphate pits in FL carrying 3000 pounds unfertilized. And, as I noted in my last post, I agree with you in that smaller BOW always will produce fewer large fish than larger ones.

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Stock 1 bass in a 1 acre pond, I bet he'd grow awful big! I bet you could even maintain a self reproducing FHM population as well, no way he could eat them up!

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Drue: What type of dam is it? Earthen or other? If other, can you describe it?

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I asked THAT last question because nobody addressed one of Drue's questions which read: "Is it possible to raise the level of the dam in order to make the the pond bigger/deeper?"

I thought it might be useful to have some of the dam details. (lol)

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I'm not 100% what an Earthen dam is, but I would explain the dam as this...The pond sits in-between two big natural hills in the blue ridge mtns and it looks like in the dam end of the pond was man made. It looks like they moved the dirt to make the dam, because on the other side of the dam it drops way down with an overflow pipe sticking out with a lot of water flowing out that pipe that comes from the overflow of the pond. this water coming out of the pipe flows into the large creek that feeds the pond on the shallow end. It's like a large creek flowed in-between these 2 mtns, so they just built up a dirt dam to make a pond.

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Earthen means made of dirt/soil/loam or other mixes. Yes, raising the dam does increase the depth. However, just piling more dirt isn't as fool proof as it sounds. The new stuff works best if mixed with the present soil and WELL compacted.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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I have a similar pond in East Texas. Here is a photo



It was impounded in 1972 when a small ravine was dammed. It is therefore long and skinny. About 600 feet long and probably around 1.4 acres. Sides are pretty steep and deepest water is 13 to 15 feet in the middle. The pond sits in the midst of a pine/hardwood forest and the bottom and sides are strewn with downed timber.

It is spring fed by strong springs and the water is very clear.

I bought the pond only 3 years ago and it had fish in it. We have caught LMB and BG, so I know they are in the pond. We have tried to catch catfish to no avail, but the previous owner said he stocked catfish. (and we have not seen any either).

When I bought the property most of the LMB we caught were between 10" and 13", but caught a few that were 19" to 21". BG have been as big as 10-12". The bass were skinny and my consultant lso noted that the LNB could use a dose of new genetics. So he recommended that I stock 1000 CNBG in the 2" to 3" range. Because it was mid-summer, CNBG were hard to come by, but I ended up stocking 500 BG/RES (80%-20%) mix in June 2007. But they were only 1" to 3". To supplement this, we stocked 15 pounds of Tilapia that were 3" to 6".

My focus was getting the bass fatter. I added Tilapia the follow spring, but did not do so this year because the Tilapia apparently overwinter in my pond. Maybe it has to do with the spring water being warm enough. LMB are bigger and healthier looking that they were before but no 5 pounders caught. I can see some pretty good size ones cruising the shallows but its hard for me to know how big they are. My fish are hard to catch or else I am not a good fisherman. I have been considering a bow to get some of the now huge Tilapia. I have caught many hand-size blue gill as the Tilapia have seen to help the blue gill get better established--although I have a theory that the Tilapia can interfere with BG spawning.

I started a BG feeding program but the #%&&&!!# raccoons destroyed my cheap feeder. But I plan on starting it again next spring. I think that I can grow 4-5 pound bass. I just need to figure out how to catch them. (I have read all the posts about hook-shy bass and am starting to believe it).

I like catching the big blue gill on a fly rod and a 20" LMB on a 4 wt rod is all the fishing fun of a bigger fish on heavier tackle. I fish my for a Native Watercraft 14.5 Kayak because the brush around the sides is too much for me and it is sort of like fishing a river. I think a narrow pond has more "fishable" water because it has more shoreline per acre if water. don't know how scientific that conclusion is.

Bottom line, a pond like the one you describe can be very satisfying. (Although I did just make another post about making my pond bigger :))


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