Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Pond Renovation

Ok, I'm finally getting ready to turn my mosquito breeding ground into a real functional pond. For starters the pond is approximately 60’ x 60’ and is approximately 5’ deep at the deepest point. I believe it is spring fed because it holds water at a pretty constant level all year round. It had a couple trees growing around the bank which I have cut down and removed. The bottom and sides have a lot of muck from leaves and such. The main issue I have with this pond is I believe it is leaching out and making the land in front of it wet constantly. My goal is to get this pond under control so I could stock with fish to help the mosquito problem. I have never done anything with a pond before so I need help. I am I have a 40 horse JD Tractor and backhoe which I hoping to do the work with.

DTD, Welcome. Its very nice to see pictures! Forgive me but when you said you have your own backhoe and tractor my thoughts went straight to:
1) I would make it bigger
2) I would make it at least 12 ft deep (fish need deeper water where it gets cold too)
3) It looks like you have lots of stumps to put back in when your done.
4) As soon as im done digging im tossin in lots of FHM/Gambusa minows in to start the forage base.

Now that im finished dreaming about your pond, whats your dream/intention? Just to keep the bug populations down or do you want to fish for certain types of fish turned to nuggets dipped in_________(add your favorite dipping sauce)? Give us the full monty. Whats gonna happen with this pond 5 yrs down the road? Have you planned that far or even thought about it?

I agree, with a backhoe you could deepen and enlarge that pond so your fish would have a better chance of surviving the winter.
It looks like a nice site for a pond and after enlarging it stock with fatheads or golden shiners and they will take care of any skeeters and will start a good forage base for whatever species you decide to stock later.
If you monitor the pond the first year it will give you a better idea of the type of fish that it would support. A good water test kit and thermometer with temp. probe will give you the info you need and keeping a record of the tests will come in handy later on. A small aerator would be helpful in the future also.

PS. We're practically neighbors, my pond is in Big Moose but I live in Northville.