Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? New Small Pond

I have a neighbor wanting a 50'x 100' pond. He is having somone looking at digging for him soon. Anyone with any advice to pass on concerning the construction of it for purpose of wildlife and fishing?

Hey, GSB, please direct your neighbor to the forum where he can read more than he can shake a stick at about those very subjects. The archives here are loaded with info about wildlife ponds and small ponds in general. Getting meaningful input depends a lot on his goals and resources, so it's kind of tough to give general advice without perhaps being way off the mark of what he's looking for. See if you can get him on board here or at least get some specific ideas from him, then we can work with those.

More specifically, looking for info on tiering, points, shallow ares, etc, for initial layout of the pond.

GSB, there are a few threads in the archives that go into that.

I made a few shallow shelves or areas for spawing areas in my pond, one in the South West corner, and another in the North East corner. The BG seem to prefer the South shore for spawning despite my best intentions.

Definitely check the archives as esshup suggested. These are important considerations and it's great that your neighbor has the ability to plan them out in advance. Structure like these things is key to fish being happy and having a variety of places to do their fish thing. Ridges, points, benches, etc. all provide them a topography that will suit their various needs, so dig into the archives on structure. There's a great post that someone put up, and I should probably know who, that goes into tremendous detail on the differences in structure versus habitat and how to use each to the best advantage. Maybe someone will remember that and provide a link to it - it was a multi-part post as I recall and had maybe been authored by someone outside of the PB family.

Todd, that article is one of the ones in the archives. It might be buried in another thread as a link.

Yeah, Scott, I think that I might have seen it via a link in another post. I suspect it's right up the alley on this question, don't you?

I know it's there, I'll look for it in a bit.

I looked around and found a few of what I was looking for...so much to sift through.
He'll probably just end up putting a good blend of shelves, slopes, and be as creative as the dozer/excavator operator can be. Cover will be added at several locations.

PS: check with a local landfill for broken cement culverts for good cover; that's where I got some for my pond. They would have given me as many as they had.

good point gsb i have also got them from county road maintenance and at the fab shops where they cracked them and couldnt sell them i have even got manholes that were just cracked

Dang it, I looked for the past hour or so 'till my eyes are beat and I can't find it.

That's only .11 acres, an extremely small pond. How deep will it be, and exactly what are your neighbor's intended uses?

As everyone else has said, I would suggest reading the forums for more information. I think you will find with such a small pond it is suggested that stocking be kept to minnows and species that will not reproduce (or with very controlled reproduction). Aeration + feeding would help your neighbor get the most out of this BOW.

From what I've read on this forum, it sounds as if the way to go for sport-fishing in a small pond is aeration, feeding, and Hybrid Striped Bass/Hybrid Bluegill. But I only have experience with Largemouth Bass/Common Bluegill ponds, so what do I know?

He'll try for 12-14' deepest if possible. Primary use is fishing and wildlife (& pet ducks). If he sticks with BG only, I can easily cull a few CCats and LMB from mine to toss in. It's hard enough for me to manage the fish ratio in my 3/4 acre pond.

My eyes bleeding also from reading forums........