Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Construction of New Pond/Dam

Construction of New Pond/Dam
We have been working on the pond/dam for the past year, minus the wet months (mid Dec to May). I have used Pond Boss forums to find answers to many of the problems or questions I, being a pond construction newby, have had over the past year. I thought I would give something back to pond boss and I can think of no other way to do so than to post pictures of the progress.
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Clearing the center line of the dam in order to dig some test pits.
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The is the centerline of the dam one day after the 50 year flood in April 2009.
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We didn't start back to work until the first part of May 2010. We hauled all the dirt for front and back slope in less than two weeks. 48" pipe installation.
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WOW! That's going to be a nice BOW. I see that we are not the only ones watching from the sidelines. How long was the 'gator?

I gotta ask, how big/deep will it be, and what are your goals?

Nice pictures.

The gator was about 2 feet. The pond will be roughly 40 acres and average about 5 feet, no water less than 3 feet and at the dam about 8.5' in places we haven't dug clay. There will be holes that go as deep as 15' in some of the clay pits. My goals for now are to get the area that is what I call the rim grassed by summer's end, and hopefully have enough rain by Oct or Nov to have it full. We have 3,000 acre watershed so we have ample water. So much that we put in dual runarounds, one on each side of dam.

Wow indeed.

Did you have to have any permits to build your lake?

Yes. We had the appropriate US Army Corps of Engineers permit.

Incredible! Thank you so much for sharing these pics Jon! Keep 'em coming!

With that clay, it ought to do a good job of holding water.

This is a video of us coring the dam.

Since my last post we have finished the dam, run-arounds and installed some drainage pipe on the rim. We finished work about mid July and have been waiting on rain. Here in South Georgia we have received very little rain since finishing. The small creek that the pond is on has yet to start running. This creek will usually run from December to May if not longer. The pond has some areas that will be 3 to 4 feet deep that is covered in weeds. See picture 31 above where the green weeds are growing, just above and to the left of where the date is displayed. This is the area we are concerned about and it is about 9 acres. We were wondering if we should just leave the weeds, which are dead now, and let the water cover them, or remove them somehow. We have thought about bulldozing, mowing or burning them. We are trying to get some feedback from people on this forum that have had more experience than we have. Any suggestions or thoughts would be helpful. Thanks JonGA

Jon, a lot of posts on the topic of leaving weeds or removing them seem to say just leave them in place. They'll provide hiding places for young fish and great fishing as the food chain does its thing and the big guys hang out around the pockets and edges. What I am not certain about, though, is whether an area that large would be any cause for concern in terms of adding nutrients to the lake. However, given the size of your lake, it may all be relative.

Let's see what the others have to say.

By the way, congrats on the progress! That's going to be one heck of a place!