Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New forum member with Adirondack Pond

Hi All - Great site and advice I've gotten so far...So an introduction....I have 72 acres that had an old hand made (I assume) concrete dam that silted in over the years and was more of a marsh (it's located about 200 yards from the house). I recently had it excavated to about 4 ft max depth. But I have plans of repairing the dam (which leaks) and deepening it further with the ultimate goal of stocking trout and attracting deer.

Size: approximately 25 yards by 20 yards (about .10 acre), but I want to put my range finder on it to confirm
Water Source: cold natural spring out of the side of mountain (always flows), rain runoff, snow melt...so good clean water and I'm at the 'start of the source' which eventually flows into another pond down the road and then into a lake.

Upcoming projects include the following:
-Repair dam: during dry period in summer rent trash pump to drain down the pond; expose dam; repair leaks in concrete with hydraulic cement; place pond liner on upstream side of dam; replace 'muck' in front of and behind dam (dam also has a spillway shaped into the middle of the dam
-Deepen Pond: I'd like to get at least a third of the area of pond (at the upstream side furthest from the dam at 8-10 feet
-Stock Trout: thinking 10-20 each of 10" Rainbows, 10" Brown, 10" Brook
-Stock Forage: 2 lbs Fatheads, 2 lbs Shiners
-Buy Feeder: may as well go for the best (Texas Hunter...is that overkill for this small pond?)
-Grade and plant: grade the 'muck' (which is very fertile) that came out of the old pond and plant Ladino Clover to attract deer and turkeys

I've already had some of my questions answered in earlier threads....So only one basic question....Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks for the great information on this forum....

Sounds like a plan to me. Considering Adirondack Pond is in your area he'd be the best one to advise you.

Welcome to the forum!

Muck from a pond bottom is very fertile for aquatic plants, often not so much for terrestrial plants.

Do you have clay in the area of your pond? If so, you may want to consider buildin a conventional earthen dam and removing the concrete. The final expense may even be lower. Concrete dams are exceedingly difficult to maintain.

It sounds like a cool and very do-able plan you have, You could also bump up the trout numbers considerably since you are using a feeder, and have a constant flow through. Yellow perch might be a nice addition for a great table fare and forage as well.

Rich, sounds like you have a plan and lots of work to do, but getting your pond to where you want it is a fun and rewarding project.

I would add to keep in mind the possibility of adding a small aerator, it would be helpful to maintain an opening incase your inflow is insufficient during severe cold spells, and can be used to aerate in shallow water in the summer at night if water temps start to get too warm for the trout.
When you get minnows try to get large adults so they might spawn, and provide some structure in shallow water. If your going to put the trout in soon after the minnows it wouldn't hurt to go heavier on the minnows.

Let's hope for an early spring, I'm ready.

Thanks for the welcome and input everyone. Yes I'm looking forward to a lot of 'puttering' and work on this pond. I've always had a vision of making it a pond again and step 1 is complete

adirondack pond...so far so good on the flow maintaining an opening. When you say 'go heavier' on the minnows are you thinking more like 3-4 lbs of each (shiners and minnows)?

Yeah, FHM & GSH don't cost much, so getting extra would give you a better chance they'll take hold even with your trout population. Having a feeder will help their survival too.
Any left over pellets in my pond look motorized from the little GSH hitting them.

RT,

It sounds like you've got a very good starting plan. No plan will ever be perfect, but yours is a solid starting place. As time passes, you will probably have to make some corrections, but . . .

We welcome you here. Please take lots of pictures. Please keep us informed of what you are doing. Posting/publishing your successes and failures will help the whole community.

Good luck,
Ken

catmandoo....I'll do that. Think it would be best to just keep reviving this thread as things progress and I have photos to prove it?

I'll try to kick things off with a current picture as soon as I can get to it.

Well it's been a while so I figured it's time to show you all how my plan has turned out (see original post above). The end result is that I now have a .10 acre pond with 10"-14" brookies, browns and rainbows in it and the dam is holding water. I've tried to show the chronology of how I got to where I am today (a little over a year).

1) This is what the site looked like with the old pond all silted in and grown over (the area to the right). You can see along the left the old concrete dam that the kids are standing on:


2) Another view looking out toward the upstream side of the site off of the dam. There was a fair amount of cutting to be done around the perimeter before getting the excavator in:


3) Here is a trailcam photo of the excavator that dug out the pond. This was taken the second time he came back to attempt to deepen it and grade around the pond better. He spent 2 days digging it out originally and about a day and a half sprucing it up and putting big boulders on the downstream side against the old dam:


4) This is what it looked like right after the initial excavation:


5) Another view showing the old concrete dam running along the left:


6) Water going over the spillway for the first time in god knows how many decades:


7) This dam wouldn't hold water because of the many leaks that we tried unsuccessfully to patch with bentonite and hydraulic cement. Finally found the antidote....3 11x14' pond liners placed upstream (and over the edge of the dam) and then covered in about 20000 pounds of stone and rocks. This effectively compressed the muck on the upstream side of the dam and provides a water tight seal close to the dam. I'm sure it still leaks some, but it's had a steady and healthy flow over the spillway for months since completing the stone and rubber work. Here is a photo showing work in progress on laying rubber and stone over the spillway area:


8) I witnessed one of the largest short periods of rain I've ever seen and this shows the water flowing not only over the spillway, but also over the dam itself. The rubber seems to provide good protection. Afterwards everything was fine:


9) Here are my adventurous kids wading in at the inlet area....cold! During the summer I stocked a couple of batches of minnows. We also caught some 6-8" brookies and threw them in, but they were promptly eaten by predators. I now have a gator and blue heron decoy and will be rolling in an old piece of culvert for cover in addition to the evergreen trees:


10) Here is the most recent photo showing a cedar walkway that is now running along the length of the dam. I had a friend of mine build this. It will add some protection to the pond liner. This coming spring I plan on stacking rocks on either side of it to complete it:


I had Avery's Hatchery deliver 10 each of 12-14" browns, brookies and rainbows this fall and have been hand feeding them until the ice started covering them. They seem to be doing well and the inlet and spillway should not freeze over as there is pretty good flow. The true test will be if these beauties make it through the winter.

Well that's how it's gone so far. I'm addicted to this project and feel pretty good about how much we've done on it in a little over a year. (This is the second ice over) It was initially mucked out and excavated in November of 2010. Come spring I'll update with some fish pics and the completed walkway and rock cover over the dam.

rt, pond looks great, now you have to keep feeding your addiction, this winter has been mild so far so hopefully your trout will have enough O2. Good Luck

Looking great!