Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Newbie with a mud puddle

Hello all. First, fantastic site! I kept seeing PondBoss come up in Google searches and now it's the first place I go to for information.

Second, I recently bought property with a nasty little cattail choked, mud puddle on it. The way I see it, I need to either fill it in or put a lot of effort into fixing it. Since I hate the idea of paying someone to fill it in (and don't have the $), I'd rather work on what I've got. In a perfect world, I'd like a low maintenance fishing hole that I could get the occasional meal out of and that wildlife would use (ie. the gigantic whitetail that start bounding through my dreams every Sept.)

Here are the details:

- It's kidney shaped and depending on my clicking accuracy, Google Planimeter says .07 to .08 acres.

- It was excavated on nearly level ground with little runoff (drainage ditches that predate the pond are within 75 yards on two sides).

- Cattails or the remnants thereof cover at least 50% of the original area. Due to other brushy growth, the pond is only accessible in a handful of places around the perimeter.

- Currently, it's down 2-3 feet. We've been below averages for rainfall the past two months but this spring was the wettest that most can remember.

- Judging by the exposed slopes the maximum depth is probably around 6' but the majority is 4' or less.

- Current inhabitants include frogs and goldfish. The poor goldfish were huddled in one little pocket and barely moving last night (at least a dozen of 'em). I'd much rather see them get eaten by a big bass than rot but I don't have the heart to subject a real fish to such conditions.

Before I moved in this past week, I had thought about tripling or quadrupling the size a little bit at a time using whatever equipment I could beg, borrow or tactically acquire. After seeing the pond's current state and the drop in water level, I'm having second thoughts. Any advice would be more than welcome.

I know everyone loves pictures so I'll try to post a couple later this week. The cable guy has to pay me a visit first though.

Welcome to the PB forum Manris, glad to see another upstater. What area are you in, I live near Northville in the Adirondacks.
Is the pond tied to the ground water level or just supplied by runoff, sometimes it helps to check around in your area for other ponds and talk to the owners about conditions that they encounter.
Since your pond is small you could get someone with a backhoe or excavator to dig out alot of the muck and deepen it as much as possible. You can also save money by hiring heavy equipment to do the job in late fall or early winter, many of them lower their rates in the slow season. My pond was done in Nov. and cost me half as much as it would have in the summer.

Right now if you have a small boat try to get accurate depth measurements of the pond and get an idea of how deep the muck is.
Most of the time money is the biggest factor in what you can do to improve the pond but if you really want a pond make a plan and take it one step at a time.

Remember there are plenty of people on the forum that will give you experienced advice with almost any problem.

P.S. Don't say anything bad about green sunfish, we have a small cult following on here.

AP, the greenie worshippers are on the Left Coast. I wouldn't worry about them. They'll be mad at me in a few days. I'll be tending a Fyke Net in a pond, and targeting the little green 'turds.

Thanks for the welcome AP. I'm between Rochester and Syracuse, about 2.5 miles south of Lake Ontario. I did vacation in Inlet over the 4th though.

A boat might be a bit much... an inner tube might work well though. Maybe some orange floaties?

My best guess is the pond is tied to ground water. According to the soil survey and what I can see, I have Lockport or Brockport silty clay loam. I know there's a good deal of clay 'cause it nearly put me on my keister when I tried to wade in. Anyway, if there was a spring I would think the water level would stay higher. As for runoff, there are drainage ditches on three sides (two quite close) and little to no slope on the surrounding land. I don't know much, but IMHO it's a pretty poor site for a pond.

Oh, one question that I haven't seen an answer to is, do you need to compact "good" soil if it's a virgin excavation?

One thing that has me concerned is the fact that the survey mentions slate bedrock at 20 to 40 inches. Am I right to be concerned? Is digging a hole the easiest way to figure out how deep bedrock is? By the time I have a hole that deep, it'll probably be wide enough to double the size of my pond!

Lastly, what kind of impact will removing the encircling vegetation have? I would think that all those cattails and saplings are sucking up a ton of water. Am I correct in that assumption?

P.S. GSF are awesome when they're not in MY pond!

We are not a cult, we are a militia.

We shall no longer tolerate all of these slanderous remarks toward our beloved fish.

In retaliation we have dispatched our newest attack hardware.

Depending upon the number of hills and the number of pit stops required we estimate that our attack should begin by somewhere around August 8th. Give or take several days.

Another alternative on your water is to consider it a duck-pond/wetland. Whitetails will use it more than a pond (I have both on my place). I would try to wipe out the cattails and start with some less invasive emergent plants. A water-safe glyphosate treatment may be your only reasonable course of action. I would also wipe out the fish to rid the pond of the little carp (goldfish). I have a bit larger shallow pond (maybe 1/2 acre) that has a hole less than 5' deep but is mostly less than 3' deep. It also drops a couple feet during the summer. To my surprise, I pulled a bunch of nice BG and warmouth bass out of it this spring along with a good size LMB. They should not be surviving in there but I guess nobody told them to die. Anyway, there are some attractive plants that you could add and get established before letting the cattails move back in to fill in the rest.

Yeah it would probably be a good idea to dig a test hole to see what you've got under you, it's another reason to check with local pond owners to see what they have.

In a small shallow pond I'll bet that vegetation will make a big difference when it's hot.

Ponds can be great fun and a real asset, but like many good things it's never easy. (unless you have a spare million bucks)