Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond water level decline in North Texas

I was watching the Southwest Outdoors Report yesterday morninng. In Texas, the lake levels range from normal to 93 feet low with an average of probably 10 feet low. Lakes Travis and Meredith were some of the lowest being 93 and 51 feet low. In Oklahoma, the lake levels range from 2 feet high in Eastern Oklahoma to 28 feet low in the southwest part of the state.

The forecast for drought extends through at least 2012. By next summer I expect there will be lot of expensive boats on the market.

We're in no better shape in GA - our pond is down 6' and what used to be a 4+ acre pond is now less than an acre.

I'm right there with you in the "we-need-some-rain-right-now" club.

Jludwig, you called it right! The forecast is down to an inch or so…

The weekend came and went here and not a drop of water. Last Monday, they were upping the chances but by Tuesday it was gone from the forecast. Its very depressing.

This is very depressing. I watched a hefty storm pass within a 1/2 mile of me Thursday evening. I got less than 1/10" while my neighbor up the road got 2.25". I cant catch a break. I have been with very little rain since the summer of 2007. A bigger Tragedy for me is the loss of about 50-60 large Post Oak trees. The loss of the trees is partly my fault for not aggressively cutting the Cedar out. Every large Oak that is surrounded by Cedar is dead. The only up side is that I have been able to clean out the back pond which dried up.

This 23 acre oxbow lake held an average depth of 3.5' only 8 months ago. Now, it is necessary to treat the weeds growing on the exposed bottom to keep them from forming a jungle. Note the inset photo of the cracks in the lake's bottom (cap included for scale-reference).

I've mowed the bottom of our 3 acre pond twice already and it's time again.

The 7+" that was predicted is now down to .01" - so cruel...

My dentist is on Lake Fork and he says the water is a good forty feet from his dock.

Formerly a 100 acre x 4' deep levee-lake south of Houston. Water pump couldn't keep up with the evaporation-rate. The brown vegetation isn't from herbicide treatments. Turtles, gators and buzzards had a feast on the resident fish population as it went dry.

This is a short clip of our current state of affairs. The fish are still making it but the water is going fast. I have been cleaning out the dry areas of the pond with my small kubota and also removed some berms left by the big equipment when we extended the pond in the past and had a higher water level preventing the contractor from digging any further. Considering our 3 acre pond has to fill before this will get any water things aren't looking good for my pets.

You would think Houston would be the last place to be dry.

It's going to be a busy spring for fish stocking if it ever rains before then!

Rocky, Is the upper pond dry?

Not yet but it doesn't look much better than this one. We plan to move as many as we can to it first and harvest the smaller fish to eat. The upper pond would have been in a little better shape but we drained 18 inches off at full pool to put water in the lower pond. We only got one good rain last spring which filled the upper pond but did not get enough to over flow to fill the lower pond. If we had not drained the 18 inches off the lower pond would have been lost months ago.

I am in N.Texas and I noticed that a pond[3/4+ acre] I have with many lilies is much higher than others in the area due to evaporation protection. I was planning to cut them out but now it may be my best cattle water source.

Hey men for the Rain ponds are running round! Sorry Dave no fish fry now.

How did it end up raining Rocky? I know on radar I could see the storm went from Mexico up to Canada.

I got 4.5 inches. The problem is that it was mostly a farmers rain. It rained hard for about 20 minutes. Then it settled down to misting, sprinkling and light rain all night and this morning. Not much runoff. I caught about a foot of water. Still down about 9 ft.

Rocky, if we don't get a hard rain, you can come to my fish fry.

Ques: Is the pond half empty or half full?




Ans: It depends.

Just have to ask the man upstairs that question. I was still digging out the pond on Saturday 6pm. Water started running in around 7 am on Sunday. Both ponds are brim full this morning. Local farmer said we got around 6 inches. It was slow and steady with enough down pours to get water flowing.

I saw that rain going through Texas that's great news Rocky! Hope it helped some of you all out!

Rocky, got a pic of the lower pond? Upper looks good and I'm envious.