Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello from Georgia!

New guy from GA here!

In the last couple of years, I have been working on the pond on the families old farm. It is about 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 acres and ranges from about 3 to 13 feet in depth. Unlike so many farm ponds I have seen over the years, ours is not a big bowl in the ground. It actually has some humps, flats and ditches in it. It was dug in about 1975 or '76. It was drained around '85 or '86 and restocked with LM Bass, bluegill and channel cats and then pretty much forgotten.

I have been pretty much the only member of the family that has had anything to do with the pond. Until I did some bank clearing in the mid '90s, there was only a narrow footpath that reached the water. It was just wide enough to tote a canoe down. After clearing, there was about 150 feet of clear bank. Now there is about 75 feet. There would be more, but a real job and marriage got in the way!

Up until early this year, the pond was pretty much overrun with vegetation as it is VERY clear. In an effort to remedy the situation, I was told to treat the pond with Karmex. I now know this was a big no-no, but at the time I didn't know better. The good news is that it did get rid of the weeds and because we had good rainfall during the spring (I put it in at the end of february) there have been no fish killed that I have found. Regardless, I will not be using Karmex again.

Right now though, we are very short on rain. The pond is down 38 inches at present. In several places, the bottom of the pond is showing and I am in the process of installing a small dock and some stucture for the fish. So far, I have built a "tire stump", cut some medium size red maples along the shore into the water and I am building a "tripod stump" from 8 inch by 6 foot maple logs. I have gotten some ideas from here as well and may put some of them into effect in the near future.

Thanks for the forum and I hope I am able to contribute something helpful!

I though I would post some pictures of the pond full, as it is now, and some of the improvements I am doing.

Pond full:


Pond right now:



Some of the trees I cut:


Tire stump:


Dock in progress. Still have to add some bracing and put the treads on.:


Any questions or comments are welcome! I am trying to make this a place to relax, spend some time with my family and hopefully catch some nice fish. I know there are some nice bluegill and bass in the pond but the weeds have kept me from catching them. Heres one I caught last march. Almost 4 pounds:

Maybe some aeration would help the weed problems. As far as being down 38" that would not worry me. Some of us have ponds that are near dry or are down 7 or 8 feet.

Nice looking place. Are the tracks from hogs?

Not terribly concerned about the pond being down. It has been down this far before, albeit about 22 years ago. There is still about 8 feet of water in ditches that run just in front of and just behind the tire stump. Still almost 10 feet deep off the dam.

Thank you!

No hogs here yet. The tracks are from dogs. We have a lab mix, a goldie mix and a pit mix that love romping in the mud.

That is one of my next issues to tackle. There is muck up to mid-calf over much of the ponds bottom. I am on a bit of a budget, so it may take a while. I am a corrections officer and unfortunately do not get paid relative to the work I do! I have heard Aqua Clear will help, but I am open to other options. Any one have any ideas?

Hello Rugerdude from another Ga pond owner!

Our pond story is very similar to yours - our pond is a flooded timber area that had a dam built sometime many years ago. We can't find any records of who built it or when it was built. The land had gotten swallowed up by a subdivision and our 43 acre tracts of land were designated as "green space" so that the builder could put in more houses than he would have been allowed otherwise. Since most of this land was low and swampy, with the pond (that some locals have told us was a duck hunting pond originally), then that area was set aside.

We bought the land super-cheap because it can never be used for anything or have anything ever built on it.

We have about 4 acres at "normal" water levels but we are down more than 6' right now so we have less than an acre of surface area now. Most of our usual spawning areas have looked like hayfields for about 2 months or more. The fish seem fine though.

And, we're too broke to do anything that costs more than praying for rain! So, that's what we'll continue to do. Actually, we are going to have some digging done on credit sometime soon so we can have a bit more depth in an area that's about 1/2 acre - if we ever get any water again. That 1/2 acre isn't all we'd like to do but it's all our credit will allow and it's easy to get the machinery to it so, we'll take what we can get.

If you ever get to Athens, gimme a shout and I'll take you out to see whatever it is that we've got at the moment.

I have been doing a little more work at the pond and wanted to post a few new photos.

Finished bracing the dock, just need to add treads when funds allow.


Artificial stump. May put a christmas tree under it as well.


Cleared out a new road around to the dam to make clearing it off a little easier.


I'm planning to do some more work tomorrow. If I can get around to the far side (its a jungle over there!) I plan to set some pieces of old telephone pole into a sort of stump field and may put in some old granite rocks I came up with. Seems like there is always something to do, and deer season is in now so my time is a bit more limited!

How are you cutting the power poles? I tried it recently and ruined a chain and bar.

Yep, deer season can take it's toll on pond work.

I cut the poles with a chain saw. So far, the only time I have had any trouble was when I ran over a big ground line staple. Since then I thoroughly check the spot I am cutting and all has been well.

After a large ice storm a few years, the ice pulled down big double telephone poles. We used a chainsaw to cut them into 9' lengths to use for corner posts. They make one good corner post.

Hello i am newbie here.