Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Spillway observations?

Whats in your spillway?

I have fished lots of ponds and lakes. Most of them the pond overflow goes to a small creek. But some of the bigger ones have a nice pool for the spillway. In these type ponds or lakes, I catch lots of nice fish in the spillway. Most of these fish had to come from the pond and not from the creek. I catch LMB, Chain Pickerel, BG and Crappies. Most of the overflow setups around here allow for fish to make it through the spill pipe. The ponds/lakes here always have the same water level, it does not fluctuate. But the flow can go from just a trickle to a tremendous flow after a major rain event.

Anyhow, do y'all try to prevent fish from leaving through the overflow, like with fencing or netting?

Do you try to recover fish from the spillway with traps or nets?

Can't answer your question but after building our pond I have wondered what was in the small creek behind the dam that the overflow tube goes into. Think I will wet a hook this summer to see.

Years (many years) ago my brothers would fish this little creek once in a while for green sunfish and bullheads, but mostly would seine it for minnows and small sunfish for bait. I remember one time them seining up a huge snapping turtle and them frantically trying to get it out without tearing up the seine. Money was not as free as it is today and a good seine cost good money and they did not want to buy a new one.

We had a huge rain event last spring with the pipe running full into this stream (and likely the bottom of the pipe covered with flood water - I was not there - just saw pictures of the pipe running full and covered up on the pond side). I wondered how many BG and FHM went into the creek.

Might see if there are any BG in there this summer, but likely they would have ended up much farther down stream in the main creek.

I've got a big square expanded metal screen to go over the concrete enclosed overflow pipe, just have not got it put on yet.

Hope no bullheads swam up against the current in the pipe and got into my pond.

I used to keep a grate on my overflow...I was mostly worried about the Grass Carp heading downstream, as is their nature around flowing water based on what I've read.

After the first time a major rain event occurred and I almost caused a spillway breach because the grate had clogged with debris I decided that losing a few (or even more than a few) fish during spring overflows was a much better option than losing the whole darn thing.

As such my culvert is wide open.

I have went down and looked at the pool of water below the spillway periodically after rain events...I've never seen anything larger than 2-3" fish in it up to now. That doesn't mean during high water I'm not losing larger fish that continue down the waterway but it still made me feel a bit better.

I've done some of my best bank fishing on the spillway overflows from larger lakes...it's a great spot to catch all sorts of fish, especially if it's somewhere not a lot of people know about/bother with.

Dlowrance, I know exactly what you mean. I have seen a small pond spillway get plugged by beavers and the level very quickly went right up over the bank and was gushing over the dam in a low spot at one corner. I'm certain lots of fish and forage went right over into the creek.

Just like you said, some ponds or lakes that I fish the first thing I do is fish the spillway. No one else is there, even when other people might be fishing the main pond/lake.

Maybe its just me, but when I spend lots of time and effort, and money, stocking a pond, I want to see whats going straight out the pipe.

"After the first time a major rain event occurred and I almost caused a spillway breach because the grate had clogged with debris I decided that losing a few (or even more than a few) fish during spring overflows was a much better option than losing the whole darn thing."

That is definitely a concern. In my case the cage I will put on has probably 8 times the surface area of the pipe opening. There are no trees around the pond also. I think it will be ok and if it does look like it could cause problems, will definitely take it back off. I also have an emergency spillway starting just above the top of the spillway pipe that is very wide and can handle a lot of water, with about 2' of dam freeboard above that. So even if the pipe plugs, I have 2' of dam to go over with only about 10-15 acres watershed. So I think I'm pretty safe in my particular situation.

But you do bring up a valid point. Thanks.

Please note that the fish and game people have complete control over your pond if there is no grate over the spillway. They can come on to your property and do anything they want to your fish pond, because the water might end up in some public area and the fish might not be wanted. This is true but the only time it might come into play is if you have strange fish (non-indigenous) like Tilapia that could escape.

Loren, that's the first time I heard that. Can you copy/paste the regulation where you saw that? I don't have a grate on mine and I don't want Indiana DNR to have control over my pond.

Indiana might not be to bad but in the south (because of the so called invasive) it becomes apparent. I am certain there are regulations that add up to it but nothing they would not hide, I like to think of the F & G as like vampires. They have a regulation for everything accept their blood supply that takes priority.

Something doesn't add up here for me. A grate over the spillpipe? One that would prevent fry from escaping, in addition to adult fish? And still allow water to discharge without plugging up constantly?

Never heard of that, and I would be interested in reading the regs also.

Of course I would never stock a fish that the DNR considered invasive, or illegal in my state, in the first place. Sounds like a good way to land yourself in hot water.

The only reason for bringing this up is the fact that there are so many people out there doing the AQUAPONICS thing using Tilapia and the fish and game has not said a word about it. This is scarey because of the shear numbers involved and demand for the small fish to grow out. Most of the pond owners even in the south know absolutely nothing about this, and would be considered (fair game). A little Hot Water might be nice here in Indiana about now.

We installed two 4" PVC pipes in the dam, at water level. These pipes extend into the pond about 15 ft deep. Each PVC pipe has a 3' section on the deep end with dozens of 1" holes drilled, and the end of the pipes are capped. On the dry side, the pipes extend all the way to the bottom of the dam and discharge into the creek. These pipes easily handle the normal inflow into the 7-ac pond, and can be converted to siphon mode by closing off the "burp pipes" to pull the water level down when needed. Big rain events do exceed the capacity of the 4" PVC pipes, we have a concrete spillway for that. A series of rebar pieces at the spillway has been adequate to prevent grass carp from escaping. So far, we haven't had any trouble with the drilled PVC intakes plugging... although it seems inevitable eventually.

Grass carp are a great fish to have around. I know the guy that invented them as sterile plant eaters. The eggs will still hatch out though since it is the males that are effected and regular carp or KOI could easily take care of that. It sounds like a great setup to me, if things clog up then simply burp the ends to clear them.

Loren, you talking about Diploid or Triploid grass carp?

Yes, what other type is there?

So, you do know that all triploid are individually tested (blood test) and each one is certified sterile? Then the US F&W service randomally tests fish from each group. If one fish is found to br not triploid, then the whole group fails, and can't be certified triploid until all the fish in that group are re-tested. Many states require only certified triploid GC be stocked - no chance of them spawning and reproducing.

That's both sexes, not just females that are certified.

Diploid can spawn and are not sterile, triploid are sterile.

We have to apply for a TPWD permit here to purchase the GC. And, we have to install fish excluders to keep them from escaping into public waters. Fish excluders is a fancy term for hog wire.