Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Should I fill new pond before winter??

A friend "Basscrack" has recently finished a pond and we are wondering if we should fill it before winter. We are not even sure if it is sealed, it should be with hours of sheeps foot action, but it is very close to the water table as well.

I have heard that if you leave a pond dry over winter the soil freezes and cracks so when it comes time to fill in the spring it does not hold water. Is this true? Any experience or recomendations?

NEfish, I don't know where I heard that the expanding and contracting of the soil can cause it to lose its seal, but you could sheeps foot again next spring if it stays dry.

Were you going to pump from the creek or from a well?

True, the thing is I don't know if Basscrack is going to get the well dug this fall. If he does he will fill it for sure, but you are right that we can repack if he dosen't. He would like to find out asap if it is sealed so he can start the baitfish in the spring. I guess the real question is should he be kickin' it into gear to get the well in so he can fill this fall?

He might need to pump from creek and well. I don't think there is very much water in it now, let alone after this summer if we don't get anymore rain.

i may be coming out of left field here, but you cant know if a pond is sealed until it has water in it. all you can do is construct the pond with best management practices/techniques/resources available within your budget and be confident that you've done what it takes for the pond to hold water.

in our climate, if you let a pond dry, the shrinkage and swelling of pond bottom clay can produce fractures that will not heal, and will lose water. these fractures would need to be pulverized and re-compacted prior to re-filling.

Dave, thanks for the input, so what you would recommend is to fill asap to avoid re-compacting and more work in the spring?

NEfish, i'm gonna give you a safe reply here......all i would recommend is to review your pond construction steps, make your judgement that it should hold water, or that some additional tasks may need to be completed, and then fill er up.

if i had my own equipment, and werent in a hurry, i might wait and let whatever rains you might get between now and winter "test" the pond. if it held...great, if it didnt, i'd judge what I needed to do next spring and go from there.

if i to had hire a contractor back in next spring and escalate costs, that might influence me to try and fill before this winter.....

i went to a pond mgmt coarse once, covered a lot of topics...one that stuck in my brain was that a new pond should be allowed to fill, and go through a full season (year) to check integrity of everything before stocking. i've never seen that discussed here, and it probably only applies to certain (pond) situations......such as ponds built in marginal (pond) areas that are subject to seepage. just throwing that out for fodder.

Dave, sounds like a good plan to "test" the pond but with as dry as it is here we might have to create our own rain from a near by creek. But all in all sounds like that is the way to go late summer/early fall. I feel with the contractors that we had and a little work done by ourselves I am looking on the bright side and really think that the core trench and "sheep footing around" got the job done to satisfaction even with the deepest part of the pond being very close to the water table.

As far as next spring I do understand that you need to let a pond sit before throwing all of your fish in. We had planned on going with fatheads and maybe golden shiners next spring and then in 2008, after one year, introduce our desired sport species. The thought was to fill it up this fall if possible, (if we get a well and a little bit of rain water) then wait until spring to add our baitfish.

Git er done. I think the sooner you fill (now that construction is done) the better chance you have of maintaining the seal. Like Dave said, any cracks and or fissures (read: freezing and thawing) only increase the likelihood of leakage.

NEfish, when I dug mine I had nothing but sand and gravel. I had to line it with clay. At the time (I didn't have Pond Boss to turn to) it seemed logical to fill the pond as soon as possible. Knowing the way clay will crack and hearing horror stories from others who have waited to have them fill on their own, I invested in a gas powered trash pump ($325)so I could pump from the creek that borders our property. If you don't have a creek or stream nearby, and assuming the water table is not too deep you could put in a 2" well rather easy. When I put mine in I rented a demolition hammer and they had a special bit with a collar that fit over your well pipe. You use a "sacrificial nipple" because it will get chewed up. I used my pickup truck and stood in the bed and used a ratchet strap to secure the pipe while I let the jack hammer do the work. This beats the heck out of using a sledge hammer. I had a 25'of 2" pipe sunk in minutes! I connected a 1 1/2 hp sprinkler pump to mine. In my situation I don't have enough ground area to provide adequate run-off, so I use the well to top it off when the level sinks. This year we have had so much rain that it hasn't been a problem. To me it was worth the extra money and effort to get it filled quickly. Good luck!

I have no experience with this at all, but I have nothing else to do right now.

I would try to do what you can to shore up the sides with a sheepsfoot or whatever, and then go for it.

If one of the concerns is not wanting to spend the money for the well before knowing if the pond basin is sound, then maybe pumping from the creek is a lower cost option.

As far as any baitfish, I wouldn't wait until spring to stock them. Fatheads and Shiners are cheap for a few pounds. You could catch bluegill (from Bruce's ponds, since he'll be "away" for a while) and transplant them.

There's probably still some time left this year for baitfish like fatheads to spawn.

Thanks for the info guys. I had a conversation with Basscrack last night and it sounds like there is no water in the creek that we could pump out of to fill it up quick. He said the well won't cost a whole lot and it should soon get drilled.

Thanks for the input Waterloo. That sounds like an good way to reduce costs when the water table isn't far down-that is the same situation we have.