Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam New Member - New Pond

I've been reading this site and subscribing to PB mag for some time, but this is my first post. Thanks for all the good reading and info. I only hope I will one day be able to return the favors.

Started the new pond today. I'll post some pictures as it progresses.

Good Luck, Poseidon!

Congrats on the start of a fun journey.

Are all three of those dozer's? If so you are doing some serious work. How big will the pond be when you are through?

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. If you have done your homework on Pond Boss you will have good luck!

They look like track loaders.

They are all track loaders. Two track hoes and two Volvo off-road dumps arrived today. The pond will be about seven acres, with a depth of 6-12 feet. I hope to have some pictures by tomorrow.

Sorry it took so long to get the pictures up. I understand that a lot of progress was made yesterday. These pictures were taken two days ago.

Looks great, Poseiden. Tell us the plans with the pipe...looks like 8" bell & spigot?

No, it's 12". I have the creek diverted through 100' of it now. When the project is complete, I will cap it off forever. The rest of the pipe will be two 12" siphons. I have 320 acres of watershed.

Do you have anestimate on the cost? If it's to high, or embarassing, we understand, but if you don't mind sharingwhat a 7 acre pond costs way down south in Dixie, it would be helpful.

If nothing else, what are the hourly rates of the equipment?

Also, how high is the dam? How deep will the pond be? Leaving any structure?

Congrats.

Good luck and great looking clay!

I don't know what your average rain events are like in your area, but in my neck of the woods 2 12 inch pipes want carry a 320 acre watershed unless the pond is capable of storing a large volume of flood water before it is discharged. You best build a very large emergency spillway to go along with them. Good luck with your project.

Poseidon,

Rockytopper offers you excellent advice above. I don't know your location, but just today, for example, we received several hours of 2 inch per hour rain...totalling 11.5 inches.

There is no pipe system, none, that could handle the amount of water that flowed through my bottomland areas today. If I had a pond there where hundreds of acres of watershed exists, and only with pipes, it would be gone today. Nothing would be left but a memory.

If at all possible, install natural spillways to handle the excess water that the pipes can't handle when/if you have one of these rain events. Two natural spillways are better than one, but one is certainly better than none, IMO. Good luck with your pond.

The pond will have both a huge volume of reserve and a nice spillway over a paved driveway. The dam will be 500' across, end to end. (Look at the 2nd picture down in my post above) The terrain could basically be described as a big shallow bowl with a spring running through it. There is about 9' of fall across 1000'. In this picture, you are looking about 1000', 9 feet rise in elevation.



In order to have it deeper than a mudhole, I am hauling about an average of 7 acres by 3-4 feet deep out of the center of the bowl. The specifications are for it to have (from the outside in) a 1:12 slope all the way around the bank so I can cut the grass. At the waterline, it will drop down 32" and slope gently down for about 6-8 feet where it will drop off to a minimum of 6' deep. This will be at the "shallow" end. The "deep" end, by the dam, it will be about 10" deep. The shallow area around the bank is so kids, dogs, and even I can get out easily.

The picture above was taken from the core looking up to the shallow end. I forget how many 10's of thousands of yards of dirt they figured were being moved. As you can see in the pictures in my earlier post, there is no shortage of good ol' red dirt here. There is plenty for the dam and then some. We packed the construction drain pipe along it's 100' length with red dirt and 2 seep collars. I don't expect a problem here.

Up closer to where the spring that feeds this pond comes up, there is a drive that has two 36" and one 60" pipe under it. I feel that the excess volume that this big shallow bowl can hold along with the tremendous amount of water that the 12" siphons can pump will be plenty. The sipllway over the driveway is so easy there no reason not to do it right. By the way, the spring is a good 20 feet higher than the pond. On the back side of the dam there is plenty of fall and the spring is wide. This spot was made for this pond.

I wouldn't think of going into something like this on a time-and-materials. I got a firm price from a guy I liked, and he has turned out to be great. He knows what he is doing. He is running three 963's, two big track hoes, and two Volvo off-road dump trucks. He says he can be done in 5 weeks, from the start. We agreed on $143,000. Coincidently, I just spent $7,000 on 12" pipe, so there's the budget. Oh yea, and $5,000+ for a civil engineer.

I don't have any plans for structure, with the exception of a huge pile of pallets and cinder blocks. I figure I can add more after it's built, but to do anything fancy right now would bust the budget. I am going to put in a dock/patio for a nice place to sit. I will dig deep all around it so people can dive in from the dock.

Thanks for the details. We are pond nerds, and the more details the better. We'll be asking about the fish you plan to stock soon. :p

Sounds like you will be moving a lot of earth from the floor. You can add your structure later, or never, as your budget allows.

It should not cost any more for them to leave in a few ridges or humps as they are taking out dirt. In fact it should save some time and $ to do so. Not to mention how much easier it is for large equipment to drag a couple trees or stumps and put them in. One thing is certain -- it won't cost anything to ask the contractor about that option. The biggest cost is loading and hauling the excess dirt. Good luck with the project. What is the next step after its built?

This is true ewest, but it sounds like a lot of dirt needs to be moved, for an acceptable depth( 9' fall over 1,000 ). BUt good point indeed.

The state fisheries will stock the pond with whatever kind of fish they decide is appropriate. If I want to choose my own fish, I will have to buy them myself.

I understand that I need to let the minnow population grow for the first year or so. There are lots of minnows in the spring now. Will this be enough, or should I get more? In the end, I would like some smallmouth, bluegill, and some other kind of pan fish. What do you all think about catfish?

One last question, how do you keep a loose stump from floating?

Thanks to all for your advice and encouragement.

If you move in stumps with the root ball that is best. They will waterlog and stay in place. Best to stake and tie them in place so as the water rises they stay there until they water log.

From my perspective -- a pond belongs to its owner and he/she should decide on the goals including what fish go in not simply take what the state has left over. You should control the stocking. If the state does not have what you want then tell them no thanks. IMO it is short sighted to spend a lot of time effort and money on building a pond and then try to save a few dollars by turning the choice of fish over to the state using free fish. The fish are the cheapest part of the equation.

Determine what type of fish are in the creek and what you would like for the pond and post them here. There are a lot of talented people on this forum who will be glad to help you with the plan.

Poesidon, in theory Ewest is right. Get the best fish money can buy.

From a practical standpoint though, many of our southern states have fish and stocking plans which will serve most people well.

The typical bass/bluegill/readear/channel cat is a proven winner. If you want the finest of those species, there are some great providers right here. But most state fish will manage nicely enough, in my experience.

So if your budget is maxed or broken, the state fish will be OK. Or you could wait a year or so, and save up.

I'll find out and post here what the state offers.

So will my native minnows be sufficient to populate the pond? Or do I need to buy more?

The minnow experts can probably give a better answer if we know what kind(s) they are. If you can post a picture of them, someone can probably identify it. If not, I bet ewest will have the link to a minnow identification website you can look at to try and figure it out.

Poseidon - You said ""So will my native minnows be sufficient to populate the pond? Or do I need to buy more?"" The answer definately depends on which native species that you have available to you.
Some will spawn okay in ponds and some are strictly stream spawners, others will only marginally spawn in a pond and some require special habitat or structures for successful spawns - It all depends.

Here is one site with lots of fish/minnows pics. with descriptions. But it is not easy to tell sometimes. If you think iding lepomis is tough then look at the minnows.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/index.html

Robinson it is the control of the stocking decisions by others that is the problem not necessarily the quality of the state fish. I have found that state providers ,often due to the demands on their time and resources , are pushed to the limits and don't have the time to put in on each pond with its unique factors. They tend to stick to cookie cutter plans . Often the fish may be stocked sooner and smaller than you or I would do. All of that said they are still an ok source IF you can control the decision making process and you know who grew the fish. Some states don't have hatcheries and parcel it out to a number of growers who may or may not provide what was contracted for.

ewest agreed.

also, a well planned stocking plan of the best fish in the world by the best provider may be of little use to somebody who does not intend to manage well.

nice points

Poi......

Regarding creek minnows, they may just be that, creek minnows, and not thrive well in the pond. good luck!

A potential problem with creek minnows/fish is the need to examine every fish to assure that you are getting only what you want in the pond. Condello just posted about that one.