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http://www.photodump.com/viewer/jimmydawg08/Pond.html

This link will take you to a plan of my new pond. I'd like to get your feed back in regards to amount of structure, structure placement, gravel beds, etc.

Some of the structure will all be underwater and some will come up past the surface. The center hump will be below water, but the structure on top of it may breach the water. The rectangular gravel bed will be in water 5' deep. The circular gravel bed will be in water 3' deep. The deeper spawning bed is for bass and the shallow one is for bluegill.

I was thinking about putting structure by the bluegill bed, but then I thought maybe that would give bass the upper hand. I want the bluegill to have a fighting chance there, so I'm thinking no structure is better.

Any comments would be appreciated.

-jw


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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Another note:

The pond is about 1 to 1.5 acres in size.


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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I do not feel comfortable commenting on the placement of the structures, but the amount and variety of it appeals to me. It looks like you should be able to shore-fish and reach everything from one side or another, which I feel is a good thing.

Two comments: 1) I assume you will be putting in everything you can before the pond fills. After you've got it all in place, takes tons of pictures from every angle imaginable. Try to shoot from landmarks that will be easy to view from once the pond is filled. This is useful in locating your structures later; VERY useful in showing other people where they are. I took several sets of photos of our pond, which help a lot, but I wish I had shot everything from 2 or 3 times as many different positions.

2) If the slopes at the shallow (lower) end of the pond are not severe, it looks like you should have several locations you could do seine hauls at (if you ever want to).

From my limited experience, it looks like a pretty good plan.


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Jimmy, I may have missed it, but what is the depth at the dam ? Your early structures may be useless if the water is too deep. I would also place some brush closer to your bedding grounds, if you tie it good, you can always remove it later if desired. Keep the food chain ahead of the bass to start. Nice design...

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jimmy wheels,

Very nice...I especially like the gravel beds and am very envious of them.

Theo is so right on the comments on the pictures. Take them from all angles, I didn't and am sorry as a result.

One thing I did, that it looks like you haven't, is create a small "fishing free" zone where the fish will be left alone. In my larger pond, you can not get to this zone without a boat, and no boat is available to anyone except me.

The idea is to establish a protected haven or refuge to let the fish forget about lures and stuff. In my case, I'm not sure that it has worked all that well because I can't catch the Florida bass. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Maybe others can chime in on fish havens and the degree to which they work or don't work.

Nice plan.

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 Quote:
2) If the slopes at the shallow (lower) end of the pond are not severe, it looks like you should have several locations you could do seine hauls at (if you ever want to).
I'm not familiar with the term "seine hauls." What are they? And what do they do?

Thanks for the input guys!

I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures from many angles.

One more thing…Is it necessary to laydown a landscaping matt to place the gravel on? I thought it might help the gravel from sinking. However, it seems eventually everything will settle anyway and the gravel will get slightly covered regardless. How thick should the gravel beds be? (2", 3" 4")?


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 Quote:
Jimmy, I may have missed it, but what is the depth at the dam ?
The depth at the damn will be around 12'. Is that too deep for structure? Seems like fish would use this deeper part in the winter and summer months. The pond is in NE Texas.


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Seine Hauls are samples of small fish in your pond made with a Minnow Seine. This technique of population analysis was first highly touted by Professor Homer Swingle (Patron Saint of Pond Bosses) at Auburn U. a half century ago. Although it is an older technique, it can still be very useful, and is recommended by many of the State DNR/University Pond Management handbooks available online.

You anchor one end of the seine just offshore and sweep the other end of the seine from one side of the shore to the other, trying to trap as many fish and as little sediment as possible. You really have to have two people to do this. It is generally recommended that you do your seine hauls a month or two after your bass spawn, so that the fingerling bass, BG, etc. are small enough to be caught and viewed (I have caught fish only up to about 3" - 4" in length). It lets you check on the presence, number, and status of fingerlings and small forage fish in your pond, both desired and unwanted (bullheads, carp, etc).

A minnow seine can of course also be used to capture many fingerlings to help reduce overpopulations or to obtain fingerlings to transfer to other ponds.


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Jimmy, do a search under this topic for "thermocline", you will get great info there from the pros. While the fish may use the deeper water in winter, the pond guys consider any structure in the 8-10 foot range somewhat useless. It's the old saying 90% of the fish use 10% of the water.

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I would think you would want a deeper pond?
Are most peoples ponds here like 8ft. deep?
I am in OK. if that helps for replies from the Oklahomans.

Thanks.

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BD,

The only reason I know of for a deeper pond (greater than 8 feet or so) is to protect against freeze outs up north. In Texas, that isn't a problem and water depths beyond 8 feet are pretty much not only unnecessary but undesirable from a thermocline standpoint.

I would far rather have a pond with 8 foot depth through-out than have 20 feet at the dam and 2 to 4 to 6 elsewhere. I just don't see any big avantage for deep bass ponds...yes, get enough depth to prevent weeds but beyond that, I don't see the reason.

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Parts of that make total sense, so thanks.
Now my only other question would be I guess, don't smallies prefer deeper waters? Having a pond with a max. depth of 8 ft. would not stunt the fish would it, or would the size of the body of water cause that?

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Meadowlark, you are correct if your pond is in East Texas or anywhere else that gets rain. In the arid places, it's not unusual for ponds to go much deeper. Mine is down a little over 4 ft. right now and if we don't get some whopper storms, I will be down 7 ft., at least, by fall. Amount of freeboard over the top of the overflow pipe is pretty meaningless here. All of my small ponds of 4 to 5 ft. dry up in the summer.

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I don't know of anyone in Texas who has smallies in their ponds...it may be, but I don't know of anyone. Just too hot here.

Now, HSB may be a different consideration. They do well in our ponds and generally prefer open water, but again if you have lots of 8 foot water, I believe it would be ok.

Stunting of fish, especially LMB, is caused not by lack of water depth, but lack of forage. The LMB tend to overpopulate small ponds and then become underfeed and "stunted". To my knowledge, water depth has nothing to do with that.

The reason most ponds are built with the 20 foot depth and then 2 to 4 to 6 as I described is because it is cheeper to construct the dam from the clay closest to the dam...not from clay located across the pond. In order to get a preferred construction, i.e. 8 foot depth through-out (at least IMHO), you have to pay more for moving clay that isn't located right next to the dam...but in the long run it is worth it.

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very imformative, thank you.

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I wish I had put some plastic down under my gravel bed.
How I use structure in deep water. I have two 9' tall structures in 10' deep areas of my pond, and 10' structure in a 11' area, and I aerate with a bottom air diffuser from April to October.

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JW:

Looks like a good plan . I could not tell distances from dock to main lake hump . If it is close enough to dock I would suggest that you add gravel beds to main hump. This would allow you to fish for BG/RE on beds with poles or fly rod from the dock. Also you would be able to set on dock and watch BG and Bass spawn if conditions are right.

Also I would want some cover in deep water for winter cover area and fishing and for when you have dry periods and pond is down.ewest

















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