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Last fall we needed dirt for our newly constructed house. Instead of paying someone to haul in dirt, I had about 1/4 acre pond dug. We are now thinking about increasing the size of the pond. I am on a tight budget and would like to get the most bang out of my money. I will be paying for dozer work by the hour ($110 per hour). For a bluegill/bass pond, would the best solution (limited budget) for me to increase the size with deeper areas or to keep it shallow and making it larger. Also, my pond is pretty narrow, but long. I would guess it averages about 15-20ft wide but the overall length is about 60-70 feet long. Would it better suit me to making it wider? My goal is to double the size of the pond, perhap 1/2 acre. I live in Northern Alabama were the winters are not too bad.


Jack
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Just an FYI, my pond is about 5 foot deep and the other half averages about 1-3 foot deep. I have one small area (8x8) where it is 7 foot deep.


Jack
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any water less than 3 feet can grow some nusinace vegetation. I say make it bigger but keep depth of at least 3-4 feet in these areas any less and might create an eyesore.


Greg Grimes
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Concerning fish population, can you get a larger population of Bluegill/bass with a smaller but deeper pond or a larger pond with most of the pond being an average of 3 ft?


Jack
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Alabama? hmmmm....
more surface acres + shallow depth = more evaporation and less H2O stock below it.

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Welcome boomer, i dont think i have seen anyone here that has a "uniform" size pond. Everyone makes it the way they want it, and it needs to be lots deeper than 5 ft. Like Brettski says above, if its shallow and large it will evaporate with the sun. Make it at steep enough on the sides that the "pucker factor" is an issue while you are in the dozer/tractor making the sides. My personal opinion is that you should make different levels of depth. My pond has 6 ft/12 ft/ and 18 ft depths (all fairly large areas) and the sides are about a 3 to 1. I have 2 areas that would look like a boat ramp and they are only about 200 sq ft. total. My areator sits in the deep hole on the bottom with 4 stone diffusers. I hate cleaning catfish so i dont have any. Put in minnows as soon as you start getting water in the pond. Way before you put in anything else, you still have time to decide what fish you want in. Focus on bottom contours, placing structure in b4 water, rocks, logs, pvc pipe, what ever makes you happy. As long as you have spawning area for the minnows (read creating forage section) panfish, and an area for bass you should be fine. Its not like you have an old rock mine with flat walls 50ft deep, you just have a hole in the ground like most of us. Plan to run pvc pipe to the pond with electricity (you will want it later on) water, and another for the areator. Put them all in the same ditch and just cap off the ends till you are ready to use them. You will be glad you did. The best thing you can do is read, draw, make notes, read more, ask, ask, ask questions...we give answers for free here. You will also get more than one opinion on some things as well.

Last edited by rcn11thacr; 04/15/10 08:28 PM.

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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. After reading all the great answers, I think I go a smaller expansion but a deeper pond. I try to dig the new area with depths between 8-10 feet. I have small kids so like the rest of my pond, I have the edges shallow with a drop off 3 feet into the pond.

I always wanted a pond but didn't realize I could get a head start by using my own property's dirt for my house pad. With that said, I really didn't have it planned out. At first the excavator driver told me that he would dig me a big hole and push all my plowed up trees in it. Instead, I told him to make a burn pile for the trees and use the hole for a pond. Right now it measures 210 ft long and averages about 40 ft wide at one end and 15 ft wide at the other end. I guessing I am pushing a little less than 1/4 acre. Actually, I didn't realize an acre pond is quite big. From my understanding 660' x 66' foot pond equals 1 acres. I don't see me digging one that big but would like to have a 1/2 acre one day. Right now money is tight, but I am hoping I could save enough to expand part of it in a couple months.

Here in Northern AL we average about 45-50 inches rain a year. In fact, it took only about 2 months to fill up. My property is flat but the pond actually sits at one of the lowest parts of my land. Decades ago, a farmer dug trenches along my four pastures that lead into one my creeks. One of the pastures, about 10 acres, watersheds into the pond. When I expand it, I plan on connecting it to another watershed ditch which drains about 15 additional acres of rainfall from another pasture and woodlands.

I would enjoy growing a trophy bass in it, but in reality, it is just too small to produce any bass with size. I have four little boys, and my goal is just for them to have some fun. I know there is a correct method and science raising fish, but I cheated and have already threw in adult fish. A friend of mine caught a 4 1/2 pound and a 4 pound LMB for me and I have already caught and transported about 200 small and adult BG and Sunfish in it. Additionally, I have caught released about a dozen 1-2 lb LMB and a few rock bass from the creek on my property. Also recently, I bought a crawfish and minnow trap for my creek which catches small BG and minnows . So far it catches a few BG and minnows daily, which I try to transport a couple time a week. Before I bought the trap, I used to by minnows by the pound at our local bait shop. It is quite expensive ($15 a lb). I am also planning on buy koy fish food for the BG in the coming weeks.

I guess I am at risk having an unbalance pond and fish population. I am hoping to offset the stunted growth of my bass by catching and releasing small BG, minnows, and sunfish from my creek. Perhaps I am going at this all wrong and I'm probably being impatient but given the fact that this is a small pond, I couldn't resist stocking them with free fish from my own creek. I can literally catch about 20 BG in an hour with worms and crickets from my creek. With three boys, my excitement is with them enjoying what my pond has to offer and the sooner the better it is for them --- and me too!


Jack
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Boomer, remember its your land and as long as you are happy thats what matters. Just remember to come back and study up when/if something happens so you know what not to do next time. Enjoy the kids and the pond! I do with my kids every day and we cant wait till we get fish that are large enough to catch. My daughter wants to be a veternarian, so having her see life in a pond from nothing to full grown fish is real fun for her and myself as well. We love to float with the wind in the boat while quietly watching whats happening under the water. We even do it at night with flashlights. \:\)


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 Originally Posted By: boomer2
Here in Northern AL we average about 45-50 inches rain a year. In fact, it took only about 2 months to fill up.


We're lucky to live in an area with that much rainfall. Ponds of 6ft depth and less are fine (and arguably even preferable)in that climate. Since we don't have drought or freezing problems, and deep ponds have problems of their own, you are probably better the way you are.

Watch out on the creek fish. Make sure you don't transfer undesirable fish such as carp, bullheads, etc. They can be real hard to identify when they're small.


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