Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Central Illinois - New pond w/Pics!

Before you place any structures in the pond you want to start even back closer to the beginnning of the process and come up with your game plan. Things kind of moved fast, but I am sure you have some ideas (and daydreams at work) for what you are going to use the pond for. Lets get this all figured out:

1. List in order of importance and in as much detail as you would like (the more detailed you get the more detailed we can get) everything you want to use this new water hole for.

2. For the fish, what type of fishing do you want to do? How soon do you want the fish to be ready to catch? Who will be doing the most fishing, how often do you anticipate they will be fishing, are you planning on eating fish, if so how often and how many? Basically in detail describe everything about the fish and fishing that you want to do with the pond.

3. Something you could do right now is to go to a bait shop and purchase 1 lb or several dozen fathead minnows to stock immediately. They will reproduce yet this summer and provide great forage for whatever you decide to stock for fish. They also will keep the mosquitos and insects in check while your waiting for fish.

As you can see in the pictures, the pond is set perfectly (on 5 acres) to allow viewing from the house, so my first objective was to provide ornamental landscaping and to to attract wildlife for viewing. We have deer that come through and I had a thought of creating environment for pheasants and quail (there are none around), so we enjoy seeing the wildlife. Having a place to fish (for pleasure/for food)is secondary



As I said above, fishing is a secondary goal. I want to have place where the grandkids (one one now and she is too little) can come over and fish, plus having a place my son in law and I can go out and casually fish. Naturally if we catch something big enough to eat, then by golly I want to eat it. So in reality it won't be heavily fished especially to start and as the fish get bigger, then I suspect we will fish it more. Still only a few times a month. So there is no race to catch fish. Stock what I can this fall and then add to it next spring.

Since I'm not an avid fisherman, I really don't have much of a clue as to what to stock it with. I was thinking catfish and some bass, but open to suggestions.


What else can I tell you or that I missed?

Ornamental Landscaping is very fun and wildlife viewing is even funner. For landscaping around the pond your imagination and budget can just roll along at whatever pace you want.

For wildlife viewing you will want to get an aeration system installed in your shallow water about 6 feet deep to keep open water all winter long along the edge for ducks, geese, deer, etc. You also may want to consider building a floating island/ dock of some sort to give em a safe place to rest during the summer. Wood duck boxes, goose nest, bird feeders, etc will really bring em in good too.

For fish I would stock fathead minnows and/or golden shiners right away ASAP to clean up the mosquitoes and insects larvae and also to provide a boost for the gamefish. This fall I would get 50 LMB, 50 CC, 250 Hybrid Bluegill, and 250 Bluegill. Any size you want to get is fine. I would recommend feeding the fish by hand one 50 lb bag of purina mills gamefish chow per month starting the first of May, and going all the way into October. If you dont want to feed the fish (you would be missing out on some seriously awesome wildlife viewing) you can stock the bluegills and hybrid bluegills this fall and wait until next summer to stock small yoy largemouth bass and fall to stock the catfish.

Your hybrid bluegill and channel catfish will be ready to eat at the end of 2011 and really ready to eat in 2012. I would harvest 25 catfish in 2012 and replace them in the fall. Plan on eating and stocking 25 catfish every year.

I would install an aerator centrally located in the deep and run it from April to October. You can run the shallow one all year long, but the deep one only during the warm season. You can run both lines from the same compressor- Vertex Air One Plus. Doing this from the very beginning of the pond will help the pond live alot longer and help your water quality tremendously.

For fish structures in your pond I would place gravel, rocks, riprap and boulders, and then would place just one big fishing reef somewhere. 3 mossback fish racks, or 5 porcupine attractors, or 3 honey hole trees, or a handful of cedar trees, hedge trees, or any trees you have laying around. Just one big structure is all I would do in your pond for your casual fishing situation.

You need to have a dock too. A pond without a dock is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the peanut butter.

Enjoy

That might change. When we bought our pond property I hadn't fished (in fresh water) for over 20 years. I think you'll find that fishing your own pond is very relaxing and enjoyable, there is something about catching fish in a pond that you own that is very different that fishing in public waters.

You are correct, there is a big difference in loading up your equipment and going somewhere versus fishing in your back yard!

bossone,

just by looking at the pictures it appears you have a sandy lean clay which will hold water. it also looks like soil that will erode easily. being possibly spring fed when it gets full it may overflow continuously at times. is there a drain pipe in this pond to prevent the spillway from eroding?

Yes there is a 12 inch, plus and emergency overflow.

I first thought it was spring fed, but I'm not sure anymore. The ground water has slowed way down with all the high temps and lack of rain. We got an inch the other day and it looks like it was running a little stronger. Naturally every dang storm has went around us so we are missing out on the big rains, which may be a blessing.

If you notice the sides a bit steeper than what I've seen in other pictures, so I can see it eroding some.

its hard to keep some types of soil from eroding but that pipe will make a huge difference in the long run. it also looks like the builder put the topsoil back on top where it belongs this wiil also help grass to grow which is the key to erosion control. i think the pond looks good

Thanks..... I still am nervous about the transition between the water level and the natural slope of the land around it. I suspect I'll have some more dirt work to do once I actually see where the water level shakes out. Part of it was to keep the dam low enough so we could have a view from our back yard. Still we are excited about having it.

I can't thank everyone enough for your help and guidance!

Well there goes 2 pounds shiners into their new home. It wasn't long after that we had a crane show up and I'm sure he had a nice lunch on the few that didn't make it. I'm not sure where he came from as we don't have many around here, but nevertheless he found us.

But we now have fish..... and frogs!!!!!

Not sure where you got your shiners from but I hope you trust your source or your sorted those before you tossed them in.


I would make a not to sort my FHM as they tend to have surprise fish in them more than shiners.

Just want to let you know as in many cases it has been shared that people have ended up with the wonderful Bullhead in their pond and not have any idea where it could have came from.

Just wanted to let you know and I am sure you will get more feedback from the experts on this mater.

Thanks

if they didnt have a packer and just used a dozer and trackhoe you can bet on 5 to 10% shrinkage of your dam. when using a trackhoe and dozer only you shuold add 10% so when it gets done settling it will be where you want it. for example if desired dam height is 10 ft tall make it 11 ft tall and when it gets done settling it will probably only be 10 ft tall. i will add 3% even when i use a packer to be on the safe side. they may have already done this i'm just brainstorming in a brain with limited capacity.

i said 10ft dam height but you must add the depth of your core in there also. 10 ft dam height with 5 ft core depth would need 1.5 ft of extra dirt on top with slopes that match the top. dont just add dirt to top. make slopes match which requires extra dirt on slopes. you are not actually adding more dirt or more cubic yards to dam. it would be the same amount of dirt using a packer and not having to add any. you just didnt get all the air and voids out of the dam with the dozer so your allowing for that. a pickup or car will pack better than a dozer

They never used a packer, just the dozer and hihoe. From an untrained point of view it certainly looks to be solid.



This is a view of the dam looking from the North. I have taken 4-6 inches off the top of the damn to make reduce the slope just a bit. If you notice to the left there is a deep ditch (12ft) and where the flags are is going to be a rainbow bridge so we can walk from the back yard up on the dam.

If it settles, then I'll put more dirt back in and drive over with the our SUV. I will be tilling it up once last time and sowing some grass seed alter this fall.

After fighting the drought after we built our pond this past summer I was afraid it would take forever for it to fill, but surprisingly as of last night it is full pool for the first time!

This picture was taken 11/27 and as you can see we had a long ways to go before the pond would be filled. You can also see the blue spruces/maples/tulip trees I planted.

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This was taken today, full pool and it still filling from my small catch basin at the bottom of this picture. My overflow is working as it should. As you can see the ice has almost disappeared

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Again taken today and shows my rainbow bridge I built this fall (railings this spring) and a 1925 windmill next to the pond. My catch basin/tile is between the two blue spruces in the back which is a low area. My only dissatisfaction is the height of the ground as compares to water level at the back of the pond. It would be nice to have had more trimmed off, but then it would of had a domino effect all the way back to the property line.

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Now the fun begins, stocking it (with the help of Nate), sowing more grass, adding more structures, and a dock. And here's hoping it holds water!!!!!

Looks great, congrats on the full pool!

Yes, Very nice! Happy full pool

Looks great and a nice job on the bridge.

That really is a nice job---good work

Just curious? Why didn't you fill where the bridge is? What's the bridge over..? Place looks great beautiful symmetry with the house in the background..

Looks awesome. That windmill is very cool, is it original to the property?

The bridge is over a ditch that is about 12 ft deep and carries run off from several acres and there was no way to dam it up and tie it into the pond. Even if we had been able to, I think it would have been too close to the house.

I have always wanted a windmill and I found this one on a farm Wisconsin and I thought it would fit in well with layout. I had thought about (and still could) using it to aerate the pond.

Overall very happy with how it looks, but the work is just beginning.

As the ground starts to dry up a bit around the pond, I am noticing that there is quite a bit of water being soaked up around the pond. As this picture shows the back bank is wet up 2-3 feet



And here the ground is wet an average of 4ft and in the one place even more. Maybe part of this extended area is due to ground water?



So my first question is this normal?

Secondly when it was first built I noticed I had a lot of ground water helping to fill the pond and I see places on one side of the pond where the ground is wet and you can tell it is to to the water table.

What is interesting in the next two pictures is the incoming water flow and then you can see the over flow. It has ran for several days with what looks like the output more than the input.





So seeing this makes me think I'm getting water from the ground/banks and may have an issue later in the summer when the surrounding ground dries up.

Thoughts on my two questions?

I tend to agree with your concern. Especially in the 2nd picture of the 4 set. IMO well lined good clay banks that are well compacted should not normally have that amount or degree of wet areas, some water absorption, but not normally quite that much at least in my experience.

In the 1st of 4 pictures, who says water does not travel up hill as evidenced by the wet banks above the waterline?

No problem with water level now in spring when ground is saturated with water. But when things become good'n dry you may see significantly lower water levels. Time will tell therest of the story. Your pictures will be good to show to the contractor if and whenever you contact him. Some contractors are not quite so eager to come back for fixes compared to when they were interested in digging the pond.

move back about away from the pond edge about 25 feet and dig a small hole straight down, observing and noting the amount of moisture in the soil. When you get down to about 2 or 3 feet, make sure the hole is fairly clear of loose soil and let it sit for a day...or even a few hours. (put a piece of 3/4" plywood or something similar to keep peep's and critters from falling in)
We're looking for moisture in the surrounding soils, in areas that would not be affected by the pond, but close enough to be considered the same potential water table as the pond footprint.