Well it's been a while so I figured it's time to show you all how my plan has turned out (see original post above). The end result is that I now have a .10 acre pond with 10"-14" brookies, browns and rainbows in it and the dam is holding water. I've tried to show the chronology of how I got to where I am today (a little over a year).
1) This is what the site looked like with the old pond all silted in and grown over (the area to the right). You can see along the left the old concrete dam that the kids are standing on:
2) Another view looking out toward the upstream side of the site off of the dam. There was a fair amount of cutting to be done around the perimeter before getting the excavator in:
3) Here is a trailcam photo of the excavator that dug out the pond. This was taken the second time he came back to attempt to deepen it and grade around the pond better. He spent 2 days digging it out originally and about a day and a half sprucing it up and putting big boulders on the downstream side against the old dam:
4) This is what it looked like right after the initial excavation:
5) Another view showing the old concrete dam running along the left:
6) Water going over the spillway for the first time in god knows how many decades:
7) This dam wouldn't hold water because of the many leaks that we tried unsuccessfully to patch with bentonite and hydraulic cement. Finally found the antidote....3 11x14' pond liners placed upstream (and over the edge of the dam) and then covered in about 20000 pounds of stone and rocks. This effectively compressed the muck on the upstream side of the dam and provides a water tight seal close to the dam. I'm sure it still leaks some, but it's had a steady and healthy flow over the spillway for months since completing the stone and rubber work. Here is a photo showing work in progress on laying rubber and stone over the spillway area:
8) I witnessed one of the largest short periods of rain I've ever seen and this shows the water flowing not only over the spillway, but also over the dam itself. The rubber seems to provide good protection. Afterwards everything was fine:
9) Here are my adventurous kids wading in at the inlet area....cold! During the summer I stocked a couple of batches of minnows. We also caught some 6-8" brookies and threw them in, but they were promptly eaten by predators. I now have a gator and blue heron decoy and will be rolling in an old piece of culvert for cover in addition to the evergreen trees:
10) Here is the most recent photo showing a cedar walkway that is now running along the length of the dam. I had a friend of mine build this. It will add some protection to the pond liner. This coming spring I plan on stacking rocks on either side of it to complete it:
I had Avery's Hatchery deliver 10 each of 12-14" browns, brookies and rainbows this fall and have been hand feeding them until the ice started covering them. They seem to be doing well and the inlet and spillway should not freeze over as there is pretty good flow. The true test will be if these beauties make it through the winter.
Well that's how it's gone so far. I'm addicted to this project and feel pretty good about how much we've done on it in a little over a year. (This is the second ice over) It was initially mucked out and excavated in November of 2010. Come spring I'll update with some fish pics and the completed walkway and rock cover over the dam.