Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New member trying to buy a pond

Yes, as I like to call it, my wife and I are trying to buy a pond with some land attached to it

It's been our dream to get back to the country and we've been looking for land for a few years. We are currently trying to buy a piece of land that has a pond on it. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but as things go we're already making plans for it and it's not even ours. Quite stressful actually..

So if anyone wants to send some good Karma our way in hopes we get our dream property, please send it!

I've been lurking around here for a few weeks and already learned more than I've ever known about ponds. If the lords willing and we get this property, the pond will need a good bit of work. Good to know there is such a wealth of knowledge here on this forum.

Thanks

good luck rambo. I was in the same boat a couple months ago. Biting my nails until closing. hopefully it works out for you. post some pics and pond dimensions if you can.

Here's the most current google earth pic:



Freemap tools calculates the entire area as about 4.5 acres:



But at current fill looks only to be about 1.5 acres:



Here is 2011:



Here is 2003 almost dried up:



And the oldest from 1999:

It looks to be very shallow. Not my first choice. It could possibly be drained and excavated, but that is more of a PITA than starting fresh.

Yep, that much of the lake so shallow could be 1; very weedy and 2; make it hard to have a steady fish population. The fluctuation may really pack and stress your fish during droughts.

I would really research the water shed before I made a decision.

Here is the entire piece of property. 32 acres.. the western property border is a creek and the entire area of trees and pond is considered wetlands.

The parcel looks really nice, but until you find out how deep the pond is, I wouldn't purchase it, no matter how tempting it is. (yeah, I know!)

If the pond is only 4-5 feet deep, then any periods of minimal rainfall will really stress the fish. Plus, if the pond drops in size, then the pond should be managed for it's minimum, not maximun size.

Esshup.. I know, I know.. However, we weren't looking for a pond.. only land.. the pond WAS just icing.. the wife has fallen in love with the place and I'm kinda partial to it myself, pond or not.. we've pretty much committed to purchasing it (if it goes through) so if it becomes ours, I'll cross the pond hurdle when I get to it.. I'm 39 so I've got a few years left to work on it.

I know all too well the stress and anxiety you're going through as we went through the same thing last year. It's a period of time that's much like a roller coaster.

Best of luck to you.

-RFL

I appreciate it.. it's been EXACTLY like a roller coaster.. 3 months already.. had given up on it twice.. really given up the last time only to have the OWNER call me to let me know MY banker said everything was on track for the purchase... LONG story..

Rambo...

It looks like a really cool property. If you are willing to accept a non-typical seemingly drastically flucuating water level pond then you could be pretty happy. You said the timber and pond are all considered "wet-lands"? I am assuming up near the road it would not be a "protected wet-land" and you could build a house? What percentage of the 32 acres is not flood plain or wetland? Also if the timber and pond are designated wet-lands I wonder if you would have trouble ever being able to improve, enlarge, make deeper, or build another pond on the property? I've heard anything "wet-land" designated can be a nightmare as far as development or improvements. Thanks for the pics, add some ground level pics as well if you can.

Zep...

I may have my terminology wrong.. not sure... but yes a house can be built.. it's actually 3 lots that were going to be sold in a development. on the plat it says "approximate wetlands boundary" I do know that they dug it out some 2 years ago, whether they were supposed to or not.. I'll try to post a pic of the plat and boundary.

Here's the plat. The shaded area is the "wetlands".. But the pond was dug out some 2 years ago and the dam repaired. We're trying to purchase lots 8,9 and 10. The 4 acres of lots 6 and 7 are already sold with a house built on it.

Is there any way to pull water from the creek to fill and maintain the water level of the pond? I like the possibilities you have there... What part of GA?

The creek is close.. but I don't know about the legality of diverting the creek.. I have thought about it though.. I'm in south georgia.

10 acres of the 32 are not flood or wetland.

rambo....I am sure it's a really pretty area. I am mostly upbeat about it for you.

It really all depends on what your goals are
as to whether you will be happy 5 years from now.

About 2 years ago I sold a very similar property where I owned two 3.5 acre lots. My 7 acres shared a 14 acre private lake with about 6-7 other owners. I became very dis-enchanted with a several of the owners when they did not want to stock the lake, remove aquatic vegetation, add carp, make some improvements, nothing. They didn't want to do anything when a group of owners even offered to cover the entire costs. There was lots of bickering, and indirect threats of lawsuits. So if you are buying the property mainly because it's just pretty to look, nice to walk around, watch the wildlife, nice to be so close to nature, and don't have a lot of plans for stocking or improving the shared wetlands/pond then you could end up pretty happy, but if issues arise where something needs to be addressed concerning the shared water I am telling you from experience it can be a nightmare.

Btw....have you met the people that own the other lots?

Neat looking place, best of luck!

Zep, the only neighbors are on the 4 acre combined lot. So the pond and surrounding area are all on what would be our property. Not shared.

rambo...so you will have complete control from all sides of all the water, ponds, wetland? In other words nobody without your permission can use, access, walk on any of the land with water on it? If so....thats a lot better.

First word that comes to mind when I see the expanse of plants in this pond is: bugs. If fish cannot get to the larva, then bugs will be an issue.

What these images don't show is:

1. Why is the pond so low? Is there a breach in the dam that can be easily plugged?
2. Can the dam be raised to raise the pond level?
3. Is there a stream or runoff entering directly into the pond providing too much sediment for it to deal with? It may need to be routed around the pond to prevent this.
4. From what I understand, draining and renovating can be a huge undertaking, especially so if the pond is in wetland, it may never fully drain without constant pumping. Example of one expense: Transporting many many cubic yards of muck from the pond bottom to someplace else is a lot of fuel and work. Muck needs to be dealt with appropriately when a site for storing it is identified.
5. Drag-lining may be an option, but ask the experts.

It may take more than a year if that pond is drained to dry out enough to be workable. There may be some other options like raising the dam which is relatively simple, but like others have said, it is quite a bit easier/cheaper to start new.

I am not trying to be negative, but these are some things to think about, it just seems to me the pond is pretty much choked out with plants and needs some work to make it an open, usable body of water.

There may be some better options around on land to purchase that does not already have a pond on it. The expense of adding a nice new pond may be quite a bit less than renovating an existing pond.

Disclaimer: I am not the expert here, most I have learned is by reading this site and various books by the experts, and the book: "Perfect Pond, Want one?" on this site. These are things I would certainly think about though if shopping for new land.

-Mark

Zep, the area outlined below would be our land. So, if anyone was on it they would be trespassing

Welcome rrambo - another GA pondster!
This doesn't look all that different from our pond and the situation sounds quite similar. Ours is a bit bigger but only a little deeper and we have a very healthy fish population (a few years after adding some forage fish and starting a serious culling).

You may have a big advantage over our property - depending upon where you are in GA. We're all in a totally "protected" area and can't do anything much with our pond without involving every government agency on the planet. We actually got in a little bit of trouble with several agencies because we were doing some very minor dam repair and got some equipment stuck in the mud in an area where we were getting some clay from a shallow area. Getting the excavator out of the soft area caused us to take out a few scrubby pines and tore up a very small section (like about 400 sq. ft.) of the shore line. One of our neighbors alerted the authorities to our activity and they fined us $500 and are going to make us "restore" that area.

So, it's the old "call before you dig" thing or take your chances.

But, my main point is that LMB, BG, and other native species in GA are very tolerant of shallow ponds no matter what the "ideal" habitat is supposed to be. It may not be perfect but it will be highly serviceable. If you can excavate a bit then, I would. But excavating in a swampy area is very hard because the equipment will just sink in the mud and create one giant headache.

Best of luck and let me know where in GA this property is located. If you're ever in Athens, look me up and you can tour our pond - with a fishing rod, of course.

liquidsquid.. it's hard to say because I still don't know a lot about the pond.. the owner doesn't have a lot of history on it.. his business partner repaired the dam and dug out parts of the pond 2 years ago.. however I don't know the depth yet. granted one reason it's low is because of the drought.. all ponds in this area are extremely low right now..

I have to remind myself and make sure everyone knows, that we were interested in the property irregardless of the pond.. so if the pond never amounts to anything it's no real loss.. any work done on the pond will take a back seat to other projects..

Oh yeah, there's alligators in the pond so there's something there for them to eat even if it's just turtle, frogs, etc.. The last time I was there I saw a small gator (mama is somewhere) and lots of turtles.

Al,

Good to have a fellow georgian on here! I'm in south ga.. deep south... :-)

I guess I need to find out 100% but I don't think it's "protected" wetlands... as far as I know it's just in the 100 year flood plain.. but I'll definitely find out... as I posted a few days ago and then this morning.. the dam was repaired and the pond dug out "some" 2 years ago so apparently (or not) it can be worked on.. or they just did it anyway..

As you mentioned about shallow ponds, I just read yesterday from the GA DNR website about building a pond and even their recommendations were quite shallow.. I'll see if I can find it again and post it.