Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Need some Serious Help!!

George, like RAH, I've only been shown how to use them to locate utility/water lines. With all the underground aquifiers here, I don't know if there would be one area that is better than another.

Do you have an aquifier map of Starke County, Indiana? That'd be interesting to see.

I'll see if I can make another set and add them to the stuff that needs to be packed for the Texas trip.

Your logic is right on....

This thread makes me laugh at myself. Along the lines of what RAH said, I am completely open to the possibility of an undiscovered 600 lb. hairy primate roaming North America, but I just can't wrap my mind around the concept of dowsing.... How can I accept one but not the other? That's gotta' make you laugh...

Scott, not to bother - I would take your word to the bank!
My thoughts are there are many electromagnetic fields in the earth other than mineralized water - some shallow some deep.

George, now you got me thinking. I'll make a set and see if I can duplicate the results. If I can do it here, then they'll go in the car.

And that is the reason why I say water witching is unreliable in my opinion. I do believe in being able to detect changes in electromagnetic fields. I do believe you may be able to find objects you already know are there somewhere. I however do not believe water witching can diagnose a 500 GPM well (what the phone call was about) from a 50 GPM well. If it can I would like someone to explain to me exactly how?

Next the one experience I had with a Water Witcher on my property did not convience me. I have capped an artesian well on my property that I accidently made years after drilling my 8" well. The artesian well was not strong enough to push water upland to where I needed it. I did not see a need to also let it run the 20' to cross the property line where a neighbor was trying to reclaim wet pasture lands. When I was at a party where a fellow was telling how he could water witch and how good it worked, I invited him to come try it out. I Walked him around the property myself observing to see what happened. Needless to say while his witching was going off at places the confined aquifer (artesian well site) was not enough water to set his witching off. Even more funny was with my pond dry at the time his witching did not do anything next to my nearly 500 GPM well. I personally wrote it off after that as nonreliable.

BTW I never said do not use the drilling service. Just that the man making the comment on the phone was not a realiable source of information (in my opinion) on where to drill a 500 GPM well (which is what the call was about).

The explanation of this would break PB rules, and you hold the tip of the rod

Kinda interesting that one of the members with a birthday today, is a Dowser: TROLL

Oh sure, JKB, toss me a riddle and then change the subject real quick!

Hey Big Pond, sorry this thing spun off on a tangent. I began following this thread because I, too, have a pond that is experiencing a water level problem. I'm tired of fretting about the lack of precipitation and am also considering pumping from a nearby stream.

Whether you go with a well or the stream, please keep us updated. I'm very interrested in what you try and how it works out.

Raliegh called me yesterday. I offerred to come out on MOnday on discount since close by working on a big 3000 acre project.

I did some investigation on google lake sizes are right 9.3 acres and 1.75 acres. The 1.75 acre has 25 acres of waterhsed while the 9.3 has 70-75. It was smart and they run the small pond water into the big lake. The drought would explain a big portion of water loss but not it being down this low. We need to check on the water leak behind the dam by the pipe. That can really add up and be a factor also. I have clients just down the road and there pricey well is producing about 25-40 gals/min, not worth it in my opinion. I suggest using the creek down behind the dam and setting up a pump.

We will let you know if we get out there next week.

Well I plan to start off by draining the pond this weekend. and getting the fish out do to the lake shrining so much.

Then I hope to get a dozer guy to work the bottom some and fill in the old creek channel.

Then I am looking at getting some irrigation piping to pump out of a nearby stream.

I found some pipe on ebay down in Lyons Georgia 2000 feet 5" for 3000 bucks I might be looking into this. just need a way to couple the piping to the pump.

Also after it is drained. I can correct some of the mistakes I made in the past with stocking like:

1. Adding Lime
2. getting a load of shad
3. Not stocking Native BG, but Copper nose only
4. Put Blue cat and maybe not channels

My well was "discovered" by dowsing. I found that I I'm not good at it. I'm generally skeptical of anything like this stuff. I am a former skeptic on dowsing.

About 10 years ago, we decided to have a well dug on our rural property. A well driller came out and asked where I wanted it. I picked a place close to the house and he started. At 500 ft., I had a dry hole and a hole in my checkbook. Several other spots were also dry holes. The hole in the check book ran to about $6,000.

So, I decided to try dowsing. I bent a couple of brass rods and started walking. At one spot, one of the rods swung around but the other didn't. I waked back and forth over the spot several times with no repeated results.

I started calling around and located an elderly man who was a reputed dowser. I picked him up and brought him to my place. About the time I was getting started, a local friend, now deceased, showed up. He was the superintendent of an oil drilling company and we ran cattle together. He was, like me, not a believer in a lot of BS ideas.

The old man used a piece of forked willow which we cut about 100 yards from my place. I told him about my experience with the brass rod and we went there. The stick pulled down and we marked the spot. He went several other places and found another spot. He told me that either I had a lot of water down there or it was close to the surface. The average well around me is at 350 to 400 ft.

He handed me the stick and I walked slowly over the spots. NADA!! Then my buddy tried and the stick pulled down very strongly. We went to the second discovered spot and I actually saw him having trouble holding the stick. It was pulling down so strongly that the bark was splitting. I went down the road and cut a couple more sticks. I tried it again and again I got no results. We found that if I touched the stick when they were doing it, the pulling stopped. When these guys went over the dry hole areas, the sticks didn't pull down.

We drilled a well at the first spot and found water at 70 ft. No more was found at 500 ft. It started out pumping 1/10 gpm and I have been told that they increase flow after the initial check. I pump into a 2,500 gallon holding tank which fills, @ 1/10 gpm, at about 144 gallons per day. I've never rechecked it but it does keep up with our needs. We only weekend there so I doubt that we will ever have a problem. We could time my wife's showers by the calendar instead of the clock and, in a short time, the float indicates that it has refilled so I guess that it might be getting more flow that it started out with.

I'm a former skeptic.

Dave, I wonder if you might get more water if you'd have drilled at the 2nd spot where the stick pulled down harder?

I did some scouting around today on another lake that is built simliar in size to mine. This lake has as much water shed as mine OR LESS and it is almost FULL!

Secondly, I go behind the dam to check for leaks and it leaks MORE than MINE!!!

What gives? I am Baffeld by this....


There must be somthing more to this than water shed on a topo map. It has to be.... how does his pond stay full with similar contsruction, Similar water shed, and similar amount of seepag in the back of the dam??

So someone mentioned about the springs under the dam and how they can cause a back siphon to occure and cause the lake to loose water.... so when this happens does this mean this back siphon of water goes under the dam?

I am truely Baffeld here.

Scott, I've thought about that more than once. I'm kinda saving that one in case my other one ever goes dry.

The spring can go in a completely different direction than your dam. One may have nothing to do with the other. You might be getting more of a loss thru a spring than due to seepeage thru your dam. And this other lake might be losing some thru the dam and nothing thru a spring.

The way I understand springs is that they are like a network of underground rivers. Some big and some small, and they don't follow the same path that surface water follows, meaning that they don't follow topography. Springs underground will follow the path of least resistance, thru cavaties, sand, cracks, etc. and somtimes the come out at the surface if thats the easiest way. You can also dig down into the ground and hit one and up comes the water because now that makes it easier for it to travel. BUT, if you fill that spot with abunch of heavy water ontop of the spring, the spring can no longer push up and instead the heavy water will want to push down into that underground vein.

Fish n Chips,

thanks for you help on this... Let me ask you something.

8 year ago before I built the pond. Way up stream in the creek I have some granite rock. Around this rock is where the spring of the "Creek" that supposedly fills the lake. That area had a pool of water. Now for some strang reason it is gone... Or least it is way down. Why is this??

Also I notice the stream before that lake was there use to go under ground alot. Could this be an impact?

Now this spring that is around this granite rock is not part of the pond. It's at the head of the stream that flows into the lake.

By the sounds of that BigPond, that spring is/was up higher than your pond. I can't imagine that spot being the problem to your pond leaking. There's probably some other spring down in your pond basin. Hard to really evaluate it unless your physically there to see it all.

This one you are talking about up higher than the pond can be affected by droughts too. If the drought is bad enough the underground water resevoirs can start drying up too. Another possibilty is that the source of this spring was cut off somewhere else by digging, trenching, well drilling, etc. This could have even happened somewheres a longs ways off from that spot too. Maybe even a mile away. As it has been said, it all depends.

I'll throw out another idea in regards to that spring. It may be that in digging/making your pond the travel route of that upper spring was disturbed/cut off, even if it was at a lower level. Before digging the pond, the easiest route was for the water to come out of the ground at a higher place and now it comes out( and vice versa... can leave) at a lower area because it became the path of least resistance ( opened up a vein).


You say that this stream where the pond is now used to go in and out of the ground..can it have an impact? My guess is absolutely!!!!!!

These are just my guesses at all this, and should be looked at by a professional walking over the site. The more opinions you get, the better. Compare them all and choose the one that makes the most sense to you.

I agree Raliegh you need to have it looked at before dropping money on it. I think your plan might work but then again best to have it looked at. I again will mention the discounted rate while in the area. Form this survey we will know more on if you need the soil sceintist or hyrdologist to come on board. If you want me there while in the area please notify by email asap, leavign for there at 515 Monday am.

Sorry it will be after the fish removal but that will not matter for the most part on evulation. Good luck this weekend on the fish removal that is a choir in itself.

I am sort of afraid this weekend because I do not know what to expect as far as daring and fish removal.. yeah greg lets talk abut it.. Let me call to tomorrow night after This SCARE task of pulling the plug on this lake...

Hopefully I can get pictures... Stay tuned..

Well today was a disaster... because I did NOTHING!! I pulled and pulled and pulled and could not get the gate open at the bottom of the stand pipe and could NOt lift the gate... Even rigged a pulley and a rope and nothing i could not lift it open...... Keep loosing on this looks like.... Stay tuned for more drama..

Mike Otto had an article in the magazine a year or so ago about valves in the outlet pipe. IIRC he said that if they weren't opened and moved around once a year they tended to stay closed........

Keep your chin up brother, things will start going your way.

Sir, if you have a boom pole for a tractor, you may be able to lift it with the 3 pt. hitch. Put the chain on really tight and raise the pole with 3 pt. hitch. A very slow process and you can bend the pole but it is a strong lever.