My husband Rick and I purchased a home in the country 3 years ago which included a 3 acre spring fed pond, stocked with LMB, nice sized Bream, and small YP. The pond is actually heart shaped (awwww) built by the Soil Conservation Service in 1961. It has 55 ft dock on steel beams and a monk type riser overflow with a valve 13 ft in the bottom for emptying the pond. The dam held during the century flood of 2015 here, when many dams in SC failed. The backside of the dam is covered in bamboo, which I'm sure helped and acted like rebar behind the dam! We hired to have the trees (nearly all very small) cut down off the back of the dam in 2016 and most of the vegetation surrounding the pond cleared out (wasn't much, small bushes, etc) so access to fishing is unlimited. We just removed the new trees that popped up this month. The pond is about 2-3 ft on the edges to a depth of 13 in front of the dam, 6-7 ft at the end of the dock, and really clear water.

90% of the indoor remodeling is completed and now I have focused on maintaining the pond correctly and growing much larger fish. We typically pull out 1.5 to 3 lb bass, most on the small end but have landed a 5 lb bass as well. We can always catch LMB. We have paid the last 3 yrs to have the CT and aquatic weeds treated, and last year purchased 20 GC to manage this without chemicals. Not there yet, as the CT and weeds are coming back.

I do have an issue I"ll research on this site, and I also subscribed to the magazine, can't wait to get my first issue!

Our monk riser spillway opens as it chooses, In the first 2 years it opened once, for 1 day. 3 years ago my husband installed a 3in pipe about 4 inches down in the corner of the dam to be able to open and lower as needed. Last spring the riser exit opened and stayed open till November, for only the 2nd time since we've owned this place. Due to the strong spring feeding the pond, it will overflow the edges even in the summer after a good rain or hurricane feeder bands. Last year we finally saw the valve handle for the first time and had a friend (welder) create a dam key to be able to open/close the valve. It works well still. In January when the riser exit closed up again, we built a 120 ft "babbling brook" lined with #57 gravel and some river rock to handle the overflow and maintain a good level on the pond, and then pulled out the 3 inch pipe. 2 months after finishing the overflow brook (700$ later), the riser exit opened again just 2 days ago (argh, kismet).

Behind the dam is 2 sink holes where I'm sure used to be concrete or corrugated pipe from the installation, years ago. It is surrounded by bamboo, The backhoe 3 yrs ago about fell in one LOL. So my issue is, reading about the pipe from the 60s obviously gone, should I pour concrete down the riser and close it up permanently, or just let it be. Behind the dam is always wet, especially on one end. The prior owners said it was always this way, since they can remember.

So happy to have found this while researching my issues with the dam/riser. Looking forward to learning from everyone on this journey!

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