Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 1/4 to 1/3 acre rehabilitation

Hello all,

I found this wonderful website and spent the a few hours reading posts, and the information you all provide is staggering. It looks like you guys would be able to help get me on the right path.

We are purchasing some property in far North Dallas area, just north of McKinney. And there is an existing pond on the property I would like to get in order. It is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/4 to 1/3 of an acre, I used http://acme.com/planimeter to give me an approximation of the size. But it is surrounded by trees and hard to get a good approximation.

This is all that I know about the pond:
1. 1/4 to 1/3 acre
2. It is fed by the water runoff of the properties uphill from me. It flows into almost a creek bed but not really, see pics. It can pool and create a secondary pond on the other side of the driveway, uphill from the main pond, but only creates this secondary pond when it rains a lot. There has been no water there the two times I have been there in the last month. The water pools in the secondary pond and flows into the main pond thru a culvert under the driveway.
3. The current owner said it is limestone lined and has never dried out in the 30 yrs she has lived there.
4. There are no fish in there and they have never stocked it in 30 yrs.
5. I don't think they have ever done any kind of maintenance to the pond in the 30 yrs.
6. Only frogs and snakes inhabit it right now.
7. Overflow of the pond is controlled by a culvert you can see in Pond 3 and Pond 4 pictures.
8. The water looked pretty clear. You can see at least 1 foot deep, any deeper and i would just be guessing.


What I would like from this pond:
1. MINIMUM, a healthy body of water that doesn't look stagnant or produce millions of mosquitoes. Owner says that mosquitoes are no problem out there, but IDK. The chiggers are horrendous! I got ate up bad the two times I've been out there.
2. Fishing from it would be great! My wife, 4 and 2 1/2 yr old daughters that would love to do it too. The 4 yr old already caught her first Large mouth bass, a baby 4" one, a few months ago while camping. I wouldn't mind going out there every now and then for a few hours to relax. And being able to eat the ones we do catch would be nice but not a priority.

I know it will take years to get the pond to where we would like it, but that's ok. I am going to have soooo much to do around the property that I'm ok with it not being a fishing hole in two months.


We are closing on the property in two weeks, but will be visiting the owners out there next Friday. Is there anything I need to ask the owners that would help out to get things moving? I know the biggest one will be how deep it is. I don't think she is going to know that, and I will not be able to get out there in my kayak until after we close.


Thank you


The pics are screen grabs are from my gopro.

Congrats on your soon to be new pond and property!

If you get fish in the pond, that will almost certainly eliminate the mosquito larvae. The fry of larger fish (bass and bluegill) will eat them, and your forage fish (minnows) will really eat them.

Questions:

Ask the owner if the pond ever goes over the dam in rain events? Spending money on fish and having them lost downstream is not fun.

Have they ever chemically treated the pond for undesirable algae or weeds? If so, with what chemical and what was the treatment schedule?

Have they ever had the silt/muck cleaned from the pond?

I am sure there are better questions out there, so maybe some experts will drop into your thread.

Come back after you close, and you know the depth of the pond. Post your goals for the pond, and hopefully you can get some good advice.

Welcome to PB.

You’ll enjoy the pond. Fish take care of the mosquitoes. However, in nature, skeeters can come from anywhere.
Check the runoff area to ascertain that you have plenty of runoff area.
Compare the pond area to % of a football field. The playing area of a football field is approx one acre.

Thank you for the answers. I will ask those questions when we are out at the property Friday night.

IME healthy stocked ponds make holes in local mosquito populations. In addition to fish in the pond eating any mosquito larvae, a healthy pond produces/attracts bug eaters like dragonflies and barn swallows.