Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond and fish photos

Bruce :

Great looking ponds with beautiful landscapes. Now everyone knows that Neb. is a lot more than flat ground and grass and crops. Having driven through years ago I saw varied landscapes and elevations with trees . ewest

End result of all that hard work?

BAIT!

Bruce:

That's not fair, you have HILLS!

Very nice looking bunch of water. One question: what's the story with the rectangular pond in the upper right corner of your first picture? Swimming hole with 4 sides of nice white sand? White plastic liner? Nebraska's only Beach Volleyball court?

Bruce :

I want to order some bait but from the looks of that bait I don't have much that can eat bait that big . How big -- looks like 1.5 lbs and young , small tail and head. Lets hear the story and don't be bashful -- as sgt. Joe Friday use to say --just the facts sir. Was he from the all male pond ? ewest

The Kansan Glaciation period occurred about 400,00 years ago and left a big swath west of Lincoln that is about 25 miles long (north-south) and 4 miles wide (east-west). This period resulted in very hilly and extremely rocky land that row-croppers didn't have any use for. Consequently cattle grazing has been the primary use of this land. Good news for Bruce is that the land was CHEAP! It's near the town of Denton which is 10 miles west of town and land prices in 1998 were a mere 1300/acre. It also happens to have good draws for dam building and dense clay soils that hold water quite well. We're a little arid (about 25 inches or precip./yr) but that's not all bad if you have a well.

What looks like a rectangular pond is actually two side by side. What appears to be sand is 45 mil liner. The ponds are named Firestone I and Firestone II and are growout ponds for HSB and BG mutant freaks.

The bluegill in the photo, I am proud to say is a fish that I caught last night. It is an age-2 fish that is 9.5 inches and weighed 460 grams (just over one pound) My wife took the picture right before we lit a campfire and made s'mores. She really didn't get why I was so happy but you all probably get it all too well.

Wife, campfire, s'mores and 1 lb gills in yer own pond...ain't life great!

That's a great place Bruce, my compliments.

Bruce, your pond looks great when its full. Can't wait to get back up there and do some fall fishin'. I will try to crawl up on my roof and get some shots.

Nice looking ponds Bruce! Can't wait to see them during HSB season this Fall.

Ed

Thanks for the comments! In all seriousness, next time I've toiling away and frustrated because all I do is WORK, WORK, WORK then I'm going to pull up this thread for consolation.

bmccreight
How big is that Lake of yours!!! Man !! I wish I could have something like this!! WOW!!!

Maybe some day I'll get there.....maybe some day..

Hey Bruce

That ain't bait-that's supper. BTW very nice place you've got

My brother got one of those powered parachutes and started doing some aerial photography. Here's the south 4 acres of our property.



Full Size image

WranglerManJ

If your brother ever has a hankering to dive over East Texas, I'd pay to pack his chute in return for a picture like that!

Big Pond, when I bought it, they said 12 acres. Hard to tell, it has a island in center and coves around. It was a good buy with just 55 acres of land. Had a cabin, barn, well and pump house. Two hour drive from Houston.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=15&X=1120&Y=17407&W=3&qs=%7cflo%7ctx%7c

Robinson,

I couldn't agree more with you on quality vs quantity....in ponds and most everything else.

I couldn't help buy wonder as I read your description of that great pond with the limestone ledge, how much indeed that limestone/mineral deposite had to do with your great fishing. A lot I suspect.

You touched on a subject that facinates me...My Pop's place has Indian artifacts, burial mounds, and a natural spring. It's even marked on the maps as "tanyard" where the indians would cure their hides. It is awesome to roam thru the creekbeds, almost all the pools are crystal clear with lots of fish, no 5 lbs. though.

My property has 3 what appear to be graves on it as well, creates a spooky environment late at night when you're in the area

Just wondering what one of those powered parachutes might cost....

My wife and I were discussing that the other night, and have no idea.....

Bruce Condello,
Very nice ponds! Are the upper two excavated? Are these the ones you installed liners in? Do you keep those full with well water?

Brad Becker

Brad,

The upper two on the draw are excavated, but the two on the right are lined and filled with well water. All of the excavated ponds are about 50/50 mix of well and rain water. I think that you can kind of see the liner on the ponds to the right of the picture that shows five ponds.

This pic thing is great everyones ponds are real nice I am going to attemp to put a pic in

My brother got his from this company.

Alliant

He actually used to work there and was on the design team that came up with the Falcon.

As far as pricing, I have no idea. They occasionally get used stuff in. Check ebay as well.

Here's a picture of ~1/4 acre pond 1 that provides one of the ravine crossings to our homesite. I wasn't there when this one was built and am still too angry to discuss it. But hey, it's still better than no pond.


Pond 2 was created as an excuse to move our building site to a more scenic area and cross/dam another ravine in the process.
Last summer after completion.


About three weeks ago. This pond has ~9 acres of watershed and will take about 2 more years to fill. This summer has been brutal. Only a few contact springs have been maintaining the level you see. I'll cut the riser when I'm satisfied with the level.

Nice pictures...but if it was me, those trees would have to go. Can't tell for sure, but I'm guessing they may die anyway when it fills.

Yes,

That was one of the issues I had with the 1st pond builders. One 12" red oak is already dying. The large cottonwood might make it. You have to be there to make sure things get done right. These folks were recommended by the local NRCS technician.

I'll maintain a foot or two of freeboard below the big oak in pond #2 so it will hopefully make it.