What shape pond would you recommend for this location? The red outline is an approximate cleared off property, blue out line is approximate location, and the X is about 100 yards from the back of the house. The width of the open area where the X is located is approximately 200'. I will plan to square off the property over the next year or two. I'd like to have about 3/4 surface acre for the pond.
The house is where the blue rectangle is, the house area is 92' wide (top to bottom in pic) and 55' deep. The property is extremely flat, but there does appear to be a small low lying area about 5' wide that looks like water channels through like a small ditch. This area is approximately 50' from the end of the pond, so I'd likely redirect it to the pond to assist with filling.
I don’t have a topo, but it’s really flat. Elevation change is leas than 2 feet, but property does drain from left to right in picture.
OK, that actually helps a lot.
Looking at your picture, I was speculating that it drained from right to left!
If generally flat, then shaping the pond to fit well within the long-axis of your cleared area would probably be the easiest construction and a nice view from the house.
What is the water supply to fill the pond?
If you expect too little water at times, then I would certainly build the house above grade and direct the roof downspouts and the water running off of the lawn to be directed to the pond.
I plan to let it fill with rain water. Although flat, a nearby pond has never been empty and only dropped 2' this summer which was drier than normal. The house pad is 3' above normal elevation, so definitely like the idea of routing downspouts toward pond.
Your sight seems very similar to mine, very flat. Unfortunately, you will find out that installing a pond when its flat tends to be expensive since you will be moving a lot more dirt to create the pond (I think my dam is all of 18" high, the rest is being excavated down to 12' deep). The only benefit is that you can really make any shape you want. In my case I'll be using the pond for mostly bass fishing, so I made it long and skinny to maximize the amount of shoreline. I was advised to put in some peninsulas to keep the wave action down so the banks wouldn't be eroded away as quickly, so there's 3 of those. For the width I went out and measured how long my average cast was with the lures I like to fish the most and made the lake so that I could take a little bass buggy up one side and down the other. Also added a 3/4 acre spot that's very shallow for duck hunting. In all the lake/pond should be 2 acres in size, plus the 3/4 acre shallow area.
