Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Put the plug in the drain Saturday!

There's this guy I know, see. He knows this other guy, who has an uncle who was step-brothers with a guy who built a nice pond. I forget their names or where this pond is, but I thought you might like to see some pictures I found.

After better than a year of planning, engineering, permit-gettin', 963's, track hoes, off-road dumps, and hoping for no rain (sorry Texas), it looked like this:


Saturday was the day to celebrate putting the cork in the drain (no, he didn't push her in)


Here is the view from the dam with the siphons on day one. The drain is right in between the siphons and it's well under water in 24 hours:


And here is the view looking back at the dam:


Not too shabby, huh?

Yeah, baby! Wherever you found that friend of a friend, I wouldn't worry too much about laying breadcrumbs to find your way back. You should really consider just stayin' there. It would surely work for me.
Outstanding, Jersey. Wow, what an unbelieveable trek, eh? Tell me about the 2 story structure in the last pic. Nice crib, too. I really want some insprirational "house overlooking the pond" photos on the Human Habitat thread .
So, like I always ask....give us some size, depth, dig spec's. It is gonna be awesome!

Looks great! Keep the pics coming as she fills so all can feel your excitement.

Nice pond!!

I'm curious, why would you plug the drain?? Wouldn't you want a valve instead??

That's the way I wish I built my dam. If I knew your friend a few years back I'd be a lot better off!

Wow.

Congratulations, Jersey!

Congrats man. You fought the system and won.

Now you can worry about things that are more under your control, like weather, water turkeys, and FA.

That looks ready for fathead minnows to me.

What do you think, Burgermeister??

I would have liked to put in a valve, and I actually have a 12" (for sale now), but for whatever reason, it didn't get installed. The siphons will drain it if necessary.

The 2 story structure is the other owner of the property. He has posted some pics on this site, but I won't call him by name right now. It shouldn't be hard to figure out. He loves deer.

Sunil, there are some minnows swimming around in the shallow water, but I have no idea what kind. Seriously, if you or anyone else has recommendations on what I should do next, please let me know. I am thinking I would like to stock it with BG and SMB. My goal is to have good fishing for the kids and low maintenance.

Brettski,
Sorry, I meant to answer your questions...

6 acres, 6-9 feet deep, about 1000' x 400' average, 75,000 cu yd of dirt, 13,685,759 gallons give or take, and about $200k counting everything.

No doubt, Sunil. I'm sure Jersey is more open minded than a certain new pondmeister in the upper midwest, lower great lakes area, who has spent more on his fishes homes than most people do on their homes. :p Fatheads and bluegills now. A few channels if you want. Predators later.
A beauty of a site, Jersey. congrats!

burgermeister,
I thought I read that channel cats would burrow into the banks. True?

Thanks!

Jersey, I think I remember seeing that somewhere, but many ponds have them, some exclusively. Maybe some have experienced this. Blues would be more apt to I wound think. If you have good solid banks and no errosion, I wouldnt worry about it. As I said, there are thousands of ponds with them, and I have only seen it mentioned once. Hopefully we will get more on this. If you like fishing for kids or grandkids, as I do, I would definitely want some. Just go light on the stocking considering the size of your pond, or some will not be caught and grow too big.

...Burgermeister fires one over the bow: Yo, Homey take care o' his peep's.

Do I recognize distinct similarities between Jersey's project and this project ?

Looks to be the same project, good job sherlock.

All ponds look alike. A coincidence I'm sure.

By the way, Brettski, it also looks very similar to yours, doesn't it?

:D
Ya got me there, Jersey. Without a microscope, even snowflakes look the same to my tired old eyes. According to Burger and Sunil, a microscope isn't even required when you introduce FH's.

Jersey :

Congratulate that guy you know on his new pond. Looks great !!

This is a good time to break out that old adage " He who laughs last, laughs best".

Three cheers and throw in some FHs.

Jersey awesome news, long tough journey, Ewest here is one for Jersey "what does not kill you only makes you stronger."
I posted under your other thread but forgot you did not have water yet. Give me a call with addy if in the area again I will come by.

What a difference a few days make! Of course, the first couple of feet will go quicker and now that all the dirt is covered it will go slower. We did have a nice rain on Tuesday. Notice the lower siphon is 1/2 in the water.

Congrats to the person's who's pond is filling up Jersey. I hope one day he tells the entire story.

Wow, that is nice.

Join in everyone.....

Fatheads, Fatheads, rolly-polly fatheads....

Bluegills, Bluegills, little bitty Bluegills...

Brettski, you don't have to sing along if you don't want to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sure is a very nice looking pond, or at that size, isn't it a lake? Different terms for different areas. Here it seems that anything over an acre is called a lake, but the rest ot Texas calls them Tanks.

I love the way the grass is growing right to the edge and how there are areas of thick woods and others that look like a park.

Post more pictures when it's full,
Eddie

I figure any body of water smaller than mine is a pond, any that is larger is a lake.

Eat them up, yummmm!

Funny.

sunnies, green sunnies, those mean little yummies

You guys are bringing back fond memories of a young mans crush on Martha Quinn.

You’re not helping things Bruce!

This is great. Jersey's vicarious pond thread ends up with a picture of Martha Quinn.

And not a bad picture either (the pond filling up, or Quinn).

It's Sunil's fault.

Sorry, Jersey.

Lets all join in Badger , Badger , Badger, 1 , 2 , 3 -- 11 , mushroom , snake.

Badgers

I just got a mental picture of Dwight, sitting cross-legged in front of a black & white TV with his 3rd-eye video implant trained at 2 ft distance as the Buggels play Video Killed the Radio Star.

Redears, Redears, rough n' ready Redears.

Shriners, Shriners, sleek and silver shriners.

I know, I know...

Methinks he doth protest too much.

Bruce became, shall we say "familiar," with MTV VJ Martha Quinn in the 80's when he was Drummer/Lead Singer for the band Night Ranger.

Bruce is in the middle, in the red-striped spandex pants.

It's funny you found that picture, Theo. The guy on the right with the beard looks a lot like Lusk, doesn't he?

Not to take anything away from Martha Quinn, (wonder where she is today?) here are pix from this afternoon. shallow end is up 20" from when we put the cork in on Saturday...

That is such a sweet project! Would you please refresh my memory about what your goals for the fishery are going to be?

Bruce,
Low maintenance, fun fishing for the kids, good eatin'.

I've been in contact with Greg Grimes. He is going to bring me a mess of flatheads. Then I'll add bluegill, then bass.

Suggestions and opinions are encouraged!

Congrats. If you look really close you can see countless memories already starting form along the banks.

Joe

Jersey, I think you might mean fatheads vs. fLatheads. Fatheads are the minnows while flatheads are a type of catfish.

Sunil,
Correct. I must have flatfingered the keyboard.

Jersey I would suggest that you do it your way and enjoy the journey. I think it would be a good idea to think about how much (in lbs of BG and LMB) that will be harvested per year and give that info to Greg. Assuming that a lot of LMB will not be harvested then talk to Greg about the merits of under stocking (or low stocking range) the LMB . You should see better initial LMB growth , allow the forage base to get well established and it will leave room to add a few catfish if you decide you want them.

ewest,
What you described is exactly what I had in mind. No one but my family, and the guy on the ether end of the pond will be fishing it. I think I need just enough LMB to make it interesting. They should grow fat and happy.

The pictures posted above were taken at about 5:30pm. The water was 20" above where it was when we put the cork in last Saturday. Today at 5:30 it was up to 22.5" The only rain we have had was a pretty good downpour last Wednesday. This pond is at the bottom of a ~320 acre watershed.

Just have to add this - catfish (channel, flat or blue) DON'T dig holes. There feets are shaped all wrong to hold a shovel.

Seriously, though, they may slosh around and clean out a depression, but they don't "dig" anymore than BG or LMB. Now, if there's an existing hole (muskrat den, or something) they may go in and waller around a bit and enlarge it somewhat, but they'll have absolutely no effect on your dam or banks.

Oh by the way...MAN that is a gorgeous pond/tank/lake/small reservoir...

I've swum in and handfished enough ponds to know this much, at least. :rolleyes:

Pond is now up 38" since putting in the plug! Greg, I am ready for fatheads!

Jersey, get a few more pics.

Sunil,
The pics don't really change much now that the bottom is covered. That's why I haven't posted any in a while. We expect some big rain on Thursday, so I'll get some new pics posted by the weekend.

It was up to 42.5" on Sunday.

10-4 email me back to confirm order. I think we can get you some next week. Ewest I like your idea but that is basically the plan we use for trophy bass clients. Low sotcking densities on bass leads to great growth but also better bluegill survivial thus reduction in bluegill growth.

Jersey would you rather have more 5-7 inch bluegill to catch and bigger bass or slighlty less overall bluegill but larger 7-9 inch bluegill and slightly less bass growth? That to me will dictate the bass stocking program in June 2008.

Jersey I also think since so many have followed your journey this needs to be a PB story. You can follow it through planning/building in first article, fish stocking/mgmt second article and fishing success in third article that can come out in spring 2009. Whatcha think posters/jersey.

Greg I agree. Jersey's goals decide what the plan is. I was keying on his little management idea so he would not have to worry as much with culling LMB to soon. I like to reach carrying capacity (usually 2-3 years) in an understocked LMB position. It is easier to add a few LMB or BG than to constantly have to cull LMB.

It would be a good story for the mag.

Especially if it could all be told.

Greg, I'll give you a call today to discuss.

My goals for this pond are to have a fun place for kids (of all ages) to enjoy catching BG, CC, and an occasional bass. I'm not looking for any records, just some fish that are fun to catch and big enough to eat.

I'd love to share the whole experience of building this pond with the forum. I have lots of pictures of the process which started in May 2004. I only wish I could do half as good a job of documenting as Brettski has done. I do agree that following the making of a pond from the planning stage, through design and construction, initial stocking, and achieving the final goal would be a great series of articles for PB.

As far as sharing the "whole" tale, I guess I'll have to do that at some point. I'm afraid the suspense of it all is more exciting than the actual story, but as Sunil would say, it is certainly core to my adventure.

Jersey,

Congratulations on taking the next step! Having just reviewed this post and refering back to your initial set of photos, it looks like you did not add any artificial structure, i.e. trees, tires, rock piles etc. or maybe the photos don't show it. Did you put any structure in the pond? Just curious.

Russ,
The graders left a pretty good bit of contour in the deep (dam) end. I put in a big pile of pallets covered in cinder blocks in the shallow end, and in another area put two Xmas trees. It's not as much structure I would like, I hope it's enough.

Jersey,

I was just stareing at the picture wondering - that pond has drain pipes and siphon pipes too?

Gator

Gator,
The drain is not really a drain. It was just there to let the water out as we built it. It has a cap on it now.

I just got a call from my neighbor. We had about 2+ inches of rain yesterday and the water is flowing out of the siphons. I guess that means it's full! WooHoo! Now we have to adjust the vent pipes to fine tune the level.

Pictures soon.

Jersey, I gotcha.

That is a mighty fine looking pond. Congrats, sounds like you have an excellent water shed.

Way cool, Jersey....hurry up with the pix. I wanna vicariously enjoy the purported zen-like experience .

Better close the siphons or all the water will drain out. Once they start they should run until they lose suction. Glad she is full !! Where are Burger and Sunil when you need them to join in the reply - " Put in the FHs ". :p

ewest,
The siphon vents aren't that low, but I know what you mean. I can't confirm if the siphons ever actually siphoned, or if the two 12"er's were enough to just let the water spill through. I do know that the level is now 6'8". It has been 2 weeks and 6 days since we put the plug in. That's a bunch o'water!!!

Greg says I might have fatheads and BG next week!

Filled up just in time for the fish. They are on order and will be there tuesady. I had to juggle the schedule but will make 2nd half of fish run that day to see your pond. Might be as early as 3:00 pm but will call you with 2 hour notice. thanks and I will let you get lots of pics b/f we shoot them in the pond.

5000 Fatheads, 2200 BG, and 550 RE. Thanks, Greg!


Full pool!

Outstanding!!!

Boinggggg!

Nice!

Gator

Jersey that is the fastest I have seen a pond go from empty to full and looking like it is 3 years old. Well done !

I had guessed that it would take 6 months to fill. The guy who built it guessed a month. It took 2 weeks 6 days. All of the grass around it is rye. I hope to replace all of it with Bermuda this summer.

Greg put the fish in down by the dam. When I left, about 3 hours later, there were little splooshes on the surface 900' upstream in the shallow end.

The shallow end got as deep as 6'10" during last weeks rain. It has finally settled at 6" 2". The siphons never siphoned. But there sure was a lot of water going through them. Here is a picture of the "normal" everyday flow coming out of the lower siphon. The other siphon is just a trickle now.

wow, what a watershed you have there Jersey...very nice indeed.

Gator

Jersey nice seeing you again. Hope all is well. Let me know how it goes with putting on a elbow on discharge side of siphon. Too bad you could not get a full shot of the gray beard, Did the close up shot of the fish turn out well?

a blessed event jersey!

great lookin mess-o-gills there.

i love seeing the splooshes and rings on my pond, its a great feeling to know yer new babies are happy!

Jersey I don't see any yellow/orange tails or fins. Did you stock regular or CNBG?

Gosh, I don't know.
Greg???

They look like common bluegill. However, I don't mean that in a disparaging way. They have served me much better than coppernoses.