I think all pond owners know the feeling when the contractor pulls up to the site and starts to unload the tools of the trade. After almost a three year wait, Monday was the day for me. Contractor scheduling and weather was the cause of the delay but the wait is now history.
This new pond will be a compare and contrast of sorts. My first pond was constructed, pre-Pond Boss, and the mistakes are too numerous to mention. Hopefully this pond will showcase all the great advice and guidance that has been given here on this board. Many, many thanks go out to all you fish squeezers.
My new puddle is 80' in diameter by 8' deep. The size of the pond was limited by three factors; the site is sandwiched between two neighboring parcels, the location of my barn and the location of the stream. The pond was excavated from an intermittent stream that is located about 20' from my barn.
Soils on this site are classed as silt loam. The first sentence of the soil classification (Soil Survey of Ulster County NY) reads as follows, "This deep, nearly level, poorly drained and very poorly drained soil formed in lacustrine deposits of silt, very fine sand and clay." Further reading states that about the only thing this soil is good for is PONDS. I do not know the entire acreage of the watershed that feeds the site but water is the least of my concerns. Jed Clampett may have hit oil but I'll match him in water.
Now let me move on to some construction specifics. The equipment used for this project was a Cat 320 excavator and a tri-axle dump. Contractor arrived about 7:30 a.m. and we were hauling dirt by 8:00 a.m. Except for a 15 minute coffee break, they worked non-stop and finished the day about 5:30 p.m.. The excavator had a 1 yard bucket but each scoop was heaped, holding about 1.5 yards. Each load was around 15 yards (9-10 buckets). All spoils were dumped 300-400 feet from the pond. Average trip time 6-8 minutes. At the end of the day, I counted 65 piles in the field and 2 loads went to a neighbor. If my math is correct thats 67 loads @ 15 yds/load for a total of roughly 1000 yds. Using the figure of 7.5 gallons of water/cu ft, thats roughly a 200,000 gallon hole. Cost was $1,500.00 and on top of that, the contractor, a good friend, has offered the use of his dozer for FREE.
After the contractor left, I spent a couple of hours hauling structure in place, which consisted of rock piles (for crayfish), logs/brush and artificial christmas trees (I wanted to experiment). Time was of the essence due to the fact that rain was predicted for the next two days. One set back, and a needless one on my part, was that I did not get the diffuser in place because I procrastinated and didn't get all the equipment ready beforehand. I paid the price by the end of the following day. By Tuesday night, the rain had filled the pond over half full and by wednesday, the water level was 8" below the outlet. Predictions had been for about 1/2" of rain Tuesday and isolated thundershowers on Wednesday. Like previously stated, water is not a concern.
My gameplan now is to let the pond sit for a few weeks. The water is cloudy but beginning to clear. I need to come up with a plan to get the diffuser in place, all suggestions welcomed. I'd like to be ready to stock by September. My GOAL for this pond is little kids with BIG smiles holding Big Bluegill!
For this I will stock with bluegill and attempt to control numbers with a combination of channel cats (for occasional table fare), fishing and seining. I realize that I may be heading for pitfalls but its an experiment that I approach with high hopes. Given the size of the pond, if this experiment should fail, I'm prepared to accept fate and try a new approach. I will update this thread periodically with my progress.
Russ
