Well after doing some research around here and going thru all of the permitting process over the last two months, I finally broke ground on my pond the other day. So far all we have done is strip the topsoil and then we have had 5+" of rain since, so I kinda already have a pond...
I am building the pond in my backyard and will be using it for fishing, swimming and wildlife viewing. The pond is going to be around one acre at full pool. I have decided that I'm going to give the SMB/RES/YP stocking combo a try. I also have an unlimited supply of broken concrete and brick type material to utilize for structure in the pond.
Here's a picture off my back deck from last winter showing it before I started any work.
Here's a picture of the area stripped of topsoil and after nearly 5" of rain...
Here's a shot from the opposite direction looking back towards the house. You can see that we just bermed the topsoil around the perimeter and plan to use it to cover some of the berms being built around the pond.
Here's a rough drawing of the pond perimeter and some contours of the ponds bottom.
