I had a couple low spots out in the terrace that comes out of that field that was holding water making farming through them not so nice. So to make sure they drained I took some dirt out of the bottom of the channel all the way to the pond.
The field terrace drains now but I kind of exchanged the low spots in the field for a low spot leading into the pond. So when the pond is at full pool (probably 4" down now) there will be water in that area.
So originally when I was setting the overflow pipe to match the full pool level I wanted for the pond, no that area was not designed to have water in it. But to correct a couple low spots in the field at a later date, yes it was.
I put the full pool level as high as I could get it for maximum pond depth and still stay about 30' from the edge of the field. A pretty tight tolerance.
As it turns out it is a really good refuge for fingerling fish. See loads of gams out there, SMB fry and the RES. I kind of like it for that reason (birds like killdeer and other predators like it too). So I could continue to use the area as a road for my UTV I dug out about 6" deep where you see the crushed rock and put back in large rock then topped with smaller rock. I drive right through the 4-6" deep water now.
Tonight I finally did trap a single SMB fingerling about 2" long. Along with ever smaller RES.
