Meadowlark, you are correct if your pond is in East Texas or anywhere else that gets rain. In the arid places, it's not unusual for ponds to go much deeper. Mine is down a little over 4 ft. right now and if we don't get some whopper storms, I will be down 7 ft., at least, by fall. Amount of freeboard over the top of the overflow pipe is pretty meaningless here. All of my small ponds of 4 to 5 ft. dry up in the summer.
