Considering renovating a pond next spring.....

[leeinmemphis]

Hey guys,

I bought a farm this past spring and it has 5 ponds on it. One of which is totally dried up but the others appear to hold water pretty well. All of the ponds are fairly shallow and are having alot of weed growth with a weed that has been called "watershed"......it covers approx 1/2 the water surface and makes fishing it very difficult. I believe these ponds were built for the cattle that use to live on this farm. Needless to say that they are silted in and very shallow around the perimeter and I am fairly certain in the middle as well. I have one pond that is a little larger than the others and it is close to an acre by my guesstimates. I am considering next spring taking a trash pump down there and pumping it down and either taking the fish out and putting them in other ponds or just cleaning them and putting them in the freezer. All of the other ponds are fish free so it wouldn't hurt to put a couple of fish in them. I am guessing that this pond has a shallow bottom all the way across because of the debris that I get on fish hooks when they have alot of algae and debris on them. The fish in this pond have the brim pretty large and the bass are stunted. For these two reasons I am considering going on ahead and taking the pond down and redoing it. I do have a few questions though:

1. How long would you guess it would take for the ground to dry out enough for me to get the equipment in there? I have a cat e70 trackhoe, cat 4wd backhoe, d4 dozer, and a kubota tractor with a loader(plus disk/boxblade). Also assuming that I need to move approx. 3' of dirt all the way around this pond how much time do you anticipate it to take?

2. I have one pond that is totally dried out and I am thinking that I am going to carry the spoils up there and fill that area in.(plus it's only probably 100 yards away from the edge of this pond(up a small incline).

3. I am assuming that I need to probably take the edges down 2-3' and probably need to do about the same for the middle of the pond. If I have enough help operating the equipment then approx. how much time should this project take?

4. The levee appears to still be in good shape except that it has some trees and growth on it. Would it be adviseable to take the trackhoe/dozer and clean the levee up so that is doesn't have any tree growth on it? I really don't want to disturb the levee anymore than it is necessary but think it may be a good idea to grade off the trees/misc. vegetation and start off with a fresh clean levee(plus it would make the pond easier to fish).

Is there any other things that I am missing? I am an experienced backhoe/trackhoe/tractor operator and have a couple hundred hours running a dozer so the equipment usage isn't a problem it's just that I have never done a project like this. Here is a pic of the pond in question:

 

[MadReferee]

Have you checked at the PondBoss forums? The forums there and the supporting magazine are top notch and contain plenty of great info on ponds.

PondBoss Magazine Home Page

PondBoss Forums

 

[EddieWalker]

I agree with MadReferee on going to Pondboss.com

They are the experts on ponds like this site is on tractors. Tons of help and advice.

Also do a search in Projects for a thread about silt. I think it was called Silt Happens by Jinman. He had a huge silt problem that he had dug out by a guy with a large tracked loader. It's must reading for what your considering.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[jinman]

Lee, this is a quick answer to something that has no quick answer. Your silt may be 3' deep, 6' deep, or 10'-12' deep like mine was. I'd say you need to pump out the pond and let it dry for at least two months. While it is drying, make yourself a ramp toward the pond starting well outside the pond and go down so when you enter the pond's perimeter you will stay on solid ground. In my case, that ramp-trench was almost 8' deep.

If you use a dozer, you will need to cut that trench all the way across or make it deep enough to back into so you can get a blade full of dirt going forward and out. I guess I don't have to tell you about operation, but what you need to know is your big loader bucket will get impacted with sticky mud and you'll spend a lot of time trying to clean it out. That's what happened to the operator I hired. If you oil down your bucket, it will probably shed that dirt better. If you are lucky, you won't have the "pudge" that was in my pond.

How many days? On a 1 acre lake with your equipment, I'd plan on 3 to 4 days, maybe more. If you only have to remove 3', then you'll be done in 2 days with good operators. By cutting into the edge of the pond and measuring the depth of the soft silt, you can estimate how big the job will be and plan accordingly.

One thing for sure. Cleaning a pond is a whole different "animal" than digging one the first time.

 

[MarkV]

Jim has done it and if he says two months drying time he would know better than I. Of course Jim lives in Texas and dry is something they do well there. When I had a pond management pro look at our pond (5 acres, N. Georgia) we discussed draining to remove silt from about half the pond and he figured close to a year before it could be worked with equipment. That was to long for me so the project never happened.

Couple of other things he mentioned and my reading supports that may be of help. To cut down on the weed build up in the pond, cutting your banks down 2 – 3 feet would be the way to go. It will limit the amount of light that gets to the bottom so that the weeds can not establish themselves.

Our dam or levee had established trees when we acquired the property. The pond management guy said no trees on the dam unless it was a situation like mine where the trees had reach a size of 8” or better. In our case it is mostly pine and by that size they have already sent their tap root down deep into the dam. Cutting will just cause the root to rot leaving a tunnel of sorts in the dam. And of course that is why you don’t want trees on the dam in the first place.

MarkV

 

[jinman]

Mark raises a valid point about time to dry. My pond was "dry" for about 3 months and the silt was still very wet down just 18" from the surface. "Dry" in your pond will depend on the amount of silt and the type of material in the silt. Every pond is different and an expert in your area should be able to give you far better time approximations than I can.

 

[leeinmemphis]

Thanks fellas. I posted the same questions on pondboss. I have been a member over there for probably 3 years or so. They definitely have alot of knowledge over there. I figured I'ld ask over here too since I had a few equipment ?'s.

I am going to check into a few things and may even look into renting a big trackhoe with alot of stick to where I could work it primarily from the existing pond bank. This is a fairly big project for me to bite off and I may end up seeing about getting a contractor to help me with a couple days worth of excavating. I am going to see what my options are......I definitely have plenty of time to figure something out. Thanks again!

 

[dirtworksequip]

You have just the right equipment to complete your project. After pumping out the water. I would consider digging a trench with your excavator for a drain pipe. In order to do any pond it is imparative to keep it dry while working. Once this is accomplished you have to keep your drainage to this pipe. Silt takes along time to dry. I would suggest casting it out of the pond and then you can spread it with the dozer on the back side of the dam and loose it there. You will have to let it dry between lifts or you will not be able to get the dozer thru it.The two advantages to this is: adding more dirt to the dam. Its close so you do not have to carry material or push a long distance.And this will cut down on your time and expense.

You can't put a time on a project like this because there are to many variables. You can start in one corner with the excavator. Dig to whatever depth you want your finished pond. Always keep in mind your drainage. If it gets wet it just makes it 10 times harder.

Good luck.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Has anyone ever used a dragline to remove silt from a pond? Are they just too expensive to rent?

 

[Farwell]

Kyle,
In Michigan drag lines are frequently used to clean up ponds and are probably one of the better ways to do it. Old, used, and beat up drag lines sell for around $5000 The drag lines are purchased, repaired, used and resold over and over again. If you are lucky you can get one that was repaired by someone like Eddie Walker.
One problem with drag lines is their size, it takes a serious truck to haul them and probably some big $$ to do it.
One way to get a drag line is to find several people that have ponds that need cleared, go in together, buy it, fix it (so it is workable), use it and then sell it.
Farwell