Creating a Lake

[EddieWalker]

In the last three days, I received 6 inches of rain. Lake Marabou was about a foot low before the rains, and is close to six inches above the spillway right now!!!!

This might be the most water that I've seen coming out of the spillway.

The first picture is of the spillway. You can see that the grass and plants are holding together nicely. Absolutely ZERO erosion.

Second picture shows where the water from the spillway feeds into the creek. As the water went over the edge of of the creeks bank, it started to erode away the land. In the first year of being full, the ditch was created and hasn't grown since. If you look past the falling water, to the right, you will see the path the water takes from the spillway of th lake. It slopes nicely, but when the water isn't flowing, you wouldn't know it's part of my spillway.

The other two pics are just what Lake Marabou looks like today.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

... I have some extended family not to far from you in White House TX. He ran a small construction company for many years there and has built many a tank, pond, lake in that area. I guess I never really thought about all the planning that has to go into a project such as this in order to ensure a successful outcome. Thanks for taking the time to document the process.

I used to live in Whitehouse when I first bought the land. I also have quite a few clients there and consider it one of my hot spots for work, and was just there on Thursday talking to a client about building them a barn.

Thanks for taking the time to post, it's always nice to hear of others who enjoyed reading this thread and the fun I had in building my pond.

Eddie

 

[B7510HSD]

Eddie I just finished reading your story and am amazed at what you have done with not only your new family but your great job at your building projects!! Thanks for posting this and inspireing me and others to get out and
make your dreams into something that everyone can enjoy!

 

[EddieWalker]

B7510SD,

Thank you. It's always nice to hear that you enjoyed reading it.

I was on the dozer over the weekend, smoothing out the dirt so that I can plant my pasture this year. I was at it for 15 hours in two days, and it brought back all the pain and suffering of digging the pond. I had sort of forgot what the full days are like on the dozer. hahaha It's only fun for about an hour, then it starts to wear on you.

Now that it's been done awhile, I tend to forget the painful aspects of building it, and just remember the fun parts.

Eddie

 

[3RRL]

Outstanding pictures Eddie,
They really show how Lake Maribou has matured over time.
With all the rain you've been getting, it also shows how your spillway is working out ... doing what it's supposed to do. Anytime you get a lot of water starting run fast you can expect some erosion regardless of how much vegetation is in the path. I think you've done a wonderful job planning, making and maintaining this tremendous project of yours. I may not post as frequently as I used to, but I always read the updates. It is one of the first ones I go to when I open up TBN.
Rob-

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks Rob,

I was worried about the spillway and the dam during a heavy rain and flooding. We've been through two floods where the water from the creek came up and over the crest and about half way up the dam. The first time, I was in a panic until I saw what was happening and how slow the water moved along the dam. This past rain was close to bringing the creek over it's crest, but it never happened.

Right now, I'm waiting for the water temperature to get close to 70 degrees, so I can release Tilapia in there. They are very sensitive to water temps, and the supplier said to make sure I had 65 degrees at one foot of depth before buying them. Another member here, Meadowlark, said that he prefers the water to be a little warmer and to wait until April 15 to plant Tilapia. We've had snow fall here in April, so it's a risk stocking them before this date. I told Meadowlark that his date has changed a bad day into one to look forward to every year!!!

Eddie

 

[rox]

Tilapia, yum-yum, one of my favorite fishes. You are lucky to live in an area where you can raise Tilapia.

 

[EddieWalker]

Rox,

This will be my first time raising Tilapia, so I don't know what it will be like. I'm told that they can spawn at quickly as every 30 days if conditions are ideal. I'm also told they are difficult to catch, but we'll just have to see. The main reason for stocking them is for the bass. They reproduce and grow so quickly that they become the very best food source for all sizes of bass. Something I learned rather recently is that a big bass will only eat a big fish. They won't eat small fish. If you don't have any fish big enough for them to eat and grow, your bass stop growing and getting bigger. The goal is to have a wide range of fish available for the bass to feed on.

Then when winter comes and the water temperatures drop, the Tilapia will become sluggish and before they die, they become easy eating for my bass. This will also mean the bass will go into winter in better condition and at their peak weight.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

Will you have to feed the Tilapia or is there enough natural food for them?

 

[EddieWalker]

There are plenty of sources for information about Tilapia and ponds, but the guy I'm buying them from has a really great page on them on his website.

Tilapia

Since this will be a first for me, I'm basically relying on others for information and experience. When April 15 gets here, I'm going to go buy about $400 worth of them and let them go in my pond. Then in a month or two, we'll see if we can catch any of them.

I've waited until now so that I have enough bass in there to justify this expense. Doing it last year would have been too early, but this year, it's time.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

Interesting read on the Tilapia. Sounds like something I could use in my pond to clean it up. Unfortunately my pond is partially fed by ditch water and you never know what is in it. We have had fish kills before of whatever fish are in the pond from the ditch system.

How do you get your fry fish? Trucked in or you have to go pick them up somewhere?

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm sort of fortunate that I live right between two suppliers. Tyler Fish Farms, which is fairly well known and very reputable as a supplier for fish is just half an hour East of me. I drive to his place, tell him what I want, what my goals are and how big the pond is, and he recommends what I should buy. He has them in tanks in a covered building, and they catch and bag them up while I stand there watching. They put the fish into a clear plastic bag that's probably 20 gallons, give or take. The weigh out the fish that I'm buying and seem to be sort of generous on this. The fish go into the plastic bag with some water and then the rest of the bag is filled with pure oxygen from a tank.

The guy who sells the Tilapia is South East of me, and about an hour away. Maybe less, I won't know until I go for sure how far away he is. I've been to Henderson a few times, but don't know it well enough to know where he's at. He said he does the same thing with his fish. Plastic bag and a shot of pure oxygen.

Both make a big deal of picking up the fish in a car or vehicle that they are inside. They don't want the fish in the back of a truck to bake and die on the drive home. We'll take my wifes car when we go get the Tilapia.

Tilapia are illegal in most places to release. They will overtake a pond and cause all sorts of damage. The reason they work good for me in my area is that they will all die off in winter. If that didn't happen, they would just keep breeding until there was nothing else in the pond and they die off from over population.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

They would definitely die off here, my pond can and has frozen over. Here you have to have your pond inspected and receive a pond permit before you can put fish in it. I have thought about trying to raise a few trout in the months there is no irrigation water and the pond is only fed by an artesian well for the kids to fish. However, it appears all the places to get trout are out of state and wouldn't be worth the effort.

 

[rox]

Eddie, Good article on Tilapia. Of course I know why the bass go for them, they are absolutly delicious.

 

[patrick_g]

I have never eaten tilapia, purposely avoiding them. I got some sort of THING about them BUT with all the raves maybe I need to give them a chance.

I wonder if the season would be long enough to make it worth while to put any into a pond in these parts. (South Central Oklahoma)

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

I've never eaten Tilapia either!!! I never order fish when we go out to eat, and most of the time, don't care to eat fish. But I'm weird in that I do like it when we have get togethers and there is a whole bunch of people here eating it. I also enjoy fish when I'm in the tropics someplace and it's freshly caught.

I'm still not sure how to catch them or what to use as bait. There has been some talk about catching them over at PondBoss, but I didn't pay attention to those discussions. I'll have to do a search over there to figure it out sometime this summer.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

Actually the appeal of Tilapia is that it _doesn't_ have it's own flavor. It takes on the flavors of however you prepare it. Americans don't like their fish to be 'fishy' which is why it is popular here.

 

[rox]

Actually the appeal of Tilapia is that it _doesn't_ have it's own flavor. It takes on the flavors of however you prepare it. Americans don't like their fish to be 'fishy' which is why it is popular here.

Charlz, I think you got it! With a good chef who makes an excellent sauce talipia is to die for, honestly it is one of my favorite fish to eat. I just asked my husband when he owned his restaurant how he served Talipia, he said, cooked in parchment paper with carrots that are cut into matchstick size, leak and celery, a dash of white wine and a dab of butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper, then baked int he parchemnt paper. Also he sauteed it and served it with a basil sauce, also pecan breaded. For pecan breading put the talipa in an egg wash then drag it through fllour and then chopped pecans, sautee in butter then serve with an Ameretto sauce whihc is a white wine sauce with cream and a little armeretto liquor. So you can see why I like Talipia, with a hubby who is a chef and cooks it like described above it can quickly become a favorite yum-yum

 

[patrick_g]

Rox, with all that done to the fish you could probably substitute some hearty bread in place of the fish and have folks not notice. Farm raised catfish should make a suitable substitute with all the flavor/texture misdirection involved so long as the fish's flavor is not strong and the texture is pleasing.

Pat

 

[sld]

People give me grief all the time about the way I cook doves. I wrap the breast in fresh jalapenos, dip in butter, roll in onion flakes and wrap a piece of bacon around it before grilling.

Heck, if you think about it, you could do the same to a dog turd and it would taste pretty good.