Pond building questions

timberland · Jan 29, 2014

Location : East Texas

Got a low area on our 10 acres , sort of like a small valley or bottom land. not much elevation change form one side of the bottom to the other, with a small stream flowing thru this bottom land. The stream does not flow very fast because there is not much drop over the 500 ft distance across our property. Anyway the soil down there stays wet if you dig down about a foot on either side of the
stream. It is almost like a wetland I guess. I had a tree guy come in and cut a bunch of Birch, Pine, and a few Sweetgums in the area for the pond. Pretty much clear cut the area.

The stream goes dry in the summer.

Any pond builders out there? Thinking about 3/4 acre pond. Will have to be dug out. Not sure how far down the clay is, it is very sandy soil.

Ken45101 · Jan 30, 2014

I suggest that you talk with your local Soil and Water Conservation people. They will be able to give you some good advice that matches your local conditions.

timberland · Jan 30, 2014

Ken45101 said:
I suggest that you talk with your local Soil and Water Conservation people. They will be able to give you some good advice that matches your local conditions.

Yes , I met with a guy from the NRCS , He said to wait until the small stream dries up this summer and dig down with a backhoe and see how far down the clay is. He did not seem to think it was a good spot for a pond. But sure would be nice to have a pond for the family....grandkids etc. I grew up with a pond on our family property. Lots of great times.

murphy1244 · Jan 30, 2014

There are a few TBNers from Texas that just built ponds hopefully they will see your thread.

Ken45101 · Jan 30, 2014

timberland said:
Yes , I met with a guy from the NRCS , He said to wait until the small stream dries up this summer and dig down with a backhoe and see how far down the clay is. He did not seem to think it was a good spot for a pond. But sure would be nice to have a pond for the family....grandkids etc. I grew up with a pond on our family property. Lots of great times.

IDK, he just might be right. I see a lot of dry, empty ponds around here were the project was a total failure.

We would love to have a pond visible from the house but I've had contractors tell me that there would be a good chance of failure. OTOH, the last house we had, they finished digging the pond one afternoon and by evening it already had a foot of water in it

But that was different terrain with a winter water table down a half inch, and a summer water table down 6' during a drought year, LOL.

bindian · Feb 1, 2014

timberland said:
Location : East Texas

Got a low area on our 10 acres , sort of like a small valley or bottom land. not much elevation change form one side of the bottom to the other, with a small stream flowing thru this bottom land. The stream does not flow very fast because there is not much drop over the 500 ft distance across our property. Anyway the soil down there stays wet if you dig down about a foot on either side of the
stream. It is almost like a wetland I guess. I had a tree guy come in and cut a bunch of Birch, Pine, and a few Sweetgums in the area for the pond. Pretty much clear cut the area.

The stream goes dry in the summer.

Any pond builders out there? Thinking about 3/4 acre pond. Will have to be dug out. Not sure how far down the clay is, it is very sandy soil.

Timberland,
I had the same area you describe. Wet in the winter and dry in the summer woodland swamp. I didn't ask anyone and cleared the trees and put in a pond. At first, with our draught, it went almost dry last summer. Then I dredged the depth from 7 feet to 11.5 feet with a rented mini excavator. So far it has stayed full. My first pond needed Bentonite clay added around the dam. Once your pond is dug, you can always line it with 6 or more inches of clay if it isn't clay......or mix in Bentonite over the whole area. A half acre might take around $800-900 dollars in Bentonite. Maybe more, shipped from Comanche Texas.
Happy digging.
hugs, Brandi
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/251326-instant-pond.html
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/135413-i-finally-started-my-pond.html

Western · Feb 2, 2014

If I where you, I'd also go over to the Pond Boss forums, all you will ever want to read about ponds.

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EddieWalker · Feb 2, 2014

Sand, gravel and rock are all very bad for a pond location. They are why ponds leak and you never really know where it starts or ends. Do you have a way of digging some test holes to see if there is any clay there? Guessing and hoping wont help once you get the equipment on site and they can't find any clay. I know of two guys in my area who spent $30,000 on one pond and twice that on another pond that drain almost as fast as they fill. One was all sand and they tried to haul in clay and line it. It takes a lot of clay to line a pond, and if there are any thin areas, it will leak. I've read that you need at least 2 feet of compacted clay for a pond to hold water.

What type of clay do you have? I forget exactly, but there are something like two different kinds of clay in East TX. Red clay is the best. On my small pond, I dug through the red clay and hit grey clay. That stuff is terrible and I had to dig down past it and then put the red clay back in and compact it to get it to hold water.

On my big pond, I hit three different layers of clay. Red, brown and then black. The red and brown where great, but the black was like a sponge and scared me, but it doesn't seem to leak, so I got lucky there. I also hit one pocket of sugar sand. I dug it down four feet and put red clay into that area. It was only a small pocket, but that scared me too and I spent an entire day digging, filling and compacting an area of just a few hundred square feet. I got lucky and didn't have a leak.

My big pond is 4 acres of surface water when full. It holds ten million gallons of water and it relies on rain run off to fill up. I have dug trenches and built up roads on my land to divert every bit of rain water that I can to my pond when it rains. Sometimes I think I've spent more time changing the landscape to get the water to the pond, then I did digging it. Having that creek already there will make a huge difference in what you get for water compared to what I get. That makes me think this should work for you, if you can get enough clay to hold water.

Something to consider when designing the pond is that people like a nice open, clear, shallow beach area for swimming, but that's not what the fish like. You want stuff growing in water for the minnows to hide and avoid being food. You want structure in the pond around 4 feet deep for the feeder fish to hide from the predators and you want various depths for temperature control of the water. You want an area a lot deeper in case of drought and normal evaporation over the summer so the water doesn't become too shallow. Fish spend something like 90 percent of their time in 4 feet of water or less. So that is where you want all your structure. I have log piles, stumps and branches stacked up that go down to 8 feet and stick up through the surface so it doesn't' matter how low my water gets, there is always structure for them.

If you want a dock, it's easier to build it before the water fills up. I made the mistake of not wanting a dock, and now I've realized that I want several docks.

Good luck,
Eddie