Small Pond Project.........

cartod · Sep 22, 2014

Ok, I cut a bunch of ledges and Ill do some more tomorrow. I put rock on some of them, should I do it on all of them?

GPintheMitten · Sep 22, 2014

Cartod, what about the sand seem. Do you know how much water you'll lose through that? I don't know how critical it is to seal it. I guess I would be concerned about that.

cartod · Sep 22, 2014

GPintheMitten said:
Cartod, what about the sand seem. Do you know how much water you'll lose through that? I don't know how critical it is to seal it. I guess I would be concerned about that.

Its sealed. We mined out 31 truckloads of sand and sealed it off about 12' below the dam with clay. Spread the clay in layering it and rolling it between each spread. Then we built up over it 27'. It's the other side, the high side I'm worried about. The dam is right......I hope.

GPintheMitten · Sep 23, 2014

cartod said:
Its sealed. We mined out 31 truckloads of sand and sealed it off about 12' below the dam with clay. Spread the clay in layering it and rolling it between each spread. Then we built up over it 27'. It's the other side, the high side I'm worried about. The dam is right......I hope.

Oh. I misunderstood.

EddieWalker · Sep 23, 2014

It looks more like you are landscaping then creating habitat. The gravel you put down might work for spawning, but it's not enough to create any sort of a hiding place or barrier. Think of two foot drop offs and mazes that the smaller fish can swim into to escape the big fish trying to eat them. Dig a two or three foot ditch and then pile the dirt up next to it. Get some trees or stumps and pile them up into something a dozen or two dozen feet long at either end of the pond, or even in three places. Stack a dozen pallets on top of each other and put some cinder blocks on top of them.

If you plan to swim in it, leave the shore near the house pretty so nobody gets caught in it. Just remember that once it's full of water, you wont see any of this unless you have a few stumps sticking up through the surface. I did this by accident, and have found that it's great for birds and turtles to rest on.

Eddie

farmer2009 · Sep 23, 2014

If you add brush and want to fish it. I have a neighbor that tied laundry soap jugs to the brush piles. They float and he know where the piles are. He can fish next to them and helps keep kids from getting lines hung in them.

cartod · Sep 25, 2014

Thanks again for any and all suggestions/criticism/observations. We are in a very dry spell and will remain in one for a few more weeks, so I have time to move around in it. I have set rocks on top of everything to anchor. Would you suggest any structure on the bottom? I have a bunch of rocks. Here is the photos of the current structure.

Larro Darro · Sep 25, 2014

That hollow log is nice. Lots of good hiding space in there.

Larro

GPintheMitten · Sep 25, 2014

You might Google fish structure. Here's a couple of sites.

Man-made structures create fishing haven and they aren't hard to create | AL.com

Building Freshwater Fish Attractors

Kyle_in_Tex · Sep 26, 2014

Stacks of cinder blocks on their sides with the hollow sections exposed.

Our pond is silted in and mostly less than 5' deep, some places only 2'. We have 7 lb bass and some catfish. Fish eating birds frequent the waterline. I shoot the turtles to help keep them from overtaking the pond. There is hardly any structure in the pond but we have plenty of aquatic weeds for the feeder fish to hide. Our water stays relatively clear. For some reason, some of weeds are dying back. Not sure why. It is hard to keep some weeds from overtaking the pond. I wish there was an easy way to get out the silt. Only thing I can think of is a dragline. $$$