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built a small pond in the front yard

79K views 363 replies 81 participants last post by  G-Code 
#1 ·
OK, its the front 40 acres, but anyway...
It will be about 4+ acres when full. The deepest part of the bowl is a hair over 10 foot deep. That should be good for around here. It has an island:). I still have to move logs in and build a few things up with the dozer (structure). Hopefully I can get it done before any big rains come. It will be fully stocked with Florida Hybrid bass, channel cats, blue cats, bait fish, etc.
Yes, you can fishing, but you have to buy the beer:cool:

a look from the top of the hill



the cows must be hot. They are under the tree off to the left. The water will back up to the road and actually past it. I hope I don't drink too much one night and drive off my road and drown. Maybe Teddy Kennedy can give me some pointers.




water will be about 6" above that 4 foot pipe, which will make that channel about 5.5 foot deep




cow is thirsty. The new tank level will be about 5.5foot above that water level, which is 1.5 foot deep in the deepest part, so the tank will be 7 foot deep there.




looking back towards the damn and "bowl"





looking into the bowl




from the damn to the road is about 150 yards long



this is from the bottom of the bowl. That is the island in the pic



from the other side


another tank of mine. This one's a little low, but is about 1/3 acres when full. It is stocked with channel cats only.
 
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#80 ·
there is about 326000 gallons in an acre-foot. This tank is about 3.5 acres.

3.5 x 326000 = 1,141,000 gallons

say I got a pump to pump 10 gpm, that pump would run for 114,100 minutes (approximately 80 days) just to pump the water to fill it 1 foot. That does not even start to deal with the evaporation part of it, or the fact that it is should be ten foot deep.
 
#82 ·
This is absolutely epic. I've fished in a private "lake" once before as a kid and I vowed to have something similar in my lifetime. This is some amazing motivation, to not only build something like this but live in an area that would allow for it.

Any thought to marking the underwater structures somehow to keep tackle loss to a minimum? memory > me so I'd forget where I placed everything and keep snagging my line on random branches.
 
#84 ·
I have taken many pictures and even "mapped" out areas (dept, structure, etc)
 
#91 ·
We got lucky and got 2" a couple weeks ago, but it was a slooow rain so the ground just soaked it up. I'm back to being scared of this drought..


I have been digging a little here lately.

scraper with a full load.







picture of the water that is left (maybe 3.5 foot deep).

 
#92 ·
fed the fish today with my 2.5 year old. Its hard to see, but there are some 1-2 pound channel cats at the surface.


 
#94 ·
I just drove from Abilene, through San Antonio, to Port Aransas and back. I've never seen so much dry land and dead grass in my life. It's got to rain again sometime, but I'm afraid it will be September....
 
#95 ·
where did you stay in port A?

"Port Royal" is awesome

We usually stay at the "Mayan Princess"
 
#98 ·
where did you stay in port A?

"Port Royal" is awesome

We usually stay at the "Mayan Princess"
Stayed in a private owned home. The downstairs part actually. About 100 yards from the beach. We didn't have much choice, we started our reservation seach late. It was a nice place though. And cheaper than Port Royal I think. $155 a night for five people.
 
#96 ·
here is a pic of the "old" tank before I broke the dam and built the new one. It was about 3/4-1 acre when full (like shown)

The red represents the new water level/dam layout and the blue is the part on the North side of the road that I will build later on. The white is the road that goes through my property...


 
#97 ·
Looks like some good ole fashion Texas hunting land there. Told the wife last year I plan on building a small catfish pond. I like the way you think, and good luck to ya. My Parents said they got a little rain, said it been dry in San Antonio. I bet it rains a ton this Oct/Nov.
 
#100 ·
Well, some more bad news..


Saturday I waded out into the last part that had water. According to the marks I made when it was empty, the water should have still been 2.5' deep. The problem is that it silted in a lot more than I expected. It had 18" is silt in it and only 1 foot of water.:(

I had to make a decision..

It was too deep of muck to try and seine the fish out and the water was also too wide (~30x50 yards)

I tried to dig out enough of the semi dry part right next to the water and drain the water into it. This sort of worked, but I did not have enough volume, so there was still about 3-4" of water in the main part. In the process of doing this, the water got too mucky and stirred up. This killed the fish that were in there. The catfish were not worth cleaning, but the few bass that I had in there I gathered up as they floated to the top and cleaned them. It is a very sad sight to see all my fish die..:(

Now I have to push all this mucky crap out of the 3-6" of water and on to land. It is like trying to push soup around. I will let it drain and dry a few days and then haul it out. This is a lot of work.
 
#101 ·
^^^

That sucks ...sorry to here that. Better luck next year.

Where's the water tabel for a well ?

I'm going to do a little pond after I get a windmill in to pump water from about 80' deep.

Sucks about your time and money wasted. :(

G
 
#102 ·
^^^

That sucks ...sorry to here that. Better luck next year.

Where's the water tabel for a well ?

I'm going to do a little pond after I get a windmill in to pump water from about 80' deep.

Sucks about your time and money wasted. :(

G

It's not that bad. The time is not wasted. The only thing I am out is a $300 in fish. The tank is still there and will fill up someday... maybe... IF IT EVER RAINS AGAIN!!!


This drought is worse than 2009. Cattle farmers are scared to death. Feed is high, hay is high, diesel is high, and no rain in sight.

My plan was to plant about 60 acres in oats/rye grass this winter and let the cows feed on that and the little hay I have left, but now the long term forecast shows us to have a dry winter too. Not good...
 
#103 ·
Not good at all.(drought). Did you find a place to stay in Port A?
 
#104 ·
I'm letting the wife handle it. We may opt for Rock Port or wait until after labor day for Port A (cheaper)
 
#105 ·
I would have left as is. Back in 1978 , we had a 5 month drout. 3 acre lake the deepest about 12 ft. The lake was dried up with craters cracked in the bottom. Had 2 large stumps where we had cut the trees and left the stumps standing. I burried about 50 large catfish in the bottom. A month later it started raining. It rained for 2 weeks straight . The lake filled up and was running over the spillway. A couple weeks later we were down there walking around and noticed some movement in the water. So i went and got some feed and threw in and there they were. Must have been 200 cats large and small. They were burried down in the mud that was under the dried out sheets of mud. Could not believe that they could survive in mud only. There was no water at all in the lake not even a wet spot on top.
 
#106 ·
The problem with leaving it is that the tank is only ~11 foot deep to begin with. If 1.5 foot silts in, then the overall depth would be only 9-9.5 foot
 
#107 ·
you might consider stabilizing the ground with fly ash. this will dramatically reduce silt and also help seal the pond as well.another idea, take some 5 gal buckets put about 6 inches of concrete in them and stick 1/2 inch plastic pipe in the concrete to take shape like a bush. place them in the pond and it makes great cover for smaller fish and if the kids hook them it will slide right off the plastic.i put some in my pond and you can throw right to them and catch fish every time.I fyou need more info on the fly ash let me know.
 
#110 ·
I have way too big of an area for me to try that. I know what you are saying, but I don't have the time or the money to do that.

I am looking for ideas for cover and your's is good. I have seen that before. I might try it.
 
#109 ·
I have been working on it as much as possible the last 3 days. Now it looks like it will miss us. Damn we needed that rain..
 
#113 ·
I didn't think about that. It is not a matter of packing it down because it is tight and dried hard, but as soon as it gets wet and water runs over it, the small clay and sand particles disintegrate get washed down stream. I thought about digging a series of small pits in the flow that would collect the silt before it gets to the bowl.

A sheeps foot would create a bunch of dimples that would collect the silt, right? Instead of a half dozen small pits, it would be thousands of small dimples. Am I thinking of this right?
 
#115 ·
thats the plan, but I need water first :p
 
#116 ·
Here are some pics of my latest progress... if you can call it that.

some of the mud/dirt I have pushed out of the bottom. I am making a peninsula out of some of it. Peninsula is to the left




This pic is from the dam side. If you look, there are two 'walls' of dirt that split the water part in thirds. The soupy crap that I need to get out is in the middle. You can not push that stuff, so I started from each end and pushed up a 'wall' of good clean dirt. I used that wall to push all the soupy crap to the middle. I then started form the other side and did the same. Behind the walls of good dirt is ~2' of water with no mud. The area in between the two walls looks like water, but it is that soupy stuff. I rented a 3" trash pump and hope to pump most of that stuff out. If I keep it stirred up it should work. It's no different than trying to pump a septic out.






same pic, but from peninsula side.










looking from that peninsula back upstream.




the water level is going to come almost up to the top of the dirt. Should be about 6.5' deep here.

 
#119 ·
Nope, not a drop. It is seriously bad dry down here. I am about 15 miles South of the Bastrop fires.
 
#120 ·
Sorry to hear about the pond. I wish you could get some of our rain up here. ( Philly Pa.) It's so wet trees are falling out of the ground because it's too soaked to hold the roots. And all my fishing creeks are so flooded they look like small muddy rivers. The Delaware river has pretty much been off limits for me all this season do to the rain here and up state NY's run off. Been a WET summer here. More rain than sun. Hard to get out and fish. :mad:

I'll go outside and do a rain dance for ya. So if you see clouds in the next few dayz, it may be working. LOL

Hope you get 1/2 as wet as we have.. ;)
 
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