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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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#257 ·
You need to make sure you have the right kind of dirt first. If there is a lot of sand and/or rocks, then you will have a hard time getting it to seal and hold water.

A spring would be awesome, but many times that is not available. I must rely on run off, so of course you need to have a slope or hill to feed it. the area of the runoff needs to be right for the size of the tank. If you are trying to feed a 1 acre tank, with 10 acres of runoff, then you will have problems on a dry year. I have over 75 acres of runoff feeding this tank.

A general rule around here, is that if you get a good clay bottom and seal, then 10 foot of water will get you through most big droughts. I am about 11.5 foot deep in the bowl.
 
#258 ·
bing got a newer pic. It appears this was last Summer. The blue is about where the water line is and the red is the future part. It will have a long narrow island in it.

 
#260 ·
that front patch (I should have highlighted the outline) is a little over 40 acres. By the looks of it, the tank will be about 3.5-4 acres when complete.

The middle patch shows where my house and barn and shop is.

I got about 160 acres total..
 
#261 ·
I have $425 woeth of fish coming today.

200 more coppernose bluegill
100 - 6-8" channel catfish
150 - 4-5" florida F1 hybrid bass
 
#262 ·
question we have got a 1 -2 acre pond and it looks to be stunted , it was started in the late 90's thousands of fist sized brim , hundreds of 8-10" bass 50 or so cats 4 large gar ....... i want to buy or find some 5-6lbs bass to throw in and eat the smaller brim ...any advice
 
#263 ·
sounds like you are over stocked. I would start taking out every bass you catch that is under 14". Try and get the gar out, they are some fish eating phuckers. A pond that is over 10 years old, with the amount of bait/perch you have, should have some 6 to 8+# bass (if common, non florida bass) and 10+ pounders if it was stocked with Florida bass
 
#265 ·
the bass?

just wiggle your worm :p
 
#266 ·
I was doing a little digging yesterday, building up the spillway. The way my land is, at that area it is kind of flat. In order not to flood the whole pasture, I built up the sides/bank. You can see it with the fresh dirt. The pic below shows the blue area is the existing water line/area. The red on the bottom is where I was digging yesterday. This is right by the spillway. The little "lagoon" I added is about 50'x50' and will be about 2-3 foot deep. This will make an excellent spawning area.

The red part in the middle of the pic is where water runs down from on top of the hill (left hand side), but cannot make it into the tank, due to me building up the bank/shore. Water just stands there now. I am going to dig out where the water stands and make it about 3 foot deep. This will be more good spawning area, plus it will solve my problem with the water draining from down the hill. It will connect to the main tank by the road and by that peninsula.

The red part at the top is the future part I will at a later date ($$$) It will have one deep channel (6-7 foot) about 15' wide and the rest will be more good spawning area, etc. I plan to leave a thin island in the middle.
 
#272 ·
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...

:p
 
#274 ·
I built the spillway up about 6" and last night it filled up again. I will try and get some pics this evening. I'm curious to see how much of my pasture I flooded by backing up the water another 6" :)
 
#283 ·
#282 ·
do you know for sure that you have enough bait? perch, minnows, etc?

If you know you got good enough bait, start taking out all those little ones. They eat just fine. I would have left the bigger one in there.

Those bass you posted are very light colored. That is usually indicative of muddy, or not too clear of water. Does that water stay that color like in your first pic with the catfish? If so, then you might want to add something to clear it up a bit. You do not want it to be too clear, but if it stays that color, I would clear it up a bit. You can add gypsum, if it is a clay issue. They also sell liquid stuff you can add, depending on your specific problem.

cute kiddos.
 
#288 ·
#290 ·
What fertilizer you get ?? the stuff that helps planktin growth? 1 of my ponds is muddy was thinking about fertilizer and a fountain its only 1/2 acre pond....
 
#292 ·
hows everything going with the tank? i know you have had a ton of dry weather. do you think it will pull through and be ok?

photobucket is acting squirrely on me, but I got a video of the fish coming up to feed. It is only about 1.5 feet low, which is great for mid July.
 
#293 ·
are you getting any of the rain thats been going around? I've probably gotten about 5 1/2" in the last 2 weeks...hoping you might get some;)
 
#295 ·
Yeah, I've got about 3.5", but almost none of it was fast for run-off, which is great for the pastures. Is was getting pretty darn dry. Local farmers were starting to get worried. I sold off a lot of cows last year, due to the drought, and never restocked (cattle prices are too high), so I wasn't too worried... yet.

The tank filled up about 2 months ago and since, had dropped about 18-20". That is not bad at all. After these last rains, it is now about 12" low.

it is hard to see, but there are a lot more fish feeding. Tons of fat head minnows, shiners and perch, along with the catfish. You can see some of the catfish feeding more slowly on top. click the pic, it is a video.

 
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