building your own water

[KenDammit]

I've been tossing around ideas in my head for a few months about how I'd build a pond of my own. Thinking about how i'd build the bottom, what kind of cover, structure, how big it would be, all that kind of stuff, so I figured I'd just start a thread and see how you guys would build one.

I think I'd really like to incorporate a lot of different fish holding spots into mine. Rip-rap, docks, timber, submerged tree's, weeds and grasses, shallow flats, some drop offs in the bottom, some cliff-like drop offs along some of the banks and also in the middle.

So what are things you guys would do?

[Fishie]

I would make some 45 degree angle points for winter fishing that have really deep water off to the sides and I would have lots of brush on them. I would also make like some bluff banks with rocks that had really deep water on them and I would put brush off of them.

[lizardsrule]

I start off with a creek. Then dig out around it, and make a few holes. I would take several cover ideas, PVC trees, fish attractors, etc. I would also make a couple of rock piles. Just depends on how much land I have to work with. If I have enough to make a 25 acres lake, watchtout. If it's only a couple of acres, then you got a lot less to work with. But starting with a creek would be a must IMO. Especially on years like this. You need to have some water coming in. Just flat land won't help refill it much at all. All our local ponds are down 3-4 feet right now from the low rainfall this year. If it was a creek bed, then you wouldn't have it near as low right now.

Lizards

[WTL]

I think that one of the best fish attractors would be just to construct some small holes, maybe 2 feet wide and a few feet deep depending on the soil. The main thing that would be good that most farm ponds lack is depth transitions, I'd really put as many in there as possible. Also chunk rock, boulders, rip rap, rock piles all submerged in 3-7 feet of water. And I would also consider creating suitable spawning habitat, a flat that will vary from 2-5 feet with if possible scattered grass, stumps or wood and actually old tires.

Just throwing ideas around, say you have a creek....say you create an earthen dam, but leave one section concrete...how possible would it be have a valve installed that you could turn on/off at will? I'm talking financially and for whoever would know, cause if you could dictate the current flow --- whoa, what a tool!

[KenDammit]

Fishie, I've read that having points are really good to have in ponds. Some people even suggest having juts of land that extend almost out into the "middle" of the body of water so that you can fish it better without a boat. I think points would be pretty killer in a pond type situation but very rarely do you find them in most places.

Lizards, I think the absolute best way to buld a pond/small lake is on some sort of underground spring or water supply. Definitely with the type of summer we've had in Kentucky, water has fallen a ton everywhere. I think the river was down about 10 feet(it provides water for most of the cities along its path), and the bodies of water I fish are showing about 4 feet of bank, now.

[KenDammit]

WTL, I think its common practice when building a concrete dam to have a valve installed to control water level. I don't know how much it does for current, but I feel like saying that its mandatory to have some sort of valve, but I'm not sure.

[IL.bassin36]

Originally Posted by KenDammit

WTL, I think its common practice when building a concrete dam to have a valve installed to control water level. I don't know how much it does for current, but I feel like saying that its mandatory to have some sort of valve, but I'm not sure.

I wouldn't say a valve is mandatory but you do need an overflow

[zooker]

i would get a hold off your areas enviromental commisson. tell them what you are looking to do. the first thing they do is a survey of the ground that then tells them excatly where the pond needs to go. and how big of one. figure $10000 for dozer work -bobcats will not work-after the over flow is in place. this is when you need to add the extras a bobcat can assend into the pond basin and add holes, ledges. after the pond is full of water then you can add your structure. rip rap in one conner, a couple of pvc trees, one thing i do know is that do not add weeds they will come in naturally. as for fish i would put in a hand full of brim , a couple of crappie, a dozen or so of largemouth bass.i would also add gizzard shad, and a couple channel cat fish. brim breed like fleas as do crappie. both of which will add to the bass's diet. the cat fish will keep your pond clean. also chase off/shoot any canadian goose that comes to your pond as they will ruin a good pond very quickly..

zooker


remember a pond is a liability when insuring-and you have to insure it- even if it has a 50 foot high fence around it some one gets in -even trespassing- falls in and drowns the family can /will sue you for having a pond.

[454ss]

Mine would be very deep on one end and pretty shallow on the other and then it would Completely surrounded by weeping willow trees and they would be so tight and so many you couldt even see the pond and there would only be one opening big enough for one boat so you cant fish off the hill casue i want the weepin willows all around the pond.And it would have a lot of BIG bass casue i would catch them sumwhere else and then throw them in my pond lol. Iy would probably have a lot of cover on bottom and stumps.

[Fishie]

What if you could put in a roadbed? You could practice your roadbed fishing. I would put in a great big dock with brush on it so I could practice my pitching and flipping. You could also put in a old car or some other huge piece of structure.

[Dyas]

Stumps......................... Lots of stumps

[KenDammit]

Originally Posted by IL.bassin

I wouldn't say a valve is mandatory but you do need an overflow

you could very well be correct. I am not very sure about it because all I've ever been interested in is excavation ponds which do suggest a drainpipe and spillway of some sort to control water, but thats it.

Dozing and bobcatting are free for me, as I do construction. Pretty much anything I would need would require little to no cost to actually make the pond. Things for cover and the stocking would be what costs me. I would definitely want a lot of depth change, and a variety of covers to "practice" many different situations. How would a fella go about getting stumps into the bottom during excavation? All the other cover is pretty easy, but I wouldn't be able to figure out how to get those involved.

Zook, the recommended stock rate from everywhere I've seen suggests 100 fingerling bream for every surface acre and 10 fingerling bass for every 100 bream. Unharvested crappie will stunt the pond in a short period of time. They also like to eat bass eggs and baby bass. Shad are another bad thing to add because they multiply so quickly that they too will eventually stunt pond growth. It may be ok in a larger body of water, say 5 or 10 acres, but I don't know if I'd do it in anything below that big. For keeping a pond clean, I'd go for sterile grass carp before channel cats. Only bad thing about grass carp is that they are particular in what they eat, but they will most assuredly keep algae from appearing.

Fishie, a roadbed would be a pretty easy thing to make because you're naturally going to do it when you're working inside the banks. It may not be the perfect roadbed, but it'll happen, either a sunken in type or a raised type.

My objective for a pond would mainly be to provide fishing fun, but right next to that I'd want good experience at fishing different types of cover and area's and looking for huge bass. Nothing but florida LM and bream for me.

[IL.bassin36]

Ken I was thinking about this last night. A couple months ago I read where ray Scott was talking about building a small lake. I think it was in Bassmaster. If I remember right, he was selling a book on it. Might be worth picking up. I believe it covered everything from structure to stocking. Like I said I cant find the article or remember if it was bassmaster for sure. Maybe somebody here will remember.

[KenDammit]

I would like to get ahold of pond boss magazine stuff, but man it seems so expensive for a bi-monthly magazine. I'm sure its filled with tons of good info, which is otherwise hard to come by, so eventually I think I'm gonna have to break down and get the goods.

[flachristopherkeene9]

Talk to your states fisheries sometimes they will stock it for you.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by IL.bassin

Ken I was thinking about this last night. A couple months ago I read where ray Scott was talking about building a small lake. I think it was in Bassmaster. If I remember right, he was selling a book on it. Might be worth picking up. I believe it covered everything from structure to stocking. Like I said I cant find the article or remember if it was bassmaster for sure. Maybe somebody here will remember.

Ray Scott actually has a business, for developing fisheries. He has done ponds all over the country, his own pond has had several huge bass pulled out of it.

WTL,

The water flow porblem is easy. Place a dam in front of the creek you are using. You just place a pipe of your choosing, probably 2"-12" and place it in the creek where it would be deep enough to drain water consistantly. Then install a valve of some kind, or make your own with boards or whatever. You would just need to make sure you don't drain too much from the creek. And of course probably clean the mouth of the pipe out occasionally.

Lizards

[bassnman30]

Tryed to build a 2 acre pond a while back and the fishery guy advised that it would be muddy in the winter and dry in the summer. This body of water would be creek fed with no springs. My advise would be to check with these guys and see what they had to say ref. your intentions. I was told that it would take appx. 20,000 dollars worth of top soil to have a good clear pond year round.
Currently I fish a pond with strickly bream and bass and the bass get very big and healthy as well, based on the limited amount of forage that they have to feed on. To keep the algea down you just need to add a chemical. I forget the name of the product, it could be something like Iron Oxide to control the growth. Don't add too much or it may have an effect on the population of your fish. You fisheries director can advise on this procedure.

[bassfisher02]

i would have a series of islands in the middle.....in a triangle formation, then we would have a shallow stump feild ranging from 1-5' in the middle of the islands......around that there would be deep water, 12-14'. then around the banks it would range from points to drop offs to shallow water. i would add a creek bed if possible.