Anybody digging out their ponds in this drought?

[Reinz]

Your project seem to be turning out nicely.

 

[Sasquatch]

I was into nothing but clay before I brought the excavator in. At about 14’ deep I’m getting into shale, and the water comes gushing in, in a 20 year drought. This won’t go dry again in my lifetime.
The pond has been here 30+ years. The main reason it went dry was lack of volume, and evaporation. It only had about 4’ of depth left, after 30 years of filling in.

I’ve got 50% of it down to 10-16 foot. The remainder is over 6 foot, and I have one more day to dig before the monsoon starts. Wish me luck! Lol

Dayum, that's gonna be nice. If you need someone to help test out the fishing after you get her filled back up and restocked, you wouldn't have to twist my arm

What is the plan to restock? Going to transport a few fish at a time from public water? Or pay to have a pond management company stock it? Bass and bream? Cats and crappie? Some shad in there for food source, or you plan to just rely on the panfish as food for the big fish?

 

[KJQ6945]

What did you do with all the dirt you removed, new & improved berm?

That’s a good question. Need some dirt?

 

[KJQ6945]

Dayum, that's gonna be nice. If you need someone to help test out the fishing after you get her filled back up and restocked, you wouldn't have to twist my arm

What is the plan to restock? Going to transport a few fish at a time from public water? Or pay to have a pond management company stock it? Bass and bream? Cats and crappie? Some shad in there for food source, or you plan to just rely on the panfish as food for the big fish?

This was discussed yesterday. There is a fish nursery not far from here where I can get my fish. They even carry Florida strain Largemouths.

Probably will just do bass, bluegills, and cats.

 

[baboon]

This was discussed yesterday. There is a fish nursery not far from here where I can get my fish. They even carry Florida strain Largemouths.

Probably will just do bass, bluegills, and cats.

I am by no means up on lake management , but had heard not all nursery fish will reproduce and in fact much of it is sterile. the friends I have with farm ponds did in fact catch wild & release into their ponds.

 

[baboon]

That’s a good question. Need some dirt?

You could build The wall! A double high planter bed outside might just stop a bullet.

 

[EZ-E]

This was discussed yesterday. There is a fish nursery not far from here where I can get my fish. They even carry Florida strain Largemouths.

Probably will just do bass, bluegills, and cats.

No cats, they will eat all your bass

 

[Lonesome Dove]

I would Dig to have a pond.

 

[mongoose]

No cats, they will eat all your bass

Cats eat anything. My Sis is using this time to reline a tank that has been leaking.

 

[EZ-E]

Cats eat anything. My Sis is using this time to reline a tank that has been leaking.

I had a coworker that built a nice pond & spent a couple of years setting it up with minnows, brim & bass. Then he thought it wiuld be a good idea to put catfish in it. After a few years he was only catching small bass...no big ones. He tried several ways to get the catfish out. Trotline, shock boat & rod & reel. He ended up finding a buddy that had scuba gear. The buddy went down & noodled the bigger catfish to get them out. The biggest catfish had grown to 50lbs

 

[FireInTheWire]

Yes

 

[hooper]

The ponds are looking nice!

Catfish find they're way into your pond. I had built a pond and specifically didn't want cats in it. Stocked it with some bluegill, minnows and bass. The cats ended up making it in the pond, I suppose through the wading birds. These were mudcats, not sure if any other types found they're way in or not.

 

[Vaquero]

Got mine done today.
Bring on the rain

 

[KJQ6945]

I blew a line on the excavator today as I was putting in the the ditch for the overflow pipe.

I called the guy to come pick it up 2 days early.
He wanted to charge me extra for the line. We had an interesting discussion. Meanwhile…..


I’m calling the pond done. There’s a hole in the middle that is about the size of a small swimming pool that is 16’ foot deep. You could bury a truck if you had to.

Everything is cleaned up, the excavator is gone, let it rain.

 

[KJQ6945]

If it’s dry in the morning, I’ll start placing the stumps that I have saved for this. This will be a structure rich environment.

 

[KJQ6945]

Yes
View attachment 339896

That’s not a pond, it’s a quarry!

 

[baboon]

That’s not a pond, it’s a quarry!

You see the hole over in Donie? Strip mines & quarries were a happy place that I miss from the daze of no responsibilities.

 

[KJQ6945]

Got my overflow culvert pipe set today, and placed several stumps in the pond.

Had some extra culvert pipe, so I cut it into 4’ pieces, put dirt on top of it and made some nice humps and fish caves. Set most of it in the 4-6’ depth range next to deep water drop offs.

Overflow is at the top left, stumps and leftover pipe. At the edge off the drop off.
These are at 6’ deep from the drain.

 

[KJQ6945]

And I had a log laying around. So, why not? It’s a 30’ cedar.

That water is now over 5’ deep. The hole is 16’ from the surface.
It’s been coming up almost 2’ per day, in the middle of this drought.

 

[KJQ6945]

It felt wrong taking dirt into the hole to hold this structure down.