New pond build

[E J]

After what seems like forever my pond was finally started this week. After digging for a few hours the builder called me and said he hit solid rock about 5 feet down. After talking it through with him we decided to keep digging the whole surface area I wanted and come back later this year with a rock hammer on his shovel to dig out the rock to put in the deep holes I wanted. He said ponds made in rock like this are typically really clear, cold and fairly weed free.

[E J]

Some more pics

[E J]

More

[E J]

When it's all done it should be about a half an acre or a whisker bigger in surface area. I was hoping to go about 15 feet deep but I'm not sure now just how deep we'll go. Hopefully in a few years me and my boys will be catching fish like crazy!

[TurtleFace]

Very very cool

[grampy]

Nice! If you can go at least 15 ft, a rock pond will sustain trout. My grandfather had one on the farm. Caught my first trout out of it, with him laughing, along side of me. One of my earliest, and best memories. 

[NFA-ADK]

Very cool, good luck with it!  

[turkeyfeathers]

Looking good ! Buddy has one 15’ deep and it holds some lunker channel cats.  

[G-Man]

You must be in a limestone area..here 5ft and rock = no pond.. it's all shale and water drains..

You need 7 to 8 ft to over winter fish unless you have flow of water..   a half acre pond ( average depth of 4 ft. can only support 120 to 160 lbs of fish. Which will let you take about 60 lbs of fish out a year example: 40-50 lbs of panfish, and 10 to 15lbs of bass.

Do not over stock the pond !! Be smart a d start with crabs and minnows and snails you will never have a weed problem if you do. (And will never need a grass carp) stocking rates for predator prey should be close to harvest per year .. so 40 to 50 feeder fish ( panfish,perch) to 10 to 15 predator(bass,walleye) trout should be exclusive and only if the pond stays cold enough for them.

[E J]

Thanks guys. I don't know if we'll be able to get to 15 feet or not now. I'm definitely hoping for 12 though. The guy building it thinks we should be able to get that. I'm still not sure just what I want to stock it with but I'm being patient with it. I'll be putting fat heads in this spring sometime and then wait and see what happens. I do know I'd like to have some good perch fishing a couple years from now though.

[G-Man]

37 minutes ago, E J said:

Thanks guys. I don't know if we'll be able to get to 15 feet or not now. I'm definitely hoping for 12 though. The guy building it thinks we should be able to get that. I'm still not sure just what I want to stock it with but I'm being patient with it. I'll be putting fat heads in this spring sometime and then wait and see what happens. I do know I'd like to have some good perch fishing a couple years from now though.

I did perch and crappie and walleye in my pond. I honestly would stay away from panfish and bass( so cliche ) I would get some pond crayfish as well as Chinese trapdoor snail. Both are very good at keeping plants in check.  And both provide food source and they can become established as fat heads  being slow swimmers will need nests and periodic restocking 

Make sure you have ledge rocks for the fathead to spawn . Inset up bricks with flat rocks over them .others use PVC pipe cut offs. .

Edited April 14, 2018 by G-Man

[E J]

If I can do it I would love to do just what your saying you did with perch walleyes and crappie. How has it worked for you? I have read a bunch that says crappie can be hard to control in a smaller pond. I plan on doing some spawning structures

[G-Man]

Well my.pond is full acre. Walleye.keep perch and crappie under control. It's pretty much weed free after 19 years so far. Did a lot of research and was lucky to find one hatchery that I talked to for hours on how to build, shape, and stock my pond .was very helpful and I bought all my stock from him when I did stock it. You will get lots of advice.anyone that wants to sell you a grasscarp walk away from. You can also buy your fathead thru your local county co OP..  as well as panfish trout and bass.. again I stayed far away from pan fish and bass 

It's so important you stock and build it properly or you will have a mess on your hand in few years. 

Edited April 14, 2018 by G-Man

[G-Man]

The key to walleye is not to fish them out to early.. females grow faster and can breed I 3 years about 18in long and in a pond will be caught out years before the males are ready to spawn at 18 and 5 years old. No you don't need gravel or running water for them they spawn in mud lakes all over north America. Biggest issue is time to reach age.

 

 

[E J]

I took a few pics off the top of the dirt pile today. I think by the end of Monday they will have most of what they can do now done.... If it isn't raining too much!

[E J]

The heavy machinery left today. My builder will be returning this summer when it's dry out to hammer and dig out some rock to put in the deeper areas and do some grading and dirt moving. The pond is filling up real fast with all this rain.

[E J]

I had him dig a little ditch in a low spot in the field that dumps right into the pond. I'm hoping it will help dry out the field a bit too.

[Gencountyzeek]

If u dont mind me asking, about how much is it costing for the pond to be dug? My wife and i are thinking about it for next year. Thanks.

[E J]

The estimate I was given was 10,000. That was before we found out there was solid rock 5 feet down though! I'm hoping it won't get too much higher than that by the time it's all said and done this summer. I think it would be a lot cheaper if you had some slope you were working with. My area is about as flat as it gets so that means a lot of digging. The guy in charge of digging mine figured 2 machines running at 125.00 an hour each for 5 days.

[Gencountyzeek]

Thanks, yea ive been doin some homework on this and it seems $10k is the average cost for this size pond. Thanks again.

[E J]

So here's where we're at. The guy digging the pond was to busy to get back this summer so he came back last week to start hammering the rock.

[E J]

The hammering will be done today after three days of chipping away. There is a heck of a lot of crushed stone coming out of this hole.

[E J]

With any luck we will be close to done by the end of the week.

[grampy]

Looks awesome!

Will you be ringing the pond with all the loose stone?

[eaglemountainman]

Would drilling and blasting have been an option? Good luck with your project. Your kids and you are gonna build some great memories.

I have a 5ac pond on my property in Maine that was built way before I bought the place in '05. There are brookies up to 2+ lbs and I let the local kids play hockey on it.