My New Pond - looking for more ideas and knowledge

[Spearchunker]

PSA - don't drink beer for breakfast and spread pea gravel later...thankfully I have excavator here. Operation save skidsteer coming up.

Appreciate all the communication and ideas. I added large logs today around water line. Was spreading pea gravel when I got too close to the channel cut...

[TeamAmerica]

Yikes!

[dclifton]

Look up Bamabass videos on youtube. Guy has spent a fortune on a 5acre pond. Now i think he is building another one. Good job. Im curious on how long it takes to fill up as well. You are lucky to have good ground water that close.

[Spearchunker]

Look up Bamabass videos on youtube. Guy has spent a fortune on a 5acre pond. Now i think he is building another one. Good job. Im curious on how long it takes to fill up as well. You are lucky to have good ground water that close.

Yes sir, done that.

[Spearchunker]

Got the skidsteer out and back to work. Finished up pea gravel and calling it done!! Plan to tie up duck decoys to heavy brush areas to let me know hang up spots.

Come on rains!!

[scott1022]

Looks like things went sideways fast!

Glad that you got it back up and running again.

[DosToros]

Looks awesome. I would not worry about vegetation. Less is more, should take care of itself.

I would not worry about invasive fish sneaking in. A healthy bass population will keep most other fish populations in check in a pond that size.

I would do channel cats if I were you. Put them in before or during the bass stock. They need to be the same size or bigger than the bass. Bass eat channel cats, and will eat all or most of the channel cat offspring. So, you stock it with channels now and have them for 10 or so years, then the pond will be cleaned out.

Like others have said, add bait fish first. But, honestly, once the bass take hold and the pond gets established the eco system pretty much works itself out.

Once the bass are established make sure to harvest some every year to prevent overpopulation of bass.

Just my 2 cents.

[Spearchunker]

Dostoros I like the channel cat idea. Got some drone pics today. The one shot is us in the house pad. Back porch will look right at pond.

[TreyRo]

Lol at the skidsteer.

Amazing work. On my bucket list to build my own.

[Jamvo]

Looks great! Who dug it for you and what equipment did they use?

[Spearchunker]

Looks great! Who dug it for you and what equipment did they use?

Thanks!!

S and M Construction ( mike Massini) did a great job!! However they were my 3rd crew. Lessons learned about low bid!!!

We had 750 and 850 dozers, 336 excavator and 2 off road dumps and a couple skidsteers.

[unclefish]

Amazing looking project.

Some thoughts on baitfish....fathead minnows are overrated. I would put in gambusia minnows (mosquito fish). Fatheads will get eaten quickly and you won't get much production out of them after year 2 in my experience. The gambusia minnows are great at feeding those small bass and they will produce gobs of fry year after year. You will see them swimming the banks year after year.

In addition to bluegill....I would absolutely try and put some threadfin shad in. Hopefully it fills soon and you can do it before May when they are full of eggs. They are typically a self sustaining baitfish and the bass love them. Your bass may even school trying to annihilate the shad balls. T-shad need it fairly deep to survive some of our abnormally cold winters like Feb 2021.

You can also buy bulk golden shiner fry from Anderson Minnow Farm in Arkansas. They FedEx 250,000 golden shiner fry in a box overnight (starting in May). I've bought several boxes from them and its amazing. They arrive alive and kicking and provide an instant bait bonanza!

Also buy a good pond fertilizer to get a good algae bloom for all the bait you buy.


Thanks for posting pics on the progress!

[rathunter18]

You got a slick operation going on there. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing some big bass pictures in a few year.

[cshunter]

Cool stuff

[GBX01]

Well done, hope it fills up quickly