# Fish Pond - Pond building Intructions



## greatgardener (Mar 29, 2013)

Hello friends,

Idea for a fish pond, and for water storage too. artydance:

40 x 20 pond, natural filtration. Construction, landscaping ans maintenance tips.


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Or go could dig a hole and raise pigs in it until it is sealed and holds water.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

20 X 40? That's a pool not a pond. It's not deep enough to raise fish other than carp.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

oldasrocks said:


> 20 X 40? That's a pool not a pond. It's not deep enough to raise fish other than carp.


I too, thought of a fish pond as a place to raise food, not a small whole for cats to play with.
I have build this kind of small crap/gold fish pool, but here I thought of a way to raise food, plants & fish.
Which I hope to do someday.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

Ive built a lot of ponds but I usually start with a dozer......:teehee:


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

I built this little pond with a small backhoe, not very big but pretty deep. 

I don't know about fish but I have lots of frogs. 

It was the best I could do with what I had so I guess I'll eat frog legs.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

I had a big track hoe come in and dig a few holes in out 1/2 acre pond down to 25 ft deep. It was only 8 ft, less in places and the water turned over killing a bunch of big cats. I almost cried burying cats up to 60 lbs apiece. They had been caught on trot lines and added to the pond for bluegill control.

I did it this way as I didn't want to drain the pond.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

I can make a little pond, but I would like more details on how to dig a big
pond like you are talking about.
How do I do this?


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

crabapple, I wrote a long answer to this and somehow it crashed. So I will rewrite in 3 or more answers so I don't have to rewrite it all again if it recrashes.

First you need to figure out if you have enough drainage to keep a pond full. This varies from place to place depending on rainfall and drainage. The local Extension Office should be able to help you with that. 2nd Make sure the drainage water is not polluted by whatever. Pasture drainage is preferred even though there may be some cow poop in it. Road drainage is BAD due to fuel and oils.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

Figure out your soil down to 12 ft or so. Ask a lot of questions to Extension, well drillers in the area, neighbors with a pond etc. Or just get a backhoe and dig down and see.

We have hardpan rocks down to 3 ft then nice clay. The pond stayed lower til enough silt plugged up the hardpan leaks. As someone said- raise hogs in the bottom and they will root and poop to seal the pond easier.

I'll continue this later. Wife is hollering at me to go somewhere.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

crapapple, the first thing you need to figure out is drainage. Do you have enough drainage from above the pond to keep it full? The area needed for this varies from place to place depending on rainfall. You local County Extension office should be able to help you with this. Luckily we have a 20 acre pasture to the east of us that drains out way. It keeps us full and often overflows, flushing the pond out after heavy rains.

Second is soil information. We have good clay under the hardpan rock layer top. For a few years the pond would go do to the clay base below the hard pan till enough silt plugged up the hardpan so now it stays fuller.

Make sure the drainage you get is not polluted by yard chemicals or road runoff.

Now hire a firm that has experiance building ponds. Ask them if they know how to "core" a dam.

Next, get some grass planted on the banks right away. I use an annual Rye with perennial Rye seed mixed in. The annual will come up in 3 days giving a cover crop for the perennial. I then plugged in Bermuda grass to take over offering a tight matt so really hard rains don't try to remove the dam.

This was my first reply- found it.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks, oldasrocks.
I have pasture,maybe 15 acres for run off on a slope of more than 5 feet drop over the 15 acres, no road or yard run off.
No spring, but a well & pump if needed.
Soil: top soil & sand for 48", then clay to 12'.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

oldasrocks said:


> crapapple, the first thing you need to figure out is drainage. Do you have enough drainage from above the pond to keep it full? The area needed for this varies from place to place depending on rainfall. You local County Extension office should be able to help you with this. Luckily we have a 20 acre pasture to the east of us that drains out way. It keeps us full and often overflows, flushing the pond out after heavy rains.
> 
> Second is soil information. We have good clay under the hardpan rock layer top. For a few years the pond would go do to the clay base below the hard pan till enough silt plugged up the hardpan so now it stays fuller.
> 
> ...


This is similar to the dam my cousin built on his and his kid's land. They have about 1,000 acres that was largely grass land. They had a dry creek that would get water in it when it rained, but would be dry most of the year. They began gathering rock from their land and depositing it on the lower end of the creek bed in a location close to their private lodge. They have a system where they drive around in 4 wheelers with white pvc poles. When they find rock, they put up the poles so they will know where they are so they will not hit them, and so they can take the tractor back and remove them. The kids come out a few times a year from the city and are always looking for things to do to improve their place.

They did work and have worked with their local extension office. At some point in time, someone from the state government came out and filled in the dam end with dirt to the top of the surrounding land.

We are not talking about a pond with a liner. It is amazingly large, considering that it is just a few years old. I am not sure how much water they were getting or had before the dirt part was filled in.

My guess is that the dam water is a couple of acres. It attracts lots of wildlife along with their three shelter belts that are fairly close by. They have white tail deer and pheasants. They also have food plots to attract animals.

When I was there last summer, driving around in a 4 wheeler, the birds on that dam were many and varied. They (government agency) have sighted whooping cranes, egrets and herons. We saw ducks and geese. I thought I saw a heron, but we were far enough away that I could not tell what it was.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

crabapple said:


> Thanks, oldasrocks.
> I have pasture,maybe 15 acres for run off on a slope of more than 5 feet drop over the 15 acres, no road or yard run off.
> No spring, but a well & pump if needed.
> Soil: top soil & sand for 48", then clay to 12'.


Sounds perfect. Go rent a dozer and get to work. Be sure to cover the first 48 inches with clay as you doze. Wish I could draw in here. Dirt from the bottom to line the sides to cover sandy soil.

Only question is do you have enough rainfall to keep it full? County extension should be able to answer this. They should be able to tell you how big a pond the runoff from 15 acres will keep full. Dig it as big as you can and deep as you can.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

Ive built several big ponds in this area. A lot of this country only has few inches of dirt before we hit rock. Most of the ponds ive built you dam up an entire hollar. First thing I do is break a key way into the rock 4 or 5 ft deep and fill it with clay and bring my dam up from there with clay most of the dams we built would push DNR limits of 34ft high. I like to do a 3to1 slope from the toe up and to really get these to hold water we line them with 18 inches up to 2ft of clay. I'm working close to 4 of these ponds that I contracted a few years ago, Ill take some photos tomorrow and post them.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

The "keyway" is a way to CORE the dam so water just don't run under it. It's the proper way to do it.

So run over to crabapples and build his dam for him.


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