just finished my pond
 

can't see real good from the picks but here is some pics of the pond we just built on our land. me and my father in law did it with some equipment i rented. this is why i haven't been posting we have been working day light to dark for the past 8 days. any way here are my pics i put some before and after pics on there too

Looks good.

Nice! Bet you can't wait until theres some water in there.

my little boy couldn't understand that it was a pond. i kept telling him its a pond he kept saying no its a hole there ain't know water in it.......now that i finally got it built it probly won't rain for a year

hahahah well at least my v. bay would be good to go lol

sounds like your used to the luck i usually have

any suggestions on stocking it how long after the water level is full and what to stock it with

bream and sacalait. Bass is good too but be cautious about them because theyll take over and eat everything else so youll have to keep the school culled out. We had all the above and bass took over and now we dont have much. Also need to watch with weeds. We built a sloped bank pond as well and the weeds in it become horrible because the sunlight hits the bottom so much. Our neighbor has a straight banked pond and he has no trouble with weeds. BTW catfish will end up in it whether you put them there or not.

Be careful with the sacalait. They'll outgrow your water and become stunted....like W. My dad overstocked his with white perch and now he has tons of 3-4"ers......won't likely get any bigger.

hmm good to know, maybe thats what happened to our sacalait cuz I havent seen one in our pond in prolly 10 years

do yourself a huge favor.......WWW. PONDBOSS. com

nice looking hole you got there adam. Ive dug several ponds in the past. usually a good fish hatchery will let you know how many of what kind of fish to put. I like coppernose bluegill,black sacalait,and bass,and plenty of fathead minnows. The black sacalait do better in a pond (non moving water) than the white ones do. Copper nose bluegill get a really nice size,but you also need some predators (bass) to keep the food line in check. Too many bream,and they will all be runts like previously stated. Also, you can get some lake dye to color your water. This helps shade the water somewhat from the sun rays that will penetrate the water and germinate those underwater weeds.Also gives it a nice color. Another thing is to fertilize you pond with cotton seed meal. It is a natural fertilizer,safe for fish,and will make the micro organisms grow ,which the plankton feed on,which the baby fish then feed on them,which the larger fish feed on them,which You feed on them.lol. Fertilizing also keeps your water healthy with the plankton,which keeps it from getting too clear,thus back to the weed problem. Supposedly healthy pond water should just have a visibility of 18" deep. with this weather you might have a dry pond for a little while.

Hmm maybe that's our problem. The vis in our pond is prolly 3-4 feet. It's prolly farther than 18" after a hard rain

When we stocked our pond, we were told by several people (our stocker and Wildlife & Fisheries) that it was best to stock with the Black Crappie and not the White Crappie unless you have a large enough pond (which would probably be considered a small lake). Because they are a lot more predatory than even bass and would eat all the baitfish if not caught fast enough and cause them to be stunted from overpopulation and not enough bait fish.

nice pond man... you need to get some water in there so i can come fish

My Dad had a pond built about 20 years ago. He made it 80' x 300'. He then bought a seine net 100'wide and 10' deep. We would seine every other year to control fish population and get 'trash' fish out. Worked out well. There was nothing like the feeling when we got to the end of the pull and had a 400# wad of catfish in the net. I was the poor sap that had to skin catfish for two days, but I always kept a freezer full of fish. I wouldn't recommend throwing Christmas trees and a bunch of junk in your pond for this reason. By the way the bass were hard to catch. We would see them coming full speed on top the water and jump the net.(better than Sea World) They are pretty atheletic. Although the pond has been neglected (my sister got that tract of land) ,we had many good times there. I hope you and you family enjoy yours as much as we did...

I don't have anything to add other than:

1) I'm envious. That looks like it'll be a lot of fun for you and your family.
2) The information in this thread has been fascinating to read.

For sacs, it is recommended that you have at least 5 acres worth of pond. Visit the LSU website. They have a lot to offer on this. My friend is building a pond right now and has researched this deal extensively. He says that he has found a lot of good info through LSU.

we are on our eighth year.
About 2/3 acre surface area. We overstocked and have yet to recover....just for thoughts.......

One acre, properly stocked will support roughly 100 pounds of bass.
10 10 pounders or 100 one pounders....

coopernose bluegill have been great.
threadfine minnows to start, then the blue gill, then the bass.

Southern is right 4-5 surface acres for sacalait.

depth has little to do with it.....6 feet average is good.
fertilizer is important.

did I mention www.pondboss.com??

invaluable.

google Bob Lusk.....he is the man on ponds in the gulf coast area.
LSU is good...pondboss is great

Hey Peddler, if you need some help with fish eratication, let me know. I've got a two year old that would likely love to get over there and be of assistance! Been looking for a place that I can safely take him. The river and spillway is just too much for a little one his age.

We just had a pond dug in december...Haven't stocked it...Adam how big is your pond?
Catfish however will find there way to it..middle of no-where our creek in ragley (piney woods) hold catfish..