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Building a pond, need some advice.

Skully

Skully

PMA Member
The wife and I have decided to build a pond on our 70 acre farm. I know there are probably several guys on this site who have been through the steps it takes to do this. Any tips, hints, or ideas will be appreciated. We are hoping to get about 3 acres of surface water in a big creek ditch behind our future building site. I have been told that Govt. assistance is not available at this time but I do qualify for a low intrest pond loan. I was told a 3 acre pond will run around $10,000 complete. Does that sound like the norm? Thanks in advance.
 
I built a pond several years ago, with government assistance. It ended up paying around 1/2 of the cost. i had to pay $1.25 a yard for the work and the FSA office only paid a dollar, plus the seeding etc it didn't cover it all. I spent a total of around 6000 for a pond that was 9 tenths of a acre. The government paid 3200 towards it so about half.
 
Mine is about 3 acres and was built in 1981 for $14,000. Cost is strictly based on the site location and how much dirt work needs to be completed. Some locations you can get a good sized pond for your money and other's you can't. I would go for the biggest you can afford and what is best suited to your location.

Don't skimp on the over flow tube! I would go with welded steel pipe over the galvanized twist tube. I have seen damns lost to cheap tubes. Make sure they construct an emergency overflow in the corner of the damn.

Make sure it will be deep enough to avoid any winter fish kill.

Seed it down as quickly as you can following the dirt work to avoid "fill in".

Ask to see other ponds built by the person you are getting to do the dirt work.

Good Luck!!!
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Thanks for all the help guys. That is an awesome water hole you have there Ghost! Hope mine turns out that nice! Do you only have run off on the one side? How long did it take to fill up? How deep did you go? Thanks again!
 
Skully- Have you already consulted the soils map or NRCS/FSA about the site? I thought we had a great natural site but was advised the soils wouldn't hold it. The soils map for your county will have pond/levee restrictions listed as severe, moderate, or slight and will give you a good idea of what you have there.
 
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Thanks for all the help guys. That is an awesome water hole you have there Ghost! Hope mine turns out that nice! Do you only have run off on the one side? How long did it take to fill up? How deep did you go? Thanks again!

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Rudd....
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Pharmer makes a real good point...check that out. I have a lot of clay in the area.

Skully....yes the overflow is in the center of the damn with the emergency runoff in the corner.

This was three big drainages coming together where the damn now is. Grade was shot at 40 feet from the top of the damn to the bottom. Now the deepest I can find is about 32 feet.
 
I ended up taking Pharmer and Ghost's advice and got ahold of my local NRCS office. They came right out this morning and did a survey. I guess my dreams of a 3 acre pond aren't going to happen but they said I may get 1 1/2 or two acres out of it. They took soil samples and should have some figures for me in a week or two. Hope the soil is the right type. I have alot of limestone in my creek which is a little scarry but we'll see what happens. Thanks again for the help guys.
 
D.Unlimited has $$$ !! Look into it!!! Ghosts watering hole is GREAT!! I bet he could swim NNeeecccaaaggeedd since he is a GHOST and no one could see HIM!!
 
Getting closer to go time on the pond. Does anyone know what timber prices are doing right now. I have some really nice oaks that are going to have to come down for the pond project. Thought maybe I could sell them to raise some extra cash for a dock and a beach. I have no idea what they are worth? Any ideas?
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Get in contact with your DNR forestry service. They will help you mark your trees and give you names of people who will submitt bids. If the trees are all marked it will keep everyone on the same page.
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Maple is supposedly up right now if you have any nice maple trees. As far as the oaks I would venture to say that they are at a pretty good price most of the time. Good Luck
 
Skully, Could you please keep us posted on how this all goes, it would be very fun and interesting to see what all goes on and then eventually the final product: a great pond!
 
Hey Matt, we were all ready to start the project and our dozer guy said that if we wait until later this winter or even next spring we could save some money. I guess with the dry year we've had the stumps are really hard to remove. Once we get some moisture he said it will save alot of time "$110 an hour", as the stumps will push out quicker with more moisture in the soil. I will take lots of pics when things get rolling!
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Skully
I just saw this post. The biggest mistake I see guys make is that they go with the lowest bid. My father-in-law does this for a living and you get what you pay for. You would be amazed at the number of "dozer" operators who don't put in a clay core. And not all clay is good for the core.

Ghost mentioned the overflow pipe. Everything we do is now PVC. The NRCS office will give you all the specs needed.

Our pond is 6 years old and took about 1-2 years to completely fill. You might also want to consider some sort of silt structure above the pond to keep the dirt from silting in the pond.

mole
 
Skully- Hope this isn't too nosy but, did you get any cost-share? I heard that some counties have money for it and others don't. The other thing- did you talk to anyone that has had work done by the guy you hired? A good operator and decent size machine is able to move way more dirt, and make fewer empty pushes an hour than someone still learning. I don't think stumps are much of an issue as long as the grade of the pond is going lower than the stumps. I played around with that little 1010 dozer until I sold it, I know you don't want to pay me by the hour.
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You may consider getting this for information. Ray Scott Pond videos It is very informative on building ponds and adding structure. Check on ebay, I've seen it cheaper on there. Your pond should be more than just a bowl in the ground to provide good fish habitat. Add humps, troughs brush etc. A friend of mine is in the process of constructing a 50 acre resevoir for farm irrigation down here in arkansas. We are following the videos for adding structure. All the dirt work is pretty much done. Adding brush piles and what not. You may also consider building a few of these things. Fish huts You can see what they are doing in the pictures using 4" corrugated drain pipe. We are building our own. If you decide to build some, don't buy the pipe, go talk to a home builder. I got over 100 ft of scrap pipe yesterday from a builder friend, and he said there would always be plenty of that stuff laying around. These little structures will last alot longer than wood. There was also an article about these in the April 2005 Bassmaster magazine.

Don't burn up all your stumps, put them in the water!
 
I did qualify for cost share but they said it could be 3 years before the funds were available so I opted for the watershed improvement low intrest loan. Three percent for 10 years ain't bad. Thanks for all the help guys, that fish habitat looks like a cool idea! I'll post pics when things get going.
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My father-in-law had a pond built a little over a year ago. Paid about $25,000 for it, 3 acreas and 2 smaller silt ponds. Already has 9 feet in it. The guy that did the dirt work did an awesome job. Some of the tree stumps that were removed were put in the bottom of the pond for fish cover. I also believe that you can get fish from the DNR to stock it with.
 
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