New Pond

[john4nh]

Harv nice pond!!

To the orignal post you probally should try to work out a deal w/ someone to dig your pond w/ you moving the dirt as they dig. Even if you stock pile it for speed this will help the contractor and give you lots of seat time. I would recommend you get a hard money bid though. Dozers are great and will push out a pond but depending on size of equipmant and soil conditions he will get beat hands down by a hoe..So if you get dozer you really dont wanna pay by the hour.. Wished I lived closer Ive done a couple with the 580 close to your size but it was a bit slow because of having to move the dirt. One other thing you might find some one to do it for free, but they will take your dirt..

 

[fishman]

The clay material for sealing ponds is commonly referred to as "sodium bentonite". It can also be used to seal existing ponds. Finally, a topic I can contribute to!

 

[fishman]

One site with good information is:
http://www.texassodiumbentonite.com/

 

[goble]

I'll chime in with the others. Don't think you want to attemp to did the pond with a 4600. I have three ponds all dug by a large Cat before buying the property. The drought we had in 99 dried up about half of one pond - the pond's approx. 2/3 the size of yours. I had an excavator, Deere of course, come in that fall to dig out that portion that dried out along with making the remaining shoreline a bit deeper. The resulting mountains of clay were left to me, JD1070, fel & box blade to move & spread. The mountains of clay moved were probably a small fraction of what you'd be looking at. After over 150 hours on the 1070 most of the clay got moved this past year. At the end a buddy volunteered his "small" dozer, again a JD, to finish moving the remaining clay/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif. Clay, muck, needed to dry enough to be able to move - if it dries too much it becomes the consistency of concrete & next to unmovable with the fel/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Since the 4600 is only a bit larger than my 1070 I think I'd only attempt to use it to dispose of the dirt after it's been dug out. That will still take quite a bit of seat time by itself/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Stony Creek Trout Farms in Michigan (1-800-448-3873) has a lot of experience in designing and building ponds. I have a small pond that I stock and deal with them often. They are good folks and I am sure they would give good advice. They have a mail order catalog and deal in 42 states (their claim.) They sell pond liners in one-piece up to 45,000 sq ft. The large sizes are polyethylene.

I have a 2 acre field in the front of my property that I am contemplating turning into another pond--maybe up to 1 acre. I would not do the digging myself (B2910 w/fel) but have use for the spoils in filling a lot of low spots elsewhere on the property. I would most likey do most of this myself.

By the way, I love my pond almost as much as my tractor. I have planted it with largemouth bass and hybrid bluegills. The later have grown quickly to 9" to 10" and are a blast to catch on a light fly rod. I have an automactic pellet feeder that helps greatly in growing them up quickly. Also use a bubble areator to keep the oxygen up and the water turning over.

Good luck

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: New (fish) Pond

Hi Bill, Welcome aboard!

I'm a 20-acre kind o'guy myself. I'm interested in the bass/bluegill pond you have now.
What size is it? Would you mind telling us how much $/mo. the aerator/pellets/other costs to maintain your fish are?

I moved to the NW from the South +/- 25 yrs. ago. I know what you mean about the flyrod and the bluegills.... sporty little fish!

I miss it.
Got a 1/2 acre pond on my place that won't hold water year round. I'd like to enlarge/seal it someday.

Thanks for any comments /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif,

Larry

 

[Harv]

Pleased to meetcha, Bill. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I'm not sure if you're professing to be an expert on pond fish, but let's pretend you are. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

My 2-acre pond had bass, trout and catfish for a number of years, but now it's just bass. Are bass known for crowding out other types of fish? Is there any way I can plant the trout and catfish again and expect them not to be wiped out by the bass?

Keep us posted on your pond and tractor adventures.

 

[dmccarty]

Harv,

I THINK I saw a publication at the NC extension service regarding fish and man made ponds. The NCSU web page has a link to the extension service.

The bottom line was that small ponds really can only support a limited number and species. If the pond was not stocked correctly, one species, likely the Bass would just eat up everything else. I think they recommended stocking one type maybe bluegills or catfish in smaller ponds. Its been a few years since I read the article so I can't really remember the details anymore but it listed species to stock and how many of each species by pond size. I also talked to an extension agent who gave me some information. You might want to call your extension service and/or look at the NCSU extension service web sites. The had good information.

Try http://www.ncsu.edu/extension/ for more info.

The parcel of land we bought was 70 acres but within a few minutes of owning we sold 16 acres to some friends. If I knew how much money we would end up getting for the timber I don't think we would have sold the 16 acres. Its about the only place that would support a good sized pond. Our friends are talking about putting one in. We possibly could get in a two maybe three acre pond by it would be tough and not very deep. I kinda wish we had not sold...

 

[s1120]

>>I am trying to justify a tractor. Am I out of my mind thinking a JD 4600 FEL and BH will cut it? Who else has done ponds and what size of tractor did ya use ? <<

This is my tactic. I want a bigger tractor with a loader and a backhoe. So I keep coming up with more projects to do with. The more we can do our selves; we "save money"

Paul Bradway

 

[Thomas]

Paul,
Seems like its a go for a new tractor w/FEL&BH,and indeed the list will never end.
I was wondering why you haven't consider a Kubota. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif