shrinking a pond

[LMan1967]

Question about my pond.

Its ~ 2.5 acres and ~ 24 ft deep at the deepest point. Its fed artificially by a well pump that runs about 6 hrs a day (usually).

In the dry season here, its hard to keep the water level up. The well pump isnt sufficient to fill the pond, its more like a 'top off' to combat normal evaporation. When it doesnt rain for a cpl of weeks, the pond gets pretty low.

I was thinking of shrinking (filling in) part of the pond to help with this. theres a narrow 'neck' area of the pond that I could build an earthen dam across that would prob reduce the pond area by a quarter/third, once the "cut off" part dried out (I would then fill it to make it pasture or something). The area blocked off is very shallow in any case.

Any thoughts? Would I be harming the fish to do this? HaS anyone ever made their pond smaller? I dont like running the well pump continuously, it is an expensive up hill battle in the summertime.

Opinions appreciated!

 

[paulemar]

I was thinking of shrinking (filling in) part of the pond to help with this. theres a narrow 'neck' area of the pond that I could build an earthen dam across that would prob reduce the pond area by a quarter/third, once the "cut off" part dried out (I would then fill it to make it pasture or something). The area blocked off is very shallow in any case.

Opinions appreciated!

How shallow is shallow? Is this area used by the fish for spawning or a nursery for young fish? Unless the seasonally lower water level is causing a problem, I'd not worry about it.

 

[LMan1967]

Yea, maybe Im paranoid. It's my first pond. :laughing:


Perhaps I'm worrying over nothing, I dont know.

 

[boggen]

a clay lined mud pond / lake. can easily have 6 feet in fluctuation. in water level. if the mud pond / lake only source of water, is water run off from surrounding area.

pond boss link Pond Boss Magazine: Welcome covers mud ponds and lakes in great detail. kinda like TBN is to tractors but pond boss is for mud lakes.

if the pond is a liner pond, you might try Koiphen.com like TBN but for liner ponds / koi ponds.

at moment both of my lakes are suffering from drought, every time it rains, the freaking rain literately turns 90 degrees 1/2 mile to mile away. and never makes it close enough. the little amount of rain that does get to the 2 lakes, just vanishes due to how dry and cracked all the soil is around here.

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as far as filling in a portion of lake. you need to be carefull! not to mention you are pumping well water into lake. your DO (dissolved oxygen level) could quickly take a noise dive, if you begin filling things in. surface area for mud lakes can be critical in keeping DO levels up. due to that is the only place air and water mix is at the surface of the water. the end result could be a major fish kill.

ya filling in a portion of the pond sounds easy. but that is until you get out into the mud. and tractor just sinks. if you do not compact the dirt as you go, you will have additional problems of yearly settling problems to come.

the 2 lakes i have, have field tile (out in the fields) drain water into the lakes. and can help keep study flow of water into the lakes, exception during drought times, and middle of summer. plus surrounding fields are slopped to the lake, to help get run off water to go into the lakes.

having good grass that is kept cut, to deal with water coming off the fields and drainage tile. is essential for me, the grass acts kinda like a filter, for soil and instead of soil building up and making pond shallower, the soil is caught within the grass.