A very good friend is possibly selling some gravel from out of one of his pastures. When it gets done he is trying to negotiate the reclamation to be establish the area into a fish pond. It will approximately be 8 acres and 14 feet deep. Anyone have any experience with building a fishing hole in a northern climate? What would you put in there? Anything to look out for?
Years ago we was pumping a pit and went across the fence to make a pond for the forest service. They wanted as big of lake as possible so we pumped all the sand back into a pond on our property. That pond got really small but had carp in it. So I did some checking with the state game and parks fisheries biologist about killing it off and restocking. It never happened, (the boss was more concerned with pumping gravel than raising fish.) But I remember the biologist saying not to get carried away with to many species. He said to think of it like an acre of farm ground. You can grow an acre of corn, or an acre of wheat, or an acre of soybeans. But you can’t grow an acre of all of them at the same time. Bass, bluegill, catfish is the most common stocking for farm ponds around here
I’d be concerned about the land in terms of permeability. Once the pond/lake area is excavated, further testing will need conducted to make sure the basin can actually hold water. Years ago I worked for a small residential crew, locally. We had a customer that wanted a large pond on his hunting/vacation spot. Since the company I worked for was split between construction and excavation/foundation work, the boss/owner jumped at the chance to dig this big pond. No tests were conducted before or after a lot of earth was moved… guess what? Didn’t hold a drop. The thought of bringing in a bunch of Bentonite was quickly dashed as the cost would have been prohibitive.
I’d love to put a pond in here, nothing on that scope though…IIRC anything over an acre needs DEP approval at least in Maine. here’s an old thread digging a pond!
