Tell me your experiences with resurrecting old fishing ponds

[elf]

Got a mostly dried up pond on property I bought. Anyone have luck with bringing one back around? Seems to be fed by a stream that only flows part time. Somewhere in storage we have a Dyradrill, I think it's called. (That thing they sold in Mother Earth mag.) If I tapped into that sluggish springhead, do you think the water would start flowing down the stream to keep the pond filled? I know I'll need to get more scraping done first, and repair or replace the drainpipe or whatever that goes through the dam (which is my driveway) , as the cut off is missing. Sounds like a lot of money, so It'll prob. go on the bottom of my to do list. Just planning ahead and dreaming of fishing.

 

[patandchickens]

Got a mostly dried up pond on property I bought. Anyone have luck with bringing one back around? Seems to be fed by a stream that only flows part time.

You can try it. But it's a roll of the dice. Because, a second possibility (as an alternative to your scenario of why it dried up) is that the clay that was holding the water cracked, from tree roots or from a real bad drought year or whatever. This is not uncommon as a fate of farm ponds that are allowed to go dry (and then the clay cracks), and honestly it is often very difficult, sometimes impossible unless you want to spend berzerk am'ts of money on it, to fix.

I have no idea whether your problem is too little inflow, or leaky clay outflow... so you could certainly TRY your idea. But, in the knowledge that "who knows".

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[journey11]

How big of a pond are we talking? Have you considered lining it? I saw something, somewhere where they lined a huge farm pond with 8mil black plastic (sand beneath it of course). Let me see if I can find that article. It might give you some ideas.

Here's the article: http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/94/94-2/build_a_homestead_pond.html I had read it in print, but luckily they had it online too. There is a diagram and description of what they did. Lining it would help you hold on to what water you do get from your spring. Rain will eventually fill a pond too. You could also divert water from your gutters into the pond. You'd be surprised how much comes off your roof.

 

[bid]

Journey asked the same question I was wondering: how big are we talking; surface area and depth. Was it originally a fish pond or maybe to water stock? A call to your count ag extension agent might be helpfull. Obviously the overflow pipe would have to be repaired, is that pvc pipe through the dam or corrugated drain pipe or maybe something else? Sorry I have more questions than answers, but I have been "repairing" an old pond for years now and it can get pricy very quickly depending on what you have to do.

 

[elf]

It's a pretty big ex-fishing/ goat watering pond in a grownup pasture, maybe 1/3 acre pond on a 10 acre tract. When I bought this place 2 yr. ago, I thought of putting a sign up saying "The Gulch", with a fake buzzard on it. It was cracked clay. Almost everyone's ponds here were dried up from drought. Now, with the rains, most have come back after a good many years. The folks who lived here had folks (not professional pond builders, tho) scrape on the pond when it started drying up, with hopes of bringing it back, but said it had the op. effect. Now when it rains a lot, it fills pretty full for a week or two. This surprised everyone. But it drains out of an old corrugated metal spillpipe that has the cutoff broken and is bent/damaged where it starts in the pond. Guessing that would have to be dug up and replaced. That's kind of scary, as our only driveway is over the dam. Maybe someone can auger a hole through it for a new pipe and leave the old one. The pond would also need more digging, as now if it filled, most would be only knee-deep or less. It would be best to fix all this while it's dry, I assume, but I'll have to wait for my ship to come in. Right now I'm just looking for a canoe. I guess what I do need to do now is cut down all the pretty large cedar trees someone planted on the edge of the dam. I' m told trees on a dam are bad news. Well, when I bought this, no one had any hopes of the pond coming back, so when it did, it was quite a delight to hear all the frogs. I think with the spillpipe fixed it will hold water. It gets some from roadway runoff, and some from the wet weather stream, which right now, is just sort of standing water stew. But I have seen it flowing nicely when we were getting the over-abundant rain. Don't want to try drilling the springhead with the Hydradrill, that's the correct name, I think, until I get the pond corrected. When I have the finances, I'll get a professional to look over the dam/pond so it's done right. I sure don't want to be driving over a caving- in dam. Just wondered if anyone has gotten a constipated stream flowing with a drill. Maybe I'll need to start another post for that question. If I cut those cedars now and give a year or two before fixing the pond,do you think there will be problems from that?

 

[journey11]

Sounds like you need some major work done. Have you been over to Sufficient Self and asked about this? There will probably be more knowledgable folks over there.

 

[patandchickens]

Honestly, it sounds like the major primary problem is not the spring, it's the broken overflow pipe and its intersection with the dam/driveway. Unless you can get THAT fixed, the spring and the possible crackedness of the clay are not really relevant.

Anything involving a dam needs to have an engineering type dude come out and look at it, really really; then you will know whether it's a size project you want to tackle.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bid]

Well, trees on a dam are considered bad. The roots can provide entry for seepage through the dam. Cutting trees that are large can lead to the same problem as the roots die and leave cavities in the dam core. But those cedar roots would probably take 10 or 15 years to rot away. I would probably go ahead and cut them down and you get the bonus of some fence post.

The easiest would be repair the overflow pipe and put a new valve on, if that is possible. Otherwise the dam would have to be trenched IMO to replace the pipe. I doubt any contractor would be willing to do anything else especially since it is your driveway.

If the spring is somehow just blocked, you might get it to start flowing again. I would say that it is more related to the drought and lowered water level in the aquifier that supplies it tho. An expert (well driller, pond construction, ag agent, etc) could give you better advice on that.

I wish you luck! Keep us updated on whether you are able to get that spring flowing again.

 

[Andy J]

In 1994,my wife and I bought 80 acres that had a 2 acre pond on it.The dam was breached right in the center of it.I was told the man that built the dam just pushed up dirt and anything else he could get to build the dam.No core ditch or proper spillway installed was the downfall of the project.

We were going to have to get it fixed,as the dam would be our driveway also.I went to our county soil and water conservation office and they came out to assess the situation.From their maps,it was determined the pond had about an 80 acre runoff,about 4 times the the amount needed for a pond of this size.We wanted a fishing pond and the driveway had to be over the dam.They said it really wasn't feasible,but it could be made to work,with the proper spillway and overflow pipes.

We hired a contractor we went to church with and he gave us a 20% cut on the price of the work.A dozer,trackhoe,front end loader and 2 dumptrucks for a week.Talking about stressed out!

He first cut a core ditch in the center of the old dam 4' wide and 20' deep,filled it with clay from the site and installed 2-6" overflow pipes.They later proved to be woefully inadequate for the water coming from the 80 acre runoff.

Before the dam and spillway were completed,we had a 5" rain one night(50 year rain for our area according to the weather reports)that went over the top and almost breached the dam again.Got this fixed and finished the dirt spillway.

This served us well until April'05 when we had a 9" rain that severely damaged the spillway.Got it fixed again,just well enough that we could drive through it again.In 3 weeks,we had another 9"rain(considered to be a 100 year rain)that completely washed out the spillway.Two 100 year rains in three weeks!

 

[Andy J]

I bit the bullet and fixed the spillway myself.I filled it in and formed up a spillway 2" deep and 20' wide.I put rebars in on 12" centers in both directions and pour it with 5000 psi concrete.It's 8' wide with 2' deep footings and 12" deep on the driving surface.Let it rain!!!

Now when it rains 3" or more,water pours through that spillway a foot deep and 20' wide! Figure out how much water that is!

Well after all that,It has made a fair fishing pond.I was advised not to fertilize it because in the spring so much water comes through the pond the fertilizer would be washed away without doing any good.It suits our needs and that's all that matters to me.

Andy J