Looking at buying a small piece of land (5 acres) near Athens. It has a pond on it that covers about 1/2-3/4 of an acre. The sellers say it holds water all year round except for in the driest years. Right now it has a lot of frogs, turtles and minnows in it. If I buy the place I'd like to look into getting it dug out to al least 8 ft deep. Right now it is about 3 ft deep. Never done this before can anyone tell me what the logistics of such an evolution would be? I'd like to get it to where I could put bluegills and maybe some catfish in it. Don't think it is big enough for bass and lake Athens is only 3 minutes away if I want to fish for bass.

I have a small pond about that size. Maybe a little bigger. I started with 40 lbs of fingerling blue gill. The next year I started putting bass in as I caught them here and there. I ended up with a pond full of pigs and they were healthy until lightening struck my pond and killed them all off at once. I knew I had some nice ones but after that storm I rode my atv around the pond and couldn't believe how many big bass was there floating dead with their eyes bulging out. Made me sick. I counted 4 that would have been over 10 lbs and probably 20 or so over 5 lbs. My pond has tire beds, brush piles, and plenty of grass. Its always been clear too. And it was 12' when I had it dug.

Each year mine would get low in July-August. When this happened I think they went into survival mode. I never fished the pond when it was low and stressed. I think the big fish survived on all the forage fish (blue gill) when it got so low. The blue gill had no cover to hide in when it got low. They were there for the taking. I think this is why my bass survived the low level times so well and why they got so big. Mother Nature at her best. So I didn't try to over manage it. When it would get real low I would aerate it and let it go. They always seemed to survive.

If I were going to start over like you and spend the money anyway I would look into making it bigger and maybe a little deeper than 8'. 8' would work though. You can put your own structure in place when they are done. Whoever you hire will help you through it. They will pump it out, and dig it out to your liking within what is doable with the pond, inflow, outflow, etc. I've always heard there is a way to backfill the mud to form a seal on the bottom but I know nothing about that. You might ask what they do to try to seal it off. Some may suggest bringing in bentonite.

But I think you have a large enough pond for a nice little trophy bass pond if that is your liking. Stock it with what you want and have fun with it. But think about structure (cover) and your forage species first. Get them established and then you can put cats or bass or both in it. Hope you find a good experience dozer man. That makes all the difference in the world.

Good Luck!

First time I've ever heard of lightning striking a pond but I'm sure it happens.

Flags, more than likely the pond started out deeper than 3 ft and has silted. If so, removing the gunk is tough. It's about like scooping up pudding and you have to find a place to put the stuff that is excavated. It might be less expensive to build another pond or to walk away and find another place.

Ask the guy when the pond was built and the original depth.

Just noticed your name. My grandfathers guitar player's name was Dave Davidson. They won dang near every fiddling contest they went to if they didn't get too drunk to play. Dave was the best guitar player I ever saw. They won 7 world championships together. My grand dad was from Whitewright, Dave lived in Paris. Just thought I'd share that. Dave Davidson isn't a common name but I happened to know one that was a legend.

BTW, I have never seen or heard of any other pond getting hit by lightening like that. But that was the only explanation. We fished the pond earlier that day and no dead fish. After the storm almost every fish in the pond was belly up with their eyes bulging out.

Thanks for the input guys. Gonna pass on this piece. When they produced the paperwork it had more covenants than Beverly Hills mansion. I refuse to buy anything with restrictions or covenants.

If you find another place check goggle earth. They usually have a several year spread of photos. Check them all.
Mike

Flags, FYI you can have a bass pond in a small pond less than 1-2 acre. You just think way outside the normal means of management of you pond.

Anchorman not sure if Dave can play a guitar but he can shoot some pool.

Stay hydrated and in the shade. Keep cool.

Can someone recommend a good person to hire to analyze and help me with pond habitat improvement and possible size increase advice on a ranch in Palo Pinto County? Thanks.

Steve will do a good job for you.

http://www.texasprolakemanagement.com/index.html