I know this may be difficult to answer but I am hoping for a ballpark dollar amount. Ever since I was a kid I have dreamed of building my own pond. Here is what I am thinking as to what my pond will look like....

About 8- 10 acres. This would be a Big Bass pond where I can catch 10 pounders all day hahah.
Around 25-30 at its deepest.
I would build dropoffs and trenches. Some underwater islands. Bottom transitions with large rock and pea gravel.
I would have wood laydowns because I love to pitch and flip wood alond the shore.
Since this is my dream lake I may even build it in the shape of Texas with the underwater topography resembling Texas topography. In the east part of the lake I may have some flooded timber to resemble the piney woods.
North texas would be kinda plains area, the hill country would be the underwater islands and the coast would be a sloping beach.
Maybe I would dig out some channels to act like a few of the major rivers or lakes of Texas.

I am getting carried away now but what does a pond typically cost to build? Excavating, plants like grass and milfoil, the cost to maintain yearly?

What are some of your dream pond ideas?

That's a lot of questions.... . I'll throw out some responses for your consideration based on my experience.

1) Ballpark cost? I use $10,000 per acre as a ball park number...can in fact be higher or lower depending on your soil, drainage, etc.

2) Funny you mention underwater islands...I always include them in ponds I've built and they are extremely effective. Some pond "experts" always told me not to put strucutre in deep areas of your pond because fish won't use them...I say that's BS. Build underwater islands so that you can utilize water that would otherwise not be used by fish. I place them in deepest areas of pond and bring them up to within two or three feet of the surface and then add brush on top of that. They turn out to be the best fish locations in the entire pond.

3) Irregular bottoms are great....varying depths provide ambush points for LMB

4) Wood is by far the best structure you can use...natural is always better in ponds, IMO

5) Texas..there is a pond/lake near me called Lake Tejas that was built just as you described. It is really cool. You might want to come look at it sometime. check it out here:

http://www.colmesneilisd.net/Laketejas.htm

6)You are only limited by your own dreams. Whatever you do, and if you ignore everything else I've written, take this with you: Do not let others discourage and/or ruin your dreams. I posted my dreams once on a National pond forum and you simply would not believe how many people so called "experts" will try to tell you..."you can't do that"

Do not listen to the naysayers...in fact, run from them as fast as you can, if you want your dreams to come true

7) Location, location, location. Do your homework. Location is critical. Good soils, sufficient clay content to seal properly, ample rains to not only keep the pond full, but flushed out regularly to prevent build up of ammomnia, nutrients, etc.

8) Consider this question carefully....is it "better" to have an 8 to 10 acre pond or perhaps 5 two acre ponds? I went through this thought process carefully and choose the latter option...5 nice sized ponds rather than one big pond. Maybe you can't get your "Texas" shape but pond management, your labor, should be considered in your decision. I could write a book about this subject...all the pros and cons to consider...and by the way, if you ask those same "experts" they will probably tell you it would be crazy to build several small ponds vs one large one....and in fact they said just that to me. Well, call me crazy...but also call me someone who has realized his dreams.

9) Maintenance costs: it all depends. I use natural approaches and as a result my maintenance costs are very low. Labor is a big cost..yours or theirs. I choose to spend my time fishing and not slaving on ponds...natural aproaches enable that.

Check my web site. There you can find documentation of my own journey to achieve my dreams of world class fishing out my back door. I've achieved my dreams....you can also, if you are persistent and don't let the naysayers get you down. Best wishes.

Already own the land? If not, might cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!

Before buying land for a pond do your research. Some of the biggest impediments around here (Gulf Coast) is whether or not you are in a floodway, a wetland, pipeline area or have other restrictions that would prevent a pond being built.

Last summer I built a 60 acre pond out of a rice field (prior converted agricultural land). Most of the exterior levee was already in place. That would have been very big bucks to build nowadays.

Rice fields are flat as a pancake, rectangular and not very good (or interesting) places to fish without some work. I rented a track hoe for the farmer that owns the place and had him dig interconnecting channels and build both underwater and above water islands. All the channels connect to the main channel that goes around the perimeter of the field. When finished there were many underwater points, islands (mostly irregular shaped and long and skinny) anywhere from a few feet above water to several feet under it, and a lot of deeper areas (trenches) than before.

To that we added a lot (hundreds) of cut down hardwood trees (from an on premise creek bottom)in large piles, strategically placed near trenches, underwater points and islands.

We planted the islands with bald cypress trees, willow trees, giant cane, yellow flag iris, Louisiana iris, pickeral rush, square stem rush, powdery leaf thalia, taro, and other semi-aquatic plants. The trees and cane provide very good windbreaks and shade over the water. The emergent plants provide for control of erosion and good shallow water habitat for small fishes and invertebrates.

We built a boat ramp and a boat dock and a short road to them.
So far we've spent about $25K altogether for equipment rental and labor. I already had all the trees and plants or that would be another $10K to $20K.

For fish we've stocked about 3000 florida intergrade largemouth bass fingerlings raised in our own hatchery, from stock taken out of Lake Oklawaha (aka Rodman Reservoir) Florida and local private waters, about 500 or so 12" bass taken from other nearby ponds and lakes (on property), about 15,000 small bluegills from our hatchery, about 50,000 threadfin shad from our hatchery, around 120 pounds each of fathead and shiner minnows purchased from Arkansas, a number of large redear sunfish, and (now dead) about 200 pounds of 4" tilapia-had baby tilapia all last summer. We'll add a few more 10" to 14" bass, another 120 pounds of shiners, more sunfishes, and another 200 pounds of adult tilapia when it warms up some. We had or produced most of these fish, they would have cost us a fortune otherwise.

We have 5 one acre hatchery ponds on premise for fish production. I had to go to Florida with a coupla buddies to get some of the bass breeding stock, brought 'em home on the plane with us.

We hope to have the pond ready to fish by mid summer.

My guess, if we had to pay for everything we did, including the levee, channels, islands, trees, plants, and fish, that $10K an acre mentioned above is real close.

Not exactly a dream pond, but pretty close. Its for a small fishing club I manage.

As mentioned before, your limit is your imagination and nobody can tell you "That's impossible." If I gave up every time somebody told me that (like going to get my own bass genetics like I wanted) I'd have not done 90% of what I've done these last thirty or so years.

super information Meadowlark and Fishbreeder. The information you two just supplied was so interesting, I want to go out and build 100 ponds. Sounds fun and exciting with a little negative thrown in, but from what both of you said, keep your dream alive is a great way of thinking. Thanks a milion. I am sure this information will help many who come to this forum.

I do not own land or my own pond but one of my two dream retirement places include buying land and building my own pond. I like the idea you have of adding in the structure. I also would something in that 8-10 acre range should have plently of room for bass/bluegil to roam, grow and spawn. I say go for it.
The other dream to buy some land in somewhere like CO that have my own river access.

A bunch of us should all band together and buy enough land to build these ponds, share in the work, and create these dreams...and we'd all have someplace to retire to...we could call it Fish Retirement Acres, LLP....:)

Just a thought...

A fishing Co-op. Instead of a privately owned deal, one owned by the fisherman(wimmens). You might just be on to something. . .

Several of those around here (Brazoria County). I work at many such. By pooling resources the "club", a group of owner/members can have a great deal more than any one individual.

Some of them are absolutely first rate, others, not so hot. Each group, though, gets out what they put in.

Works for many.

when i get out of college and am making some money i deffinitely am going to make a pond. Ive thought of the idea and its deffinitly going to happen after reading those posts.

This is not for everyone......but several years ago I purchased a used small dozer. It has saved me far more money than it originally cost to purchase and is worth as much today as what I paid for it years ago. It is a slow process, but a very rewarding one if you enjoy working outside.

I really enjoy using a dozer and with it was able to achieve things that I never could have afforded otherwise...but again it isn't for everyone and it definitely helps to be mechanically inclined or have a relative/friend that can work on one because they are relatively high maintenance.