Has anyone ever made a man made pond or dugout an existing pond for fish stock? Looking for advice on depth, shape, stock, and average cost of digging/dredging.. I have been told pond digging is a dieing art where I am but my father and I would really like a bass pond for summer fishing. Thanks!
Talk to your local NRCS, there could be some cost share funding available. Depth would mainly be determined by where you live too. Can always run an aerator but if it freezes where you are, you don't want it to freeze out.
Depth really doesn't need to be that much. Most of the fishing I do for panfish, bass, pike, musky, walleye is done in 10 feet or less of water. Would be nice to dig in a couple deeper trenches that might drop your water depth to 15 or 20 feet. Saw a farmer convert a water hole into a swimming fishing hole that is about 2 acres in size a couple years ago. Right now they have a few pallets and Christmas trees setup on the ice so they fall in when the ice thaws to create bottom structure. No idea what they have in it though. No idea on cost
Where we are, a creek starts in our pasture. So there are springs down there with about 4 differnent ponds. Over the years sand has got washed in them. So this past summer, NRCS paid for digging them out. They dug them 3-5 feet deep, there was trout that swam up from the stream further down within a month or two.
We have a lot of natural springs on the property and the terrain is very hilly so I'm hoping that will help the process.. NRCS looks like a good possibility for funding, just have to research the programs they have. Freezing is a concern for me since I want to plant Largemouth, Bluegill, crappie, and possibly trout so I feel the depth will have to be relatively deep. Anyone have experience buying fish?
