Hi, all. I was very excited to find this great forum and also to read the "Perfect Pond" book after it arrived yesterday.

I live in Houston and recently bought some property about halfway between Houston and Austin, planning to spend weekends there and, with any luck, something more than weekends down the road.

My wife has had me concentrating on getting an old farmhouse updated till now, but that project is on track, and so now I'm itching for a pond. There are two small ponds (both 1/2 acre or less), but I would like to make something more substantial, probably on the order of 5 acres or so. There is a seasonal creek (glorified gully) running through the property and a natural low point, so it seems like there might be potential for a pretty good pond using the creek. I'm hoping to keep as many trees as practicable, so if possible, I'd like to avoid a wholesale clearing operation on both banks of the creek. The south side of the creek opens onto a large pasture that's still low relative to the rest of the property, so I'm hoping that's a realistic avenue to go down.

The creek is hard to see, so I've highlighted that in blue. Here is a topo of the property and some surrounding land:



And here's an aerial shot:





I was hoping to get a reality check on a couple of things: first, having one pond fill a couple of needs or whether multiple ponds would be better and second, since I am only smart enough to know when I need help, what the best way to approach this project is.

On the first, I'd like the pond to serve a couple of masters: I would like to fish out of it, I would like to hunt over it (most interested in attracting ducks, secondarily interested in dove), I'd like my family to be able to swim in it, and of course I'd like it to be a good-looking pond that I'd be happy to drink a beer next to. I feel like the fishing-swimming-scenic goals are compatible, but given that ducks like shallower water and the vegetation that comes with that, I wonder if that encourages me to do a shallower pond elsewhere on the property. I did note in the PB book that somebody had made part of their pond shallower to attract waterfowl.

On the second question, while I wish I knew how to move dirt, I don't. So I'm guessing I should talk to a pond consultant/designer (I'm obviously interested to talk to Mike Otto to see if he comes down this way) and the local NCRS guy as my first steps. How firm do I need to be on site, etc. before I talk to NCRS? Does it make sense to talk to them before or after I've talked to a pond guy?

Sorry for all the rambling, and thanks for bearing with me!

Steve

Steve:

Welcome to the forum! I'd talk to the NRCS guy first, to get an idea of how much water is coming your way, and if the soil has enough clay content to contain water. Once that's verified, I'd definately get Otto down there. With a single pond, you could make one side (or part of one side) shallow enough for ducks, although I don't know if it would fit more than one duck blind, and keep the other side deep enough for a beach/swimming area.

I'm sure others here will have many suggestions, just pick and choose!

Personally, if I had the room and resources, I'd have multiple ponds with multiple fish species in each.

Welcome to the Forum, Steve.

I can't read a topo map for squawt, but plenty here can, so hang on.

Otto will definitely make it a far as you to consult. It would be very hard to do any better than have him come.

Welcome!!

I don't claim to be an expert in engineering and design but here are a few pointers....

Leaving trees in some areas that will hold water will likely produce some good wood duck habitat. Otherwise you want to clear away dense tree growth from a potential fishing or duck pond to make room for sunlight. Got to have sunlight to produce vegetation for duck food and for natural fish foods as well. Also consider that trees in the watershed will lose their leaves each year and contribute significantly to the siltation rate, eutrophication rate, and biological oxygen demand of the system.

Consider using some hardwood or cedar trees that are removed as fish habitat in your pond or ponds.

Hope this helped.

Those are very helpful, thanks.

Overton, yes--flooded timber would be great for the woodies. I guess the question was whether I needed the pond to bisect the creek for any reason (which would mean a lot of felling trees), or whether I could use the creek as the basis for a pond in a more open area (say where it says "Oak Hill" in the aerial photo). For scale, the property is about 110 acres, so a semicircular pond going south from the creek down to where it says "Oak Hill" should be about 7 acres.

Based on what you and esshup said, I guess I'd be inclined to put a ducky pond on the north side of the creek on the other bend.

Steve

If you were to do the couple pond thing, you could plant wild rice (12"-18" water depth) and make sure that you could draw it down to 10"-12" for the hunting season.

You don't have to flood timber for the woodies, just have some trees near the pond that are possible nest sites, or use woodie boxes (varmint/snake proof them tho!)

Thanks, esshup. I like that plan. I have hunted over rice fields before and been very happy about it. Great place to sit and watch all kinds of birds.

I like the idea of a couple of shallow weedy ponds for ducks and a big deeper pond for fish. The ducks will USUALLY go to the shallow ones.