Bucksnbows

Just think of the party that's going to break out in 11 years knowing we have only a year left!

Timely topic for me since I was planning to upgrade my 6s to the Xr soon. I believe it is also waterproof to a certain depth? I will still put it in a Lifeproof case just in case.

Facebook marketplace sells used quads locally to wherever you live. I have watched daily for deals for about a year now. You will definitely see the same person selling quads which means he is flipping them and that is a red flag. Then you’ll see guys like you and me trying to sell our battered old quads and convincing people they have low hours and you don’t want one of those either. Then you will find the other class of people who bought one to plow a driveway or ride and realized they had no room to store it and no place to ride. Those are the ones you can get virtually new for half price. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe it's just me, but ever since the internet era, I have always been able to 100% block out ads. I disable pop-ups which helps, but if they take up a right side of the screen, I just ignore them. I am also the guy that changes the channel the second a commercial hits. I guess it's finally official, NJW&W is no longer the "snoozer site".

Here would be more our typical approach to adding DO and/or just for visual appeal and/or for trout spawning:

If you're talking about something like a koi pond, I can do that. We don't build them small like that, but the process is the same but on a much smaller scale. The key to any lined pond is to make the substrate as smooth as possible. Use some sand if needed to cover sharp rocks, for example. Then lay down felt paper first and line over the felt paper. We hire liner companies and supervise them. They do all our welding of seams and all penetrations and boots over those penetrations for lines going in or coming out (fill, recirculating pumps if applicable, and drain for high water). Then we lay more felt paper over the liner down to 7 1/2' depth which is where we build a "bench" so that the soil we place down doesn't continue to slide into the depths. Our deepwater ponds are typically between 10' and 11' deep at the deepest and maybe 20% of the overall bottom surface. In time, dirt will find its way all the way along bottom, especially where leaves fall in and decay. But the eye can't see below that depth most of the time and we don't want algae or other plant growth that deep for the most part. If you build a small pond for fish, you likely can find a liner you won't need to weld together and I would just lay any electric lines for the submersible pump(s) in an area you can hide them from plain view is all. That eliminates a liner penetration which is where 99% of all leaks start. That doesn't matter if we are talking about a 4 foot pond or a 4 acre pond. Get some depth for fish to escape predators and some habitat for them to swim amongst and for visual appeal. Again, same for any sized pond. Make sure you take advantage of the shape of your pond for filtration. If you have a small waterfall, place it on the opposite length side from your intake pump. That creates better flow and filtration. And use natural bacteria to keep algae in check.

Thanks. And do you mean you don't have a reasonably sized 4,000 acre ranch to build it on here in NJ???

Some of the infrastructure that goes into these types of ponds including a dry hydrant which allowed this particular ranch owner to get a CO to live here because there is no other water source for this ranch other than the single large well that supplies the main house, guest houses, pond, movie studio, and some irrigation now to be an orchard as we understand. The dry hydrant allows the fire company to be able to tap the pond's full one acre of water to fight any fires with. Rich people can more or less do whatever they want, I guess.... glad that means they sometimes hire us.

Wow, great job on a great buck!

We try to stay away from any electrical fountain or bubbler when we can. Most of our western ponds we "only" excavate to about 10' deep, and those will retain ample DO through summer most of the time. I can think of one huge pond of 4 acres that we didn't build that had become too anoxic for trout. We built that client a 400' long recirculating stream that gave them plenty of DO in enough of that large pond for the trout to survive through the next two summers now. Wind action and depth and the direction of depth play a key role. We want to take advantage whenever we can of turning over wavelets on top running the length versus width of our ponds to help with DO. And our plantings help add oxygen as well.

The problem can be turning over that cold bottom layer with use of an air pump, and when that happens the trout can't survive summer temps. We use them in some situations, but not too many. If he can get decent DO from the stream, he should be fine. The cold spring water I assume is seeping in on or near the bottom of the pond is likely to be anoxic, but not always. The key is to get a mix of oxygen and cold water to be below say the low 70s at their warmest summer temps. Preferably not going into the 70s if possible.

As our new business grows, especially here in the East, I find myself being asked often about pond building. So many of us want to think we can just dig out a hole in the earth for a few thousand to hire a local excavator operator and it will fill with water and be a great fishery, but that is nearly never the case. Water source, soil porosity, pond depth, sunlight, lined or not lined, recirculating stream, plantings, outflow, etc. are all critical to successful pond design. The ponds I am showing are lined to hold water year round, and they also are well fed and not spring fed or stream fed. The least expensive ponds are those where no liner is required and they are naturally groundwater fed, but don't necessarily think that happens often because it doesn't. And hence why when I give folks quotes, they have initial sticker shock. A lined, one acre pond with recirculating stream and a well to feed it may cost as much as what you paid for your home, so I try to warn people up front..... We select our site based on wetlands regulations and client desires, survey and design the pond and any recirculating stream we may build (but don't always), then permit it, excavate it, install fill lines and Agri Drain, install pump bunkers, install electric bunker, line pond if necessary, backfill down to the 7 1/2 foot depth, add fish and terrestrial habitat, fill near full, plant wetland plants, and then fill to full. From there, we inoculate the pond with bacteria and freshwater scuds to jump start life in the pond and later we add the fish with all appropriate state stocking permits. In the right conditions, trout will run up the stream channel and spawn in fall and spring depending on species, and largemouth bass and sunfish where present are given shallower water spawning flats to do their thing in spring/early summer.

I'm going to start a new thread about pond construction 101 as I am often asked about building ponds by friends and the like here in the East. Many of our ponds are built on ranches owned by the ever-encroaching wealthy who are building their 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 8th) homes up into the foothills of the Rockies. These are often done for both esthetics and fishing. Sometimes they provide fire suppression for the ranch home and infrastructure and we install a dry hydrant in those cases. I'll start a new pond building thread over in Wildlife and Habitat Management.

Random reply to put this forum at the 5,000 post level. Nothing to see here. Carry on.

Your depth is more than sufficient for trout in NJ, but as you noted, we would need to know DO levels in summer months and where the stratified layers are which I assume there will be at least one in a 20 foot deep pond. You mention partially creek fed which tells me you have a good shot at getting the DO you need. Weed growth will be another factor, but largemouth bass, sunfish and trout often share the ponds we create for our clients. We focus on the habitat needs for all species in those types of ponds. I can come look if you're not too far for gratis and am glad to help out! Here's one of our ponds that shows a two year plant growth in the 2nd photo and under construction in the 1st photo. We were still adding habitat to the first shot before filling the pond most of the way, planting it, and then filling it to designed elevation.