FISHING & FARM POND CONSTRUCTION

A farm pond and a fishing pond are often synomymous. In a broader sense, these types of earthen ponds are built for a wide range of purposes including:

• Trophy Fishing Ponds
• Irrigation Ponds
• Fire Suppression Ponds
• Landscape or Aesthetic Waterfeatures
• Erosion Control Ponds
• Fish Farm / Growing Ponds
• Swimming Hole Ponds

Very often these waters are asked to function as "all of the above". Our experience as Biologists and knowledge of fishing and farm pond design can assist with all of these goals.

The Challenge:
Farm ponds are thought by many to be simple basins to hold water and offer some recreation. As such very few farm ponds are built with sufficient forethought to be successful for the long term without expensive rebuilding or succumbing to a great deal of work and expense to maintain. The "pond of a lifetime" most often becomes the pond of the decade or maybe two. Most farm ponds fail due to siltation and choking with weeds. These problems are avoided via forethought and quality farm pond design.

The cost of dredging a farm pond is very often just as expensive as building the pond the first time. This is because moving wet / soupy mud is much more expensive than excavating dry ground due the need for extra equipment to move wet soil. Rebuilding the same pond every couple decades is not only expensive, but it is one of the main reasons most farm ponds do not add any appreciable value to the land. If they were more attractive and lasted several lifetimes, then the farm pond can increase property value well beyond the price of the investment. Note: we are available to evaluate real estate investments where ponds and lakes are involved.

The first question we pose for any farm / fishing pond or lake design is what design elements are employed to avoid expensive dredging in the future? What has been done to prevent silt from creating muddy water and excessive algae? How will the design control excessive pond weeds? The answers to these questions decide if the pond or lake will be a success or a literal muddy money pit.

After we are sure the basics are covered, then we can ask questions such as how can a pond grow more food than just fish? How can a farm pond become a profit center via agritourism and agriculture products? ... and finally, how can a farm fishing pond enhance the value of rural real estate? These are essential elements of quality habitat design

Every location has a unique set of geological and biological circumstances that influence the longevity of a farm pond. Planning and designing for the future allows us to avoid the problems most ponds face in the form of silting in or choking with weeds, thus eliminating not only the source of demise of the pond, but the source of major maintenance expense over the lifetime of a farm pond.

We are Biologists who design natural farm ponds fishing ponds, clear water natural swimming ponds and trophy fishing lakes by using creative scientific techniques and practical experience in creating the most cost effective ponds and lakes possible from a recreational, economic and aesthetic aspect. Forethought and Knowledge are our primary tools. This website is full of practical and technical information to help clarify your understanding of farm ponds and their challenges of:

• Optimizing farm pond construction cost*
• Farm pond water quality and nutrient issues
• Farm pond siltation
• Preventing flood damage
• farm pond dam safety and cost reduction
• Weed control in farm ponds
• Farm pond water supply issues
• Farm ponds as trophy fishing ponds plus other recreation
• Eliminating or controlling moquitoes in farm ponds
• Fire prevention ponds
• Maximizing the life of a farm pond

* including future dredging & restoration expense wasted on poorly built ponds.

Thoughtful farm pond design is going to address each of these issues to provide the most cost effective farm pond for a clean water supply, quality recreation and the longest possible life of the pond.

A quality fishing pond design will prevent pond dredging, dam rebuilding and most ongoing farm pond maintenance issues. There are way too many poorly designed farm ponds that require dredging every decade. We design farm ponds to last lifetimes without dredging. This also allows fish to live longer and grow larger since dredging destroys a mature lake or pond.

As we are often quoted: cheap advice, build it twice! ©

When we discuss farm ponds, we are usually talking about a less demanding set of goals than our other work in swimming ponds, trout ponds, landscape ponds and fishing lakes where we sharply focused on investing in water clarity and aesthetics. In designing farm ponds we are not as demanding of our water supply because high quality well water or spring water is not always available. We do design farm ponds for clean safe water; they are just not as crystal clear as our other pond and lake designs.

If you are interested in building a pond to trap silt, the Natural Resources Conservation Service may cost-share to create a pond, but know these types of lakes are built to trap silt which will shorten their useful lives. With somewhere between 2.6 and 9 million farm / fishing ponds across the USA alone, there is a lot of erosion being prevented with poorly built ponds! This begs the question, are they helping you build a pond or are you helping them trap silt?

The Next Steps:

farm pond cost guide
farm pond planning and design guide
pond liners and sealing ponds guide: clay vs synthetics.