Who like bass fishing. With luck, in a couple years we may be able to have a picnic out at my farm and fry some up at a shore lunch. At this stage, we're building the dam. Moving top soil to the front, and the clay under that to build the front wall. You can see the excavator cutting off the top soil and saving the clay underneath in one of the pics. It will be about 1000' long and 600'-700' wide at widest/longest points, shaped like a tooth with a penninsula between two long channels. Dam will be about 450' wide and 17' high at the highest point. Here's a few shots where we're at so far. A couple looking across the dam, and one from the end down one of the two channels. On one looking east to west, you can see where the dam will meet the hill at the red dot. From the long end, looking south to north you can see the relatively small size of the excavator at the dam wall. I decided this would be more fun than growing pine trees for telephone poles. Planning ahead, who's close enough to Jackson MS for a picnic in 2009? Only downside is that it's a gravel road for about 1/2 mile to get into the lake area.
Wow, thats some land. That is what I want when I grow up. How does the water stay in, does the clay not allow the water to penetrate it?o No: Keep the updates coming.:TU:
Exactly. The clay holds it in. It is a natural drainage area for many acres to the south and east. As a small valley sort of thing, all we need to do is put a dam at the bottom, calculate the back up, and dig around the edges for preferred drop off to control the weeds. There's a long way to go. If there's enough dirt coming off the edges, I'll have them build a small island. After that, to raise the dirt roads in the surrounding woods so there are less soft spots. This is 118 acres property altogether, the lake will be about 10-15ac. Target is from 6 to 15' with about 1:3 drop off along the sides, with some reefs coming up to about 3' for structure. Am following these guidelines. If anyone else is thinking about building a small lake, south of mason dixon line these may come in handy: http://msucares.com/wildfish/fisheries/farmpond/building/
Did someone say fishing?:TU: Mike sounds like a nice pond in the works,back years ago I24 came past my grandfathers farm and they dug out a area of his farm for the dirt to build up the highway.While nowhere near as large as what you're building we stocked it with Bass & Bluegill and over the years some nice fish have come out of it.
How far away from you is Valdosta, GA? Thats where I'll be living-count me in...but we use dynamite to fish....(jk)
Well that's all sorts of cool! I wonder, would it make a decent swimming hole or not? By decent I mean comparable to a quarry or perhaps a small lake? What sorts of bylaws are there involved? What would ahppen if the damn burst? Do you have any plans to keep the damn from bursting? Wow, this is cool! I've never met anybody building a lake/pond the size you are talking.
Bass fishing...! Oh yea! Sounds like a plan. Matter of fact I'm going fishing for Bass, Crappie and Bluegill this coming Sunday for 3-4 days. We keep the crappie and gills but let the Bucketmouths fight again another day. Your project sounds marvelous and I wish you all the best in you upcoming adventure. Keep the updates coming. :TU: Jim PS. If you build it, they will come! :Brow: :laugh:
Unfortunately, it is not straight or level. If I've got extra topsoil we can't use for the dam face, I may raise the road going down to the creek for better drainage. Unfortunately, that one isn't straight or level either. Construction guys are complaining about too much topsoil. I always thought topsoil was the best part. That reminds me of something I read in my great great grandfather's geography book published in 1854 in a question and answer format. Q: What is the surface of the earth? A: The outside part... They had it all figured out back then. Jury is still out on whether to throw in some catfish or not. Where I grew up in Illinois as a kid we always looked at them as junk fish and when you caught them we were told to just throw them on the bank to die. I realize that down south here people have an entirely different opinion and there are some awesome catfish fish fries around here. I'm thinking about some crawfish too. Bass love them and they make for good eating if you have enough of them. As for swimming, don't forget about Mr. No Legs. Cottonmouths are not uncommon, and very dangerous. Maybe it is one of the reasons you only have to have a drivers license to buy a gun around here. When out fishing in the back waters of the Ross Barnett Reservoir I've seen Cottonmouths swimming in the shallows, so I know they are around. Last fall one of the neighbors bagged a 230# nine point buck on this property. I reckon once the lake is in we'll have good waterfowl hunting too, along with the possibility of stocking the 35 acre hayfield with quail. I've seen wild turkey on the property also. Hoping to develop a balanced hunting/fishing combination when all is said and done.
I don't know about MS, but in Texas if you have a good size lake (and even more if you have crawfish) you will have some good duck hunting. Nice looking place there. Rick
Working on the dam from the other end now and will meet in the middle. Will install a drain pipe in the center through the dam to be able to lower the lake level in winter for shoreline maintenance.
Another vote for catfish here, I have been trying to grow my monster bass for almost 10 years now and (I AM IN MICHIGAN) the best I could do was 6.5 lbs. before it either disappeared or showed up floating. A pond my size would only support a couple that size and of course many smaller. My pond is about half the size yours is going to be, only mine is 21 deep over 1/3rd of it. I am going Channel Cats this year and feeding the heck out of them Either way, it is awesome and you will have a blast! Keep us updated.
Front of the dam is finished. Still a lot of dirt work to do on the back side. Then we're into the lake bed. Today I took one of the Buicks out there and got a couple updated pics of that too. Weather here has been much warmer and drier than usual for March. Warnest and driest since records were kept.
Looks like quite a bit of progress has been made. :TU: Is the smoke I see from the crew burning any roots, plants, trees etc that were in the way? I want some land like that in the first picture, it looks beautiful!
Thanks. It runs great too. Only thing I don't like is that it vibrates a little bit. I don't think it's alignment, more likely the tires have flat spots from sitting long periods even though they're only about three years old. The car has only gone about 3000 miles in the last 20 years based on oil change stickers. Next trip up there I'll turn 42K miles on the OD and I think it's accurate. I have several favorite cars and this is one of them. When I was in college in 71-75 I had a 1972 350 orange and white Sun Coupe new off the lot. Although it was a great car, this is what I would have preferred to have at the time but couldn't afford it. Tomorrow my brother and I are going out there to work out where the best building sites would be and how the road should wind up the hayfield side. Enough rambling for now.
I think it's time to dig out my bait casting reel (as if I know how to use oneou: ) and start packing it on my trips, just in case I happen to get down your way.:laugh: Looks great Mike, I'll bet you'll have some lunkers in a few years. What kind of bass, bucket mouths or smallies???
