| Day
4 and the view from the West spillway as the dam
marches toward it. The two D6's are operated by
Joe and Derrick Adams, Adams Land
Improvement.
Day 5 and a view of
one of many LMB ambush channels we are leaving in
the pond....they may look rough now but covered
with water they look like a 5 star hotel to LMB. A
clean, even "pretty" pond bottom is just
about the worst thing you can do to promote good
LMB fishing and once the pond is full, the
channels won't be visible anyway
 .
Day 6 and the view
from the East spillway. Very close to finishing
the dam now, fortunately since we gambled somewhat
and left no water drain outlet during
construction. Should begin to move top soil back
on the dam surfaces tomorrow and strip out some
more sand in the upper end leaving more ambush
channels. After that, we will mark water line, cut
spillways, and do some finishing work.
Day 7 and the view
from the West spillway. Dam complete, top soil in
place and ready for the predicted hard rains to
start in the next few days. After taking a couple
of days off to rest, we will shoot the water line,
cut the spillways, and do some finish work. After
that, I'll be adding structure and fishing piers.
My thanks to Joe and Derrick Adams for their
outstanding work, expertise, and integrity.
After taking a
couple of days off, we returned to finish the
spillways. The view looking out the West spillway
The grandkids are
checking out the future fishing holes and LMB
hide-out places. Notice several
"trenches", humps, islands, etc. which
are all LMB paradise. Next step is
to build a walkway and piers to provide great
access to these fishing holes.
The posts for the
walkway/piers are now set....just ahead of a 4 inch rain
which would have made setting posts almost
impossible....4 feet of water in the pond and
rising. A total of 44 posts, 3600 pounds of
concrete, and a span of over 170 linear feet.
The 2x8
support runners are all in place now and many of
the walkway 2x6 boards are in place. This is going
to be a simply awesome place to fly fish for huge
LMB with all the walkways which are 2 feet 8
inches wide and span over 170 feet of the prime
LMB waters. It is most exciting to watch it
become a reality instead of a dream.
The Thanksgiving
tour resulted in requirements changes...the
requirement for hand rails and bench seats.
The finished walkways/piers are shown below.
Note the three feeding
stations and the steel posts in front of the
walkways marking channels/fish havens for future
reference and also the beginnings of the grow out
pond.
An end view of one
of the piers is shown below...chainsaw
construction. Note the feeding gate mounted on the
end pole. There are three of these feeding
stations along the structure.
The next step is to
build the grow out pond. It will cover an area
shaped like a triangle with a base of about 80
feet and sides of 120 feet. A view from the
base is shown below. Note the small draw/creek
which enters the main pond at this point. It
supplies tremendous volumes of water to pipeline
including water from the Nova pond spillway about
1/4 mile away.
Due to
wet conditions which prevent cleaning out the grow
out pond area, I've scaled the initial size back
by about half. Hopefully, this half can be dug out
more this week and possibly the other half next
summer. The fish gate is pictured below in the
open position on the left. Guard dog Duke
carefully watches the open gate area. On the
right, the gate is in the closed position. The
fish fencing installation will be completed after
the area is dug
out.
 
For
now, this will be the grow out pond. Conditions
have been dry enough to enable cleaning out the
area shown with my small dozer and taking it to an
average depth of 3 feet. The area is
certainly sufficiently large enough for my needs.
The large stump on the left is from the large tree
in the original picture above. I still need to
channel the water flow so that it comes in next to
that stump but outside the eventual fence.
I'll probably set the posts for the fence in the
next few days but the wire won't be put in place
until the pond water line starts approaching the
grow out pond. This is an exciting addition
to Pipeline pond and will enable a lot of
flexibility in stocking small fish down the road.
The
fish fence posts are set and part of the fence in
place. The fine mesh chicken wire is augmented by
plastic barrier fencing which should last a
lifetime. Only about half of the grow out pond is
fenced and the other half will be left open until
the pond water level backs up to the grow out pond.
In the meantime, a few dry days might enable some
more digging out of the grow out area. Fish
stocking of the main pond is next on the agenda and
will begin after the Holidays.
Stocking
a pond, no matter how many times I've done it, is
an exciting time. The stocking is done in the
reverse order of the food chain cycle, i.e. small
forage fish first, CNBG and RES second and later on
the predators will be stocked. Fatheads are stocked
at 10 pounds per acre and in this pond, I'm going
to try some super sized Golden Shiners at 5 pounds
per acre. These fish which are 5 to 6 inches
were available from my supplier at a great price
and hopefully are large enough to establish a
permanent population. The CNBG/RES have been
ordered and should arrive in a couple of weeks.
CNBG/RES
have arrived in great shape. 2000 CNBG and 300 RES
are happily swimming in their new home. These fish
were purchased essentially at wholesale directly
from the grower and with no delivery charge. With
their fresh condition and the cool temps of January,
survival is going to be close to 100%. They join a
few select prime CNBG from Nova pond and the
fatheads and shiners previously stocked and now
await the late June arrival of the LMB. The LMB
will be special ordered from the best supplier in
Texas with , arguably, the best LMB genetics to be
found anywhere.
Update: March 05
'08: The pipeline construction is progressing as
shown below. The pond is in the far right side of
this picture taken from the top of the dam.
March 25, 08
The pipeline is
almost complete now and the pond is within 4 inches
of the spillways
March 28, '08
The pond is within about 4 inches
of being full.
March 28, '08
The attached
growout pond is shown below.
June 11, 2008:
The long
awaited arrival of the predator to pipeline pond
happened today. After much contemplation, I decided
to go with 125 F1 LMB from Tyler Fish Farms.
I had considered a % of Florida, Native and F1, but
based upon advice from experienced fisheries
biologists and on the reasoning that the F1 LMB is
my favorite fish, decided instead on 100% F1 LMB.
Tyler Fish Farms was selected as the supplier
because they have the very best genetics to be
found in Texas. Consideration was given to the LMB
from American Sport Fish, but the expense of
shipping and the risk associated with that became
the deciding factor in favor of Tyler Fish Farms.
Looking forward with great anticipation to the
growth and enjoyment of these prized fish.
June 22, 2008:
Just couldn't
resist trying a few of the F1 LMB from American
Sport Fish. These 50 were added to supplement those
stocked earlier bringing the overall rate to about
75 per acre. Should be perfect for some prime LMB
fishing down the road.
|
