We have one tank on our place that has held well. The trick out here is finding enough clay soil. Most of our place is too sandy. Anyway, I think I have located another site where we could do an acre or so sized pond. Any recommendations on who to talk to on tips, suggestions, etc.? We would like for this one to hold fish.

TCEQ has some resources, also contact your local Ag extension branch.

You hit on the big thing though - being able to retain water. Lots of things you can do, but lining with a high PI (40+) clay in sufficient thickness will reduce loss due to percolation considerably. Look around the area and see if any contractors are looking to offload clay spoils, good way to get material for cheap or even free.

What county? Call your local USDA-NRCS office. Eot

schmellba99 said:

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TCEQ has some resources, also contact your local Ag extension branch.

You hit on the big thing though - being able to retain water. Lots of things you can do, but lining with a high PI (40+) clay in sufficient thickness will reduce loss due to percolation considerably. Look around the area and see if any contractors are looking to offload clay spoils, good way to get material for cheap or even free.

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Good advice in both posts above.

I would recommend doing core samples on the new pond area and the area where the existing pond is that holds water good. As stated, the plasticity index or PI needs to be high. It is possible to dig a pond where you want it and then haul in the required clay from another location to be compacted as a lining. May be possible to expand your existing pond and use that clay if needed.

A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource. I'm certain the local NRCS office would have some recommendations.

I have done core samples on our land recently and the PI levels vary from the low 20s to mid 40s within a two mile area. Basically 40 is heavy, thick clay and 20 is sandy.

Mas89 said:

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A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource.

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The last tailwater pit built in West Texas is probably old enough to have a drivers license by now.

Call pond boss

Mas89 said:

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Good advice in both posts above.

I would recommend doing core samples on the new pond area and the area where the existing pond is that holds water good. As stated, the plasticity index or PI needs to be high. It is possible to dig a pond where you want it and then haul in the required clay from another location to be compacted as a lining. May be possible to expand your existing pond and use that clay if needed.

A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource. I'm certain the local NRCS office would have some recommendations.

I have done core samples on our land recently and the PI levels vary from the low 20s to mid 40s within a two mile area. Basically 40 is heavy, thick clay and 20 is sandy.

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Good info. Thanks.

PANHANDLE10 said:

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Mas89 said:

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A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource.

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The last tailwater pit built in West Texas is probably old enough to have a drivers license by now.

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PANHANDLE10 said:

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Mas89 said:

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A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource.

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The last tailwater pit built in West Texas is probably old enough to have a drivers license by now.

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Haaa. Thanks for the update. This SE Texan only makes it up there once a year. And I love to duck hunt on the tail water pits. Preferably on the east bank in a good lay out blind. My favorite ones near Tulia were dry this January when we were there. Had to duck hunt the hard way.

But I'm sure they do still dig ponds up there.

https://nrcspad.sc.egov.usda.gov/distributioncenter/product.aspx?ProductID=115

PANHANDLE10 said:

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Mas89 said:

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A contractor in your area who builds the tail water irrigation ponds for farmers would be a great resource.

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The last tailwater pit built in West Texas is probably old enough to have a drivers license by now.

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Crowd of about a dozen on this forum that got a good chuckle from that

Well done

The Pond Boss, Fighting Texas Aggie Bob Lusk, does nightly live chats via Facebook around 6CST.

https://www.facebook.com/PondBossMagazine/

He sticks to a topic each night. I'd tune in to his show every evening for a week and one by one get your questions answered.

fairviewcrew said:

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Call pond boss

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See

Happy to help. Those are called playa lakes. They've been there for hundreds of years. Tailwater pits are for row watering. Which is a thing of the past.

Bentonite may be an option for raising your PI. You can mix it in with a bobcat attachment.

It's called a tank

Call the Pond boss' cell: (903) 814-7634

He is expecting your call.

Why call the pond boss when you can get FREE top notch engineering and design help from the NRCS? You can bet that 3/4 of the properly designed ponds in this state were done by them.

B-1 83 said:

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Why call the pond boss when you can get FREE top notch engineering and design help from the NRCS? You can bet that 3/4 of the properly designed ponds in this state were done by them.

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Pond Boss knows his ish... why not use NRCS and get Pond Boss tweaks? Best of both worlds

Actually the ones I like to hunt Dane Swinburn calls tail water pits. They are a small pond with a steep bank. We also hunt the playa lakes some years.

In my area of SE Tx we call ponds reservoirs. Ours were made by digging a channel and using the clay/dirt to build the banks above ground level. The middle of the reservoirs is ground level and we like to keep the middle lightly flooded for duck hunting season. We have four of theses reservoirs with the largest being 80acres. And yes all of them are old enough to have a drivers license.

TAMUallen said:

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B-1 83 said:

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Why call the pond boss when you can get FREE top notch engineering and design help from the NRCS? You can bet that 3/4 of the properly designed ponds in this state were done by them.

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Pond Boss knows his ish... why not use NRCS and get Pond Boss tweaks? Best of both worlds

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I called NRCS when I built my pond and it was essentially useless. I would go with Pond Boss who will probably refer you to Mike Otto with Otto's dirt service.

The other bit of advice I would give is to really do your homework. Trust your gut feeling if something doesn't seem right. I spent quite a bit of money trusting that the dirt contractors knew what they were talking about. And I will tell you that most of them are very good at moving dirt but poor in understanding what it takes to properly build a pond. After two failed attempts by my first dirt contractor who told me he for sure could get my pond to hold, I ended up putting a liner in my 2 acre tank and getting another contractor to help me with that job.

B-1 83 said:

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Why call the pond boss when you can get FREE top notch engineering and design help from the NRCS? You can bet that 3/4 of the properly designed ponds in this state were done by them.

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Not sure who your NRCS agent is but my office in STX was worthless. I thought they'd be able to help at least identify contractors but they provided me nothing of value.

B-1 83 said:

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Why call the pond boss when you can get FREE top notch engineering and design help from the NRCS? You can bet that 3/4 of the properly designed ponds in this state were done by them.

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THIS but I guess it depends on what county you are in.

NRCS has helped us a LOT with tanks, paying for fences to fence off creeks and most recently $ to sprig grass on over 100 acres. Huge help.

Duval/Jim Wells ASCS have been great. They even round up unused EQIP $$ and run around making sure everyone gets a shot at it.

But as another poster pointed out: for the most part they aren't engineers.

Do you have a SCS contact at the Duval office? My ranch is in Duval and the NRCS was no help.

Sorry. NRCS office I meant

We sold that property a few yrs ago and I've deleted all those names & numbers

Both of them were local to San Diego/Benavidez

Following up on this. We have a small pond that has held well. Looking to build another one that is larger. Took some soil samples (one from the existing pond that holds, and several from the area we are looking to dig out).

Existing pond: Clay 27%, Silt 26%, Sand 47%

New site:

Test area one: Clay 27%, Silt 22%, Sand 51%
Test area two: Clay 23%, Silt 26%, Sand 51%
Test area three: Clay 19%, Silt, 14%, Sand 67%
Test area four: Clay 25%, Silt, 22%, Sand 53%
Test area five: Clay 33%, Silt, 26%, Sand 41%


The one area with 19% Clay was pretty obvious out in the field. The area with 33% clay looks pretty good. How does these values look? Of course, I was only a couple of feet deep. Could go either direction I supposed once we dig deeper.

OlRock said:

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Bentonite may be an option for raising your PI. You can mix it in with a bobcat attachment.

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This. Sodium bentonite is a good option for a very low permeability liner.