my new dam [Archive] - Ausfish fishing Australia, Australian Angling Forums

OPTI

28-02-2009, 06:01 PM

its almost finished .after 2 solid months of work,its about 1.5 m from being full,its 120m long and 100 m at the widest points ,11m deep at the deep end and 4 m deep at the shallow end.
im getting ready to order some fingerlings soon,i thought id start with some jade perch and silver prech and may be some bass ,i just need to work out how many fish it will comfortably hold?anyone know?
id also like to put some yabbies in it does anyone know of a farm that sells them ,i carnt find any on the net

Cammy

28-02-2009, 08:27 PM

Lookin Good mate! Before you start putting fish in it, i reckon it would be wise to get some food growing in there first like firetail gudgeons and shrimps and such, if you have already thats good, but if you havent,,,, go to your local aquarium shop and ask if they could order you some in for cheaper price than normal, some shops may do it some might not, just gotta find a decent one.

Not Sure on how many fish, personally i would put say 30 of each species in depending on how many species i put in, if there were less species i would put more in. I would only put a small amount in cause you have to consider the live food thats in the dam, if you have too much fish in there they could wipe out there food source.

Cam

OPTI

01-03-2009, 07:50 AM

how many fire tail gudgeons should i get?

FNQCairns

01-03-2009, 09:07 AM

Looks an absolute ripper!Hope you have kids, they would love it.

Like magic the trophic orders will come. Unless you are jumping straight in toward aquaculture so will also feed the larger fish manually consider the dam along the same rules as any terrestrial environment, build a solid base first.

It will take a while and is hard to rush but birds (amongst other things)will seed your dam with most organisms needed to start a natural self sustaining environment. I suspect you want a pond type result V a more commercial type one??

Where does your water come from, strictly over land flow or from a perennial creek line or is it part of a constant creek? Depending you can seed it from a few buckets of water literally dragged to the edges of another happy looking body of water.

To grow your environment you need all (billions of the critters)of the organisms you cannot see first, without these nothing happens (but it will just like magic even if you do nothing, just take longer), if you go for it be sure to get some of the bottom as you drag through.

cheers fnq

OPTI

01-03-2009, 09:57 AM

thanks FNQ ,no im not going into aquaculture,id be really happy just to be able to catch some nice size fish out of there with my mates while having a few beers,
i figure il have to feed them ,depending on how many and what i get,the water comes from run off ,im at the bottom of a big hill [range ]the dam went from the original dam[small 3 m deep] to what you see in the photo in 3 weeks of rain we just had.well i guess il start with some fire tails and go from there

ffejsmada

01-03-2009, 04:58 PM

OPTI

01-03-2009, 05:29 PM

Opti, get some Rainbows. The local Melanotaenia duboulayi are the go.
Native fish to northern NSW and southern Qld.
They'll breed like rabbits and quite cheap too.

Below is a pic of the one I've got in my local creek. Very hardy fish.

thanks for that ,il get some ,ive ordered 4 bags of firetails aparently a couple of thousand per bag ,il get some rain bows as well and get the ball rolling.thanks heaps for the info

Cammy

03-03-2009, 06:33 PM

Yer rainbows are a good idea. Weed or any stucture in the dam, just out of interest?

Cam

tunaticer

03-03-2009, 06:49 PM

Spangled perch are quick breeders and will control any outbreaks of blue crayfish to help preserve your dam. Also good forage fish for larger predators as well.

Do you have any sunken trees or artificial reefs set in place prior to filling?

murf

03-03-2009, 07:09 PM

be very careful not to get the mosquito fish in it (Gambusia affinis) they are the biggest curse you can have, they will eat every small fish you put in and nip the fins off the bigger fish stressing them out. In saying that if they are in your area they will find their way in.

I was into growing redclaw commercially and they were one of my biggest nightmares although in designed ponds I could control them

the buckets of mud and organisms from another water body is the go ;)

nsw fisheries have info on stocking ponds/dams re the # of fish

you can add fertiliser or grass/hay to increase the fertility of the pond, this will feed the planktons to which is your main food for a dam

add redclaw to make a natural balanced system

also some form of structure as all fisher persons know;) logs, old trawl nets etc

mate you are on a big leaning curve but you will love every day of it

all the best

cheers Murf

murf

03-03-2009, 07:12 PM

I presume you are in QLD re the adding of redclaw as you can not add them in NSW with out a lot of approvals

OPTI

03-03-2009, 07:28 PM

thanksfor the info guys ,i have lillies in there already from the old dam,im chasing some concrete pipes to roll in there for a reef [strusture],there are some old logs as well ,should work out ok i hope.

Lizard Man

03-03-2009, 08:29 PM

Hey Opti. What a great looking dam:D Whereabouts are you located? I may be able to help you with a few bits and pieces for your dam. Both structure and fish.

OPTI

04-03-2009, 04:30 AM

im on the gold coast .at the bottom of mt tamborine,i can pm you my number if you like ,that would be great .:P

reelchippy

06-03-2009, 12:12 PM

Mate i built my dam about 7years ago and i have take fingerlings to 40cm in Bass,yellos ,and some others pm if you would some inside help that i didnt get and would have loved cheers

http://www.seqfish.com.au/

moorie86

12-03-2009, 09:15 PM

Im sure others following this thread (like myself) would also like to hear your "inside help" reelchippy if you would be so kind as to post it for all to see.
Cheers, Cam.

OPTI

14-03-2009, 08:29 AM

well from the info i have received so far ,its going to take time ,ive got at least a year before i put any real fish in there ,got to get the enviroment established ,plants etc,ive bought firetail gudgeons and rainbows ,as well as shrimp and crays,there all going in on thursday .then nothing until november if the lillies etc are looking good by then il start to add some fish ,at this stage im thinking of only putting mangrove jack and saratogas in there,if i can get them to survive in there il be really happy.
here is another photo.
ps reelchippy il give you a call tonight

SandStorm

22-03-2009, 10:44 PM

Really interesting thread this guys thanks, please keep it going..

FNQCairns

22-03-2009, 11:35 PM

Hi Opti sounds like it's coming along well! (shame one of those moreton containers didn't spill a little into your pond:...hint hint...google:)) anyway a good way to ascertain where your pond is up to is with plankton, proper plankton nets are expensive but you can make your own very crude one with a loop of wire and a good quality stocking (if you just happen have any hanging around:)) using the thicker foot portion as the cod end, heave the unit out and pull it back 10 times just under the surface away from the bottom at all times then flush the contents into a white bottomed container say a casserole dish using as little water as possible (can be tap water to keep it clear), then look very hard to see movement from all the tiny critters, use a magnifying glass or even better a kids microscope kit.. If you see lots then you can assume it's ready for the smaller fish and fingerlings also the bottom dwellers - actually with these lots of native dry sclerophyll leaf litter is handy, grass clippings even...go to town early, within reason it all adds grist toward creating 'an environment'.

This method will only net the larger variety's but usually if they are there then the smaller ones and all of the bases needed should be there also, it's a worthy 'test' IMO.

cheers fnq

snagking

23-03-2009, 07:33 AM

Now I wish I had a house with a big enough backyard to have a dam....

Does a pool count :D

shayned

26-03-2009, 04:45 PM

Hey Mate,
Good looking dam, as a rough guide to stocking rates you will need to calculate the surface area of your dam. That is length x width eg 100m long and 50m wide equals 5000 sq metres of surface area.

As a rough rule of thumb allow 100 fish per every 4000 sq metres of surface area. If you augment the pond with fertiliser or supplimentary feeding you can double this amount.

If you go the Mangrove Jack Route remember they are voracious feeders and will require a very good food source. Spangled perch or snub nosed gar should be considered as both are prolific breeders when the conditions are right. Also remember Jacks are very territorial, with the baddest holding the best structure and the second toughest holding the second best etc. With jacks I would suggest that the stocking rate be much reduced only adding a small amount each year while monitoring your other fish population levels. With plenty of feed and no overcrowding this species will reach around 60cm in 5-6 years. Reports from Awoonga indicate fresh water jack at this size feel similar to a metre barra in a fight.

The only other thing I would have advised is go and trap your forage fish from a local creek in the same catchment as your dam, it saves money, ensures you do no damage from overflow escapes and ensures the fish are well suited to your local area. Bear in mind a female fire tail can lay up to 2000 eggs in a season, you don't need many to produce a good population in one season.

Hope this helps.

As to structure, think about your placement, deepest spots may not necessarily be the best. In 4000 sq metres start with only 4 peices of structure and think about placing them around the 2.5 - 3.0 m mark close to deep water areas.

shayned

26-03-2009, 11:00 PM

Another thought you might like to try is getting 7 peices of 1.5 meter electrical conduit to make your own light weight easily moveable artificial snag.

If you can imagine a square block of timber which has been drilled through the centre from every face of the block and from every corner to the centre, this will give you an idea of the angles to lay the conduit on. Of course you could actually drill out a block of timber and secure 14 lengths of 750 mm conduit into the holes.

When finished locate in the dam, mark with a float if necessary and simply retrieve and move to a new location if needed.

OPTI

03-04-2009, 04:03 PM

well i didnt have to wait long for it to be full,woke up thismorning to this,ive got 500 shrimp and crays in there and 2 kg of fire tails and 50 rainbows,just got to play the waiting game now before i get some real fish .:P

shayned

04-04-2009, 01:07 AM

How are you dealing with overflows and fish escapes??

OPTI

04-04-2009, 07:04 AM

How are you dealing with overflows and fish escapes??
thats a good question,if you look at the photo of the spillway ,its mabe out of big rocks that have been placed in with the excavator,the water runs through the rocks,its very tight ,id be pretty confident anything of decent size wouldnt get through it ,but you never know i guess,im open to any sugesstions.

Bearclaw

10-04-2009, 10:46 PM

OPTI,
Nice dam, but I would get some ground cover on the wall you don't want the wall to wash away. I have spent more money than I care to remember on having batters wash away on me.
Did you have the dam wall engineered, or was is the excavators operators design. It looks like it there is a big drop on the dam wall side to another dam. I would say there would be a lot psi of water presure.
Keep us up to date.

OPTI

11-04-2009, 06:49 AM

its been engineered ,20 ton roller over it every 300 etc,yes the wall is 11 m high at the highest point,they layed geo mat over the back of the wall to stop erosion ,im going to add ground cover plants as well,so far its all good the spillway works perfectlly,it feeds the neighbors dam .

Bearclaw

11-04-2009, 10:14 AM

I bet a bit of money spent too. Keep us upto date. I watched a show in the States showing how they put structure in their dams. They use 100mm PVC sewer pipe, using fittings etc they make box shapes and even tree looking things. Due to the shape of the pipe lures don't snag up very easy on them, so you can toss the lures right in tight to structure. Just drill a few holes in the top and bottom and sink them were you want.

OPTI

16-01-2010, 05:30 PM

just a bit of an update,the water has cleared up a lot in the last few months,i can see 2 to 3 ft from the top,i can see schools of firetails[small schools about 20 or so,but at least its a start.ive had up to 6 cormorins birds working it over ,im forever chasing them off ,so there must be some bait for them.i planted some lillies i got from my neighbors dam and they are just starting to get going,im going to get a few more kilos of firetails just to speed things along a bit.il proably wait another year before i put in some jacks and sarotogas,the water is down about a meter,i didnt get much rain over christmas,so all in all not to bad.

Chimo

17-01-2010, 11:07 AM

Hi Opti

Looks to be a lovely site. I used to work in Soil Conservation and if it was my dam I would definitely do something about the spillway.

Ideally it should be a grassed outfall slope that carries runoff for only a few days at a time so the vegetation is not washed out. To achieve this one needs to construct a suitable "trickle flow" system that carries the low flow "trickles" down to the drainage line downstream of the dam embankment. As well as an inlet structure installed a little below FSL there needs to be an energy dissipation structure where the water exits the "trickle flow" pipe or you end up with an outlet like a high pressure fire hose that you could go gold mining with.

Its all fairly straight forward and the system inlet also reduces the loss of fish etc from your dam. The grassed up spillway especially at the FSL also acts as a filter but in your 1:100 event the grass will lay over and perform much like a thatched roof so protecting your spillway surface. I think, if I can find it, I have a pic from years ago of a vegetated spill channel after such a flow. This channel led from a gulley and fed the flood flow to a fibreglass drop stucture that delivered the water to the gully about 5 or 6 meters below. Amazing to watch in action!

Anyhoo if this stuff is of interest let me know.

Cheers
Chimo

OPTI

24-01-2010, 05:52 PM

thanks chimo ,they designed my spill way sort of like rappids ,the water flows through the rocks,it works really well ,the water gets away quickly with no errosion,its starting to grow grasses and weeds inbetween the rocks so its looking a little more natural now.

Batters

05-02-2010, 11:47 AM

nice dam. i would be adding some bony bream and garfish as larger food for when the stocked fish get bigger. bony bream have breed up very well over a few years in the dam i stocked them in. avoid spangled perch as they will eat fingerlings. also when theres gar in thier your more likely to catch fish on surface lures.

cheers
mick

Aunty Jack

06-03-2010, 08:41 AM

Thank, makes for a good read.

OPTI

18-03-2010, 04:50 PM

well its full again after the recent good rain,the good thing is the water cleared up in a few days,so the enviroment is going ok i think.
couple of new pics,you can see how the spill way is growing weeds and grasses etc,and the lillies are starting to spread,they are in 3 meters of water.ive got firetails everywhere,i still havnt seen a rainbow yet.im going to start makin some structure out of pvc ready for some jacks.

Chimo

19-03-2010, 04:34 PM

Thanks for the update, I enjoy seeing good dams as I used to survey, design and oversee the odd contractor during construction of lots of them in an earlier life.

Yours is looking very nice and as you say the water quality looks good. Is that another dom downstream of yours or part of a borrow pit?

Are we seeing trees growing on the dam bank? If it is and it was my dam I'd be getting rid of them while they are small and replacing them with a grass cover. Tree roots in a bank do not work out well in the long term(if thats where they are, its hard to tell from the pics)

Cheers
Chimo

OPTI

19-03-2010, 05:24 PM

ffejsmada

20-03-2010, 03:16 PM

thats my next door neighbors dam,mine feeds it.yeah those are weeds on the wall ,im about to broad leaf spray them,just been waiting for things to dry out a bit and trying to get some grass growing.just takes time.cheers dave

What are you using for this opti??

I use KAMBA M, great stuff. Kills everything bar your grass, lawn etc, but will kill Buffalo grass also.

Here's one of the dams at our place.

Jeff.

OPTI

20-03-2010, 04:19 PM

yes mate kamba m ,it works great,because i had nothing but dirt i let everything grow ,but now the grass it getting thicker i nock the weeds out.
luv the photos of your dam ,have you stocked anything in it?

ffejsmada

21-03-2010, 02:28 PM

Yeah, there's Bass, Yella's and Silvers stocked in there, although I haven't caught a Silver for a while.
In that particular dam there is also 1 Saratoga and 1 Murray Cod.
These 2 fish got too big for my aquarium, so in the dam they went.
I quite often see the 'toga, but the Cod,,,,,,,,I dunno.

Your dam is looking very nice, amazing changes from when it was first dug hey?
Doesn't take that long to transform does it?

Jeff.

OPTI

28-11-2010, 11:32 AM

i had a visit from the local rural fire brigade yesterday ,doing some helicopter training ,they did around 20 fill ups from my dam ,the chopper could fill its 1000lt tank in 20 seconds,quite impressive,just hope they didnt suck up any of my fish:-?

STUIE63

29-11-2010, 10:34 AM

We had some fires a year ago in my area and the local rural firies came and asked if they would be allowed to take water from my dam if they needed it . they were soon told to take what they wanted . never used a chopper though . it would have been good to see
Stuie

novice23

05-04-2011, 09:55 AM

have you stocked the dam with jacks yet?

Steven C

04-05-2011, 12:14 AM

I have built a 200ML dam which filled very quickly from Albert river 3 years ago.I was keen to stock it with natives but was soon over run with Carp.If anyone has ideas of how to get rid of Carp i would appreciate advice.I know they have used a poison in Tasmania and someone told me dynamite was the way to go! Need to find a powder monkey.Then I would love to stock it with some good catching edible natives.