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I have two ponds on my 20 acre Guadalupe County property, a large catfish pond and smaller water garden pond. This page will discuss the large pond. At its conclusion there is a link leading to the the Water Garden and Gazebo page.
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The Large Pond'
The larger pond covers about 3/4 acres. It is near 20 feet deep in the center, and when full I estimate it contains over a million gallons of water. The title picture above and the first picture to the right were taken of this pond on a winter evening. The title picture was shot just minutes after sunset; the picture to the right was taken as the sun sank below the horizon. The apparent snowfield in the foreground is the reflection of clouds from the surface of the water. The last two pictures to the right were taken in the summer. In the second summer picture (lower right) the tops of the pine trees growing around my house are in view. The primary source of water for the pond is rainfall from its small watershed. The pond has a good tight clay bottom, but rainfall is insufficient to maintain the pond in many of the dryer years. The secondary source is a well. A one HP pump delivers about 15 gpm of water at the pond. Generally five or six days of pumping per month during the dry months of summer will maintain an acceptable level. The pond is stocked with catfish, bluegill and a few bass. The picture below shows several large catfish and a few bass or bluegill. The catfish are fed a commercial food pellet and many are in the 18 inch range, weighing about 5 pounds. The bluegill grow large enough for the frying pan, but their primary role is as forage fish for the bass and catfish. The bass are few in numbers and do not grow much more than 15 inches eating minnows, small bluegill, frogs, and assorted bugs.. Each fall and again in the spring this pond is an overnight resting place for migrating flocks of wild ducks, geese, cranes and other birds during their migratory treks to and from their wintering range on the Texas coast and their breeding grounds in the North.
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Number of hits, December 1, 1998 - July 25, 2001 = 4990
Number of hits since July 25, 2001 = 
