Before and after shots of my dam

[bersim]

With the lack of rain at the moment I decided to head down and take a few pictures of my dam. I was shocked with how much it had dropped so in the last few days I've started the long, tedious and back breaking job of trying to dig it deeper. Although it may seem like an impossible task it is slowly taking shape into a far deeper dam. I've dug about 1m down and once the water fully dries up I'll try to dig another metre deeper than that. All I'm trying to do is dig a big deep hole in the middle to ensure that when the water does drop next time any fish in there will survive through it. There were previously a few silver perch in there as well as a bass which I caught one day and I plan to stock it once the water rises and I'm 100% sure that it won't be able to dry up again.

Before:

Now:

So when I finally get a small portion of it dug out deeper and the rain fills it up again what would you put in there? When it floods the water runs over a small causeway down the gully so not sure if any fish would travel down there? I like the thought of putting silver perch in there because one of my friends has his full of them and they breed like crazy but I do like the idea of some feisty little bass.... Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

James

[Joe K]

Haha! It looks like hard work! I can't give you any pointers on how best to prepare the dam. Perhaps someone on the forum can help with some advise. My mates have been very successful with silver perch fingerlings in their dams. I was told that bass are quite difficult to raise as they require good water quality.

Cheers... Joe.

[bersim]

Well if bass require good water quality this is not the dam for them Yes my friend has only a very small and dirty dam but it has some very fat fish in it. This is a tiny one I got in it a few years ago.

He also put yellas in his dam and never saw one again...

James

[Joe K]

The 6 posts by rtrt41 looks like spam to me. I may be wrong but I would not download it!

[rayke1938]

Unless you have an excavator i think you have left your dig too late with the rain we have had.

Cheers

Ray

[Luvit]

Nice looking dam when its full.

It's no wonder your all over the bass with a test dam like that in your back yard.

[bersim]

Yeah Ray I also thought that I may have left it too late although in Samford we haven't had enough rain to make the dam rise at all except it has made the soft mud very heavy. Just dug at it for another hour and a half this arvo and it's starting to take shape surprisingly. An Excavator would definitely make it heaps easier except by the time I do that I would have really blown the budget!

haha thanks Wayne. It's a lovely dam when it's full but if I want to put fish in it it will need to constantly hold water.

James

[Binder]

much cheaper than a gym membership

[bersim]

haha yeah there's no need for any of that! I got my Mum to lift a shovel load of the muddy dirt and she couldn't even lift it so it's obviously giving me a good workout if I'm not struggling with it. It's actually quite surprising how much dirt you can move when you put your mind to it.

James

[fishingnut]

Closeburn nursery sometimes has silver fingerlings about 100mm long for 2 bucks each

[bersim]

What!!! Are they $2 now? They used to be 50c each but I think possibly a bit smaller than 100mm. How many should I put in there? 50?

James

[STKE]

Mate you keen with the shovel lol.

If it was me, i'd get myself a long garden hose and Siphon the last of the murky water out and re~dig the bottom of you're little dam.

[waldo]

When I was a young bloke I spent weekend after weekend after weekend after weekend shoveling dirt that had been removed when we got under our house closed in. Finally gave up and got a bobcat to do it. I think full job and spreading evenly and leveling around the yard took it about 4 hours for not a lot of money.

If you can do it by hand more power to you, but I would be having a chat to Santy Clause or swmbo or equivilant and seeing if you couldn't wrangle the hire of a suitable piece of machinery to do the job. Budget are meant to be blown, especially for your own private fishing hole

[elops]

Dug a few big holes by hand James If you are keen bite the bullet and drain it and get digging. Start by digging it out on the shaded edge (if there is one} from the bank to the middle. Can start now where it is dry

[bersim]

haha I don't mind a bit of hard work. I think I'll do that for sure once I've made the edges a bit deeper. At the moment I've made a 1m drop off from the edge of the bank which now runs to the water line and I think that I'll drain the water like you said and then dig that section deeper. Thanks!

James

[bersim]

I'll see how I go in the next few days and if I realise that I definitely can't do it I'll have to get something in. Did you stock any fish in your dam?

James

[bersim]

Dug a few big holes by hand James If you are keen bite the bullet and drain it and get digging. Start by digging it out on the shaded edge (if there is one} from the bank to the middle. Can start now where it is dry

Thanks Steve. I've already started digging out the edges and it is slow but taking shape.

James

[STKE]

Get yourself one if these, you'll be done in one hit.

[Tybo]

I've kept nearly every native in aquariums over the years, as well as helped several friends stock their dams, so I can only offer the experiences I've had. I would not recommend you put bass in a dam, they are slow growing and the mortality rate is very high. Anything else you put in will always grow faster then bass and ultimately end up eating them. Silver's are fine, but are a dirty fish and will constantly keep your dam muddy. You'll often see them with tails out of the water like golden trevally, and are difficult to catch on lures when they're in the zone of getting that mussel or yabby. Yellowbelly are okay, easy to catch on lures when the barometer is right, hardy and you'll be surprised to catch them years after you've put them in. Spangled perch will end up in your dam no matter, so don't pay to put them in. They're fun on light gear and quite aggressive. But if you want exciting, fast growing and fairly hardy, you can't go past barra. With enough food a fingerling barra will be around 50cm in less than two years. Barra are voracious and will eat everything else in your dam, but are fun to catch and in warmer months are very easy in a small dam. They will shutdown in winter, but unless water temps get down to low single digits, they'll survive and fire up again as the temps rise.

[elops]

Leave about 25% of the edge that gets the most sun as it is for macrophytes

[bersim]

I'm interested in putting barra in now! I live in Samford, Brisbane so not too sure if it would get too cold in winter for them. It can get to -1 if we have a frost in Winter so I guess that may be too low (that is only the outside temp not water temp)? And also how deep should I dig the dam if I want barra in it? Sorry one more question - how many barra fingerlings should I stock in there? You can see by the pictures how big it is at full size.

Thanks, James

Also thanks for the info Steve!

[Binder]

hope the bloke who built your dam didn't have to line it with clay to get it to hold water, can be a bit gravelly / sandy out that way

[bersim]

No I think it's made on some very muddy/clay like ground. It was originally a gully and they built it into a dam and my back can also tell you that it's clay aright

James

[Binder]

Use your knees!

[elops]

Clay is good, not so good to dig though.