Techniques for surreptious pond support welcomed

We call it "The Duck Pond". It's a bit over an acre of still water between
a series of collection channels and Duck Creek itself. In and of itself, it
ain't nothing to look at, but the local suburb keeps the banks mowed and has
planted Cedar-Elms to make casting challenging.

But it has found a way of turning itself into some seriously fun habitat.
Most of the fish that gulp on our flies are six to twelve inches long and
sturdy enough to put a good bow into a 9 foot 5-weight.. We chunk them
loose and tell them to grow big. It's close to my partner's home and would
be a hell of a lot of fun to fish if it was all about the little boys who
jump on number 12 McGinty's and # 10 muddlers. And there are definitely
some seriously bigger fish in the pond. I've missed some scary hits on
streamers and seen some serious wakes behind bad casts... There's a trophy
fish or five out there....

The Duck Pond's in peril. Most of the stone underpinning beneath the
run-out has washed away and now the concrete over it is flaking away. The
Duck Pond has evolved into an incredibly diverse and healthy stop off for
water and such feeding into a stream like local governments brag about. It
would be a damned shame to lose it and it wouldn't really take that much to
preserve it, but....how exactly do you bring it up to the local authorities
to make it urgent enough to preserve it without tempting somebody into doing
so much as to ruin it?

It's a bit chaotic and the banks aren't neatly paved with stone like the
ponds that the city fathers tend to brag about after spending lots of money.
But it supports an amazing variety of finned, feathered and insect life and
Tim and I have to keep track of our back-casts to accomodate the kids
feeding the ducks. We don't want the pond "improved". We love it for what
it is. We would, on the other hand, appreciate some of our tax-dollars
diverted towards putting some aggregate underneath the crumbling spillway
and a few yard of concrete to finish out the spillway... or maybe not....
some holes left unfilled could create pockets to worth drifting a number 12
dry fly into.

How do you get the local authorities enthusiastic enough to protecting what
they have without inspiring them enough to f*** it up? I just don't know.
But a lot of folks here have been through a lot of situations.....maybe none
of them exactly like this, but maybe close enough that one of them can tell
us how to work the Parks and Recreational Department here in a way that
will help us preserve the Duck Pond.

-Doc

Doc wrote:snipHow do you get the local authorities enthusiastic enough to
protecting what
they have without inspiring them enough to f*** it up? I just don't know.

I don't have the answer you need, but I do have a warning. About an hour from
here is a small lake that has been a place of enjoyment for several generations
that was origionaly built for the town's water supply about 1900. It is one of
the few lakes in the area that I know of that had a good sized populations of
bluegill that weigh over one pound. About three years ago they drained it to
work on the damn. They got as far as draining the lake AND THEN THEY QUIT. It
appears that they had no intention of ever finishing the project and we lost
one of the best bluegill fisheries in the state. Aparently forever.

Watch them like a hawk.

Big Dale

From: "Doc Elder"

How do you get the local authorities enthusiastic enough to protecting what
they have without inspiring them enough to f*** it up? I just don't know.
But a lot of folks here have been through a lot of situations.....maybe none
of them exactly like this, but maybe close enough that one of them can tell
us how to work the Parks and Recreational Department here in a way that
will help us preserve the Duck Pond.

I would start with your local conservation commission rather than Parks and
Recreation. If you can convince the CC that the work needs to be done with no
further "improvements", get them to issue an order of conditions, then you can
approach P&R to implement tne work.

Good luck!




George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller