Your goal is to have a dependable supply of water that can be maintained year-round so that resident deer have no need to move on to greener pastures. With that in mind, it’s important to build a pond that won’t lose excess water to the environment. You can minimize evaporative loss by limiting the amount of sunlight and wind your pond is exposed to, but you also need to take care to prevent water from seeping away through the soil.
Flexible liners are good options for this because they conform to the shape of your hole and won’t suffer from problems like uneven support or erosion that can undermine your plastic tub, causing it to crack or split. In contrast, a high quality reinforced liner is flexible and tough enough to tolerate a slightly irregular surface as well as withstand the sharp hooves of deer and the claws of other wildlife denizens. Reinforced polyethylene (RPE) is resistant to cracks, tears, degradation over time, and retains flexibility even in extremely cold winters where rigid plastic liners or PVC material can crack (at temperatures only moderately below freezing (0°F).
Many hunters consider preformed rigid plastic liners to be convenient, but a rigid shape requires a hole that’s carefully dug to closely match in size, shape and depth. Upon dropping the preformed plastic into a prepared hole, soil must be backfilled and tamped down to surround the tub with solid support without any gaps. An unsupported area subjected to the downward pressure of a full tub will reduce the plastic’s integrity over time, leading to troublesome leaks. Rigid forms are also more likely to suffer damage from hooves and impacts (broken branches) and during very cold weather, when the plastic becomes brittle.
Finishing Touches
When you begin to prepare your site, you should save leaves, mosses, and other natural ground covering. Once the pond is fully installed, you can replace these materials to help naturalize the area and minimize the formation of muddy areas or erosion problems.
It’s not necessary, but some hunters like to add several inches of soil at the bottom of their pond to give the water a natural scent and flavoring. Keep in mind, though, that every inch of soil that you pour into the bottom of your pond equates to gallons of lost storage volume. Storm runoff naturally carries silt as it pours into your pond, which will provide plenty of flavor and minerals. It’s your choice whether to start off with a soil layer or to add mineral supplements, but it’s always wise to plan to accommodate for an influx of silt, regardless.
VERY IMPORTANT: Do not fail to place a long branch (or small trunk if your pond is big enough) that runs from the bottom of your pond and overhangs the top edge. Small creatures like rabbits, squirrels and other wildlife might fall into the pond, and without an easy egress, they could drown and foul the water.
Have Hole, Need Water
If you time it right, with a little bit of luck, you can probably prepare your smallish hunting pond in a single day right before a refreshing rainstorm that could fill it to the brim. If that’s not in the cards for you, it may be necessary to haul water, at least to get it started, or in periods of extended drought. Considering the weight of water, 5-gallon buckets may be most convenient, even if that means lots of them. To weigh your options, consider that 5 gallons of water weighs about 42 lbs. Don’t be tempted by those lovely 30-gallon drums unless you’re ready to tote 250+ pounds on and off your vehicle -- several times, although a drain hose could be an excellent solution to that puzzle. Remember, your deer pond doesn’t need to be brimming to begin to attract deer - they, along with other wildlife, can easily smell water and will begin to visit quickly even if it’s only half full. The most important thing is to make sure the pond doesn’t dry up. Keep an eye on the new watering hole over the first few weeks to see how quickly the level falls and judge if natural rainfall can keep it full. Otherwise, you’ll need to haul in supplementary water on a regular basis, at least until the rainy season arrives.
