Pond Or Lake Which Is It??

[TBO]

what clarifies a body of water from a pond to a lake? 

 

i always thought to be considered a lake it had to be x amount of depth vs surface water coverage

 

i fish some ponds that are over 80 acres of surface water. are they actually considered a lake??

 

i was googling and came across this.  Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/pond-lake.html#ixzz3HB27tB9f

 

• Generally, a lake is an area of open, relatively deep water that is large enough to produce a wave-swept "washed" shoreline, which can prevent vegetation from growing along the shore.
• Another difference can be seen in the water's temperature. Lakes, because they are deeper, have a stratified temperature structure that depends on the season. During summer months three distinct layers develop: The top layer stays warm at around 65–75 degrees. The middle layer drops dramatically, usually to 45–65 degrees F. The bottom layer is the coldest, staying at around 39–45 degrees F. Ponds, on the other hand, have a more consistent temperature throughout.
• If the water is deep enough that light does not penetrate to the bottom, and photosynthesis is limited to the top layer, the body of water is considered a lake.
• A pond is a body of water shallow enough to support rooted plants. Many times plants grow all the way across a shallow pond. There is little wave action and the bottom is usually covered with mud. Plants can, and often do, grow along a pond's edge.
• Even in cold climates, most lakes are large enough so that they don't freeze solid, unlike ponds.
• Finally, if the lake is large enough, it can affect the surrounding climate, whereas ponds are usually affected by the surrounding climate.
• Read more: Pond or a Lake |

 

what do you consider a pond or a lake?

[WRB]

One mans pond is another mans tank.

How big was Waton's pond?

Minnisota, land of 10,000 ponds or lakes?

To me a small lake is over 100 acres, up to 3,000 acres.

You can't use depth as a criteria, there are a lot of shallow lakes.

Tom

[primetime]

To me a pond is less than 50 acres, and a lake is anything larger....Where I grew up, most bodies of freshwater were in the 5-30 acre range, so when I still call 100 acres a lake and consider it a good size as you need to find them on a lake that large, where in a 25 acre pond, you know where the fish are and then it is all about getting a strike. Some of my favorite places to fish for big fish here in Florida are ponds under 5-10 acres, and some are deep over 20 feet, some are all shallow, and if shiners or a healthy panfish populartion exists, it is possible to catch a lunker from any of them. I fish a pond that is 3-4 acres and has depth of 12' and a nice sand flat in 4-6', and great structure near shoreline and lots of flooded timber, so we try to control the panfish and also the Bass Population as it is loaded with shiners and eels and the fish are starting to get big....People stop to fish it once in an while but we have placed so many sharp rocks and cinder blocks in the water it is almost impossibe to get a 5-7lb fish in if you don't know the lanes since people are always looking to steal you fish down here to move into their own local ponds....

 

I have seen pics of 10lb bass that have come from stormwater ponds that are under an acre, and a huge bass can be in any puddle as long as it has an ambush point, bait, and some deeper water and at least some sand flat to spawn.

[Dillo]

to me there is no distinct line between a lake and pond. If it seems big, its a lake, if it seems

small, its a pond. At least it is to me.

[Weld's Largemouth]

large enough to produce a wave-swept "washed" shoreline, which can prevent vegetation from growing along the shore.

This is a lake

[Catch and Grease]

A pond is a pond and a lake is a lake.

[Texas Hawg Hunter]

practically speaking, if I can see the whole thing at once and walk around the thing in a reasonable amount of time then it's a pond

[Raul]

practically speaking, if I can see the whole thing at once and walk around the thing in a reasonable amount of time then it's a pond

I concur with that description.

[geo g]

Depth has nothing to do with it.  Lake Okeechobee is one of the largest lakes in the country and natural max depth is 18 feet.  I fish lakes and ponds all the time, the only important thing is they are all bodies of water with their own characteristics. 

[Lund Explorer]

In this area the term Pond is usually reserved for manmade bodies of water.  It doesn't matter if it is an acre in size dug in someone's backyard, a smallish backwater created for the running of some type of saanother sitell or gristmill, or if it is a large impoundment created by a hydroelectric dam.  Ponds that were used for the operation of a mill usually has the village or city name tied to it, and hydroelectric ponds are named for the name of the dam.

 

The term Lake is used for a naturally formed body of water, and again, size doesn't seem top matter.  In Michigan lakes were named in two ways.  If the word Lake comes first, then it was most likely discovered by the French.  If the word Lake comes at the end of the name, it was a body of water discovered by the English/Americans.

[Bruce424]

Pond= enclosed body of water. No in flowing or out flowing water. Only rain to keep it filled.

Lakes= in flowing water like a stream or river provides the body or main source of Lake water.most of them are dammed up to create the lake. Some lakes have an in flowing and or out flowing underground springs.

These are not facts just opinions that I feel explains the lakes I see and ponds.

[Bluebasser86]

I believe the state of Kansas considers a body of water a pond if it's under 30 acres. We do have some state lakes just bigger than that so maybe that's why the cutoff is 30 acres.

[greentrout]

I have fished farm ponds from a few acres to 30 acres. Some you can catch them from the bank; some you need a boat to get to them.

Some are spring fed; some are not.

 

This morning I fished a flood retention body of water 10 minutes from my home that is 35 acres with various species located in a very

large metropolitan area with deer and other species nearby with million dollar homes less than a mile away.

 

I consider it a pond but maybe again it is what it is: a flood retention body of water.

 

Old school basser...

 

[boostr]

Whatever Google Map says...