PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Pond builders working the pond capital of Texas: new fishing ponds, renovations, and dredging across the rolling sand and clay country around Athens and Cedar Creek Lake.
Athens calls itself the birthplace of Texas bass fishing for a reason, and the county is stitched with private water. The ground rolls between sandy ridges and red clay flats, and each one gets a different pond plan.
East of town toward the piney edge the ridges run sandy, and a basin up there needs the clay found or brought: tested, cored, and priced in writing. Down in the red clay flats and the bottoms toward the Trinity, the ground packs into a basin that seals itself and the chart runs clean.
Most Athens tracts hold both kinds of ground within one fence line, which is exactly why the site walk matters more here than the brochure.
This is the home of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center and a thousand bass ponds with opinions. Pond owners here know what a correctly built basin looks like: real depth, pinched shallows, a dam with a core, structure placed on purpose for fish.
We build to that standard because the neighbors can tell. Depth maps for stocking, spawning shelves where they belong, and a bowl that grows the kind of bass this county brags about.
New dig or renovation, the sequence is the same open book: photos, a walk, a written number, machines, water.
Send photos of the spot, a rough size, and your town. You get a ballpark from the published list the same day, and if it sounds right we set a time to walk the property. No pressure loop, no form-and-wait.
On an Athens walk we probe ridge sites for clay depth, read the draws, and if it is a renovation, sound the silt and check the dam for stump leaks and slumping. You get a straight answer about whether to renovate or dig new, standing on the bank in question.
A real number in machine days: what the dig costs, what the dam costs, what happens if we hit rock, and what the clearing adds if the site is brushed up. The price on paper is the price, and any rock contingency is spelled out instead of buried.
A lowboy shows up with the dozer and excavator, usually within a few weeks of a signed quote. We need a gate the iron fits through and a spot for the trailer, and we handle the rest.
Two to five working days for most ponds. Topsoil gets stripped and saved, the core trench gets cut, the dam goes up in compacted lifts, and the basin takes shape a bench at a time. You are welcome on site every day of it, at a safe distance from the swing radius.
Before the machines load, we walk the pond with you: dam, spillway, slopes, and the topsoil dressed back over the banks. If it does not match what was quoted, that is the moment we make it right.
Around forty inches of rain a year fills a correctly sited basin over one wet season. Renovated ponds refill fastest of all, because their watershed already proved itself for a generation.
Published, not hidden behind a form. Prices and build times are based on 6 feet of depth at center with a 4:1 bank.
| Pond Size | Starting Price at 6 ft depth, 4:1 bank | Build Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 acre | from $12,300 | 2 to 3 days |
| 1/2 acre | from $19,200 | 3 to 4 days |
| 3/4 acre | from $23,300 | 4 to 5 days |
| 1 acre | from $27,000 | 5 to 6 days |
| 1 1/4 acre | from $30,400 | 6 to 7 days |
| 1 1/2 acre | from $33,800 | 7 to 8 days |
| 1 3/4 acre | from $36,800 | 8 to 9 days |
| 2 acre | from $39,500 | 9 to 10 days |
Chart prices are for a 6 foot deep pond at 4:1 banks. Sandy ridge sites can add tested sealing as a flagged line item; the red clay flats usually run the chart clean.
Size it, tell us what to do with the dirt, then draw the pond right on a photo of your land. Your estimate comes back by email, along with a preview of the finished water.
No surprise line items. Here is how the number breaks down on every quote we write.
Siting and design against your watershed, staking, topsoil stripped and saved, the core trench, the dam built in compacted lifts, the spillway cut and shaped, slopes finished to mow, and topsoil dressed back over the banks. Machine transport is in the quote, and so is the walkthrough before we leave.
Sealing on the sand ridges is the written-line-item variable, tested before it is priced. Renovations swap that question for silt depth and dam condition, which the site walk answers. Clearing brush and willow off the work area rides on the same quote at published day rates.
Real ponds, real day counts, photographed on site.
Pond expansion underway, Elgin
Pond cleanout and dredging
New pond filling, CrawfordFull process, statewide services, and the build standard: our Texas pond construction page.
An Athens pond is a bass pond by default. We shape basins with the stocking plan in the drawing: deep water past the dam for summer refuge, defined shelves for spawning, structure placed while the machines are there, and the depth map handed over for the hatchery truck.
Henderson County has generations of ponds, and half of them are overdue: silted to half depth, ringed in willow and brush, dams leaking through old stumps. Renovation is our steadiest work here: drain, dredge, reshape, rebuild the dam, and the pond fishes like the year it was dug.
The lake country pulls Dallas money into acreage all around Gun Barrel City, Mabank, and Athens, and those buyers want private water fast. A new pond built ahead of the house is the cheapest sequencing there is, while access is clean and spoil has a purpose.
Pond sites here come wrapped in sweetgum, willow, and briar. Our clearing machines and pond machines travel together: mulch the thicket, grind the stumps out of the footprint, open the cut, one mobilization and one bill.
In the county that founded ShareLunker culture, a pond is a conversation. A correctly built half acre grows fish the neighbors ask about, and the depth map proves it was built on purpose.
Lake country acreage with private water sells to Dallas buyers at a premium the ground alone never earns. Agents around Athens lead with the pond when there is one.
Renovating the family tank is as much heritage work as dirt work: same footprint, same memories, twice the depth it had in 1995.
Henderson County still runs cattle and horses, and a deep tank in the red clay carries stock through the dry months without a water bill.
The build does not have to stop when the water shows up. These come with the same one-crew, one-call approach as the pond itself.
Seeding and erosion blankets finish every dam we shape, because a bare dam in an east Texas spring is a maintenance appointment you did not ask for.
Aeration is the pond capital upgrade: cooler stratification, fewer weeds, faster growing bass. We plumb the line during the build so the compressor is a weekend install later.
Docks get planned into the grading, not bolted on after: dock bank, depth at the posts, and the walk-down all set while the machines are still on site.
Stocking is where Athens shines: the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center is in town and reputable hatcheries are an easy haul. Forage first, bass on schedule, and you get the depth map that makes it work.
I truly appreciate the integrity of this company and very competitive pricing. Very timely, and communication and payment options were great! I highly recommend this company and we will use them again.
David Scoggins, Google review
They did a phenomenal job cleaning up my 80 acres in Bellville of tree damage from the straight wind storm. Steve surveyed the property and gave me a quote that week, and Dustin worked diligently for 9 days to complete the project. Throughout, I got frequent updates. Outstanding team, outstanding job.
Doug Abbott, Google review
One word: FANTASTIC!! Thank you Pierce Land Clearing and special thanks to Dustin. We are so pleased!!
Dawn Buscho, Google review
Six terms you will hear on the site walk, and what they actually mean for your water.
The dam built up in thin layers, each packed tight by the machine before the next goes on. The opposite of a pushed up pile.
The armored low route storm water takes around the dam instead of over it. The difference between a rain event and a rebuild.
Four feet of run for every foot of drop. Gentler banks are safer and easier to mow; steeper banks get more depth from less dirt.
The dry dam height above full pool, the safety margin that keeps a big storm inside the pond.
Every acre of ground that sheds rain toward your pond. It, not the hole, decides how fast you get water.
The water level at the bottom of the spillway, the highest the pond is designed to hold day to day.
Athens anchors our Henderson County pond work. Every town below is a local pond page with its own soil notes and pricing.
The published chart starts at $12,300 for a quarter acre at 6 feet on 4:1 banks, with the calculator above pricing your own size and depth. Sandy ridge sites can add tested sealing as a written line item. Photos of the tract get a real range the same day.
That is half our Henderson County work. Draining, dredging the silt, reshaping banks, and rebuilding tired dams usually costs well under a new dig and gives back the depth the pond had decades ago. If the dam is sound we can sometimes dredge without a full drain.
With the right plan, yes. We test for clay depth first: reach it with the cut when it is close, core the basin with compacted clay or bentonite when it is not, and the sealing plan is written into the quote before anything is dug.
In this county especially. Deep summer refuge, spawning shelves, pinched weed-prone shallows, and structure set during construction. You get the depth map the stocking truck wants, and the pond is designed to grow the fish Athens is famous for.
Chart pricing starts at 6 feet, and for a serious bass pond we recommend eight or more at center where the ground allows: cooler summer water, less vegetation, healthier fish. The calculator shows exactly what deeper costs before you commit.
On most rural Henderson County land, no. Normal farm and ranch ponds are exempt from state permitting and the county adds none. Sites in a mapped floodplain deserve a check first, and we flag that on the walk.
Two to five working days of digging for most sizes, a day or two more if the site needs clearing first. Renovations vary with silt depth but usually land in the same window once the pond is drained.
Henderson County averages around forty inches of rain a year, and a correctly sited basin generally stands full within its first wet season. Draw fed sites and renovations with existing watersheds fill faster.
Photos, a rough size, and your road gets a real range the same day, for new digs and renovations both. The site walk is free.