The All New Portable Trout Pond

Justin and I have been scratching our heads for a few days trying to figure out what kind of portable pond we could make that will hold thousands of gallons of water and allow people to trout fish in it safely during the Elmwood All Outdoors Show this weekend.


Last year we just used an above ground swimming pool we bought on clearance, but it unfortunately didn't hold up to the wear and tear of hundreds of kids fishing. It made it through the event, but not good enough to be able to reset back up again. This year we decided to make a portable yet permanent frame with a heavy duty fish safe pond liner. We will be using the pond again at the end of this month at the Presley's Outdoors Fishing sale weekend with Mike Iacanelli.

Anyhow we built the 14' long 3' tall pond walls out of 2x4's with a double top plate and sheated the inside with 1/2" OSB plywood. We just fastened the walls to each other at the corners onsite and screwed in some metal corner brackets at the top and bottom of each of the 4 corners for extra support.

We also ran heavy duty straps along the ground to help hold the pond walls from bowing to the pressure. We then threw the 25x25 heavy duty Firestone Pond Guard Liner into the pond and filled er up with water with our fingers crossed!

We filled the pond with 2.5 feet of water and surprisingly the walls held solid!!! Cha ching. Now Justin is heading up to the trout hatchery near the Wisconsin border early friday morning and kids will be catching trout (and some big bonus other fish) all day Saturday and Sunday!

Here is sneak peak of the filling process:


I will be at the show all weekend long sitting in the gym at the Herman Brothers booth or at the trout pond or walking around aimlessly spending all the money we earn from selling porcupine attractors and other stuff at our booth. If your out and about make sure to stop by and drop me some extra spending cash or lets just talk about fish or deer or ponds or fish or something.......

Here are some of the highlight pictures from last years trout pond:

If fishing is this good for kids in a portable swimming pool, just imagine what fishing can be like in your pond???