Lake Midway - Part 1 | Larry's Short Stories

Google picture with outline of Lake Midway overlaid — The best place to put a 38-acre lake often requires a lot of tree and dirt removal. Lake Midway was no exception. (Google image 2025)

A lake is a farm ditch with a dam, to back up water; the water being deeper at the dam end and shallow everywhere else. But, if you wanted something bigger, wherein kids could learn to fish, what would it be? For a 38-acre lake, you are going to need a civil engineer to make sure the dam is in the right place and the lake will hold water. You might want a boat ramp and parking lot and an access road.

Dirt Terraces 3’ high with post on top and rock on either side — You can see the dirt terraces, between the loads of rock. That’s a hedge post you see in the middle. The top will just stick out of the water, when full, and represents the best place to catch fish.

How about minnow ponds at every major water entry point — there are 11 such places. A simple dam for each created small minnow ponds and a valve allows the water/minnows to be released into the big lake each November. Now, dig out the lakebed, so that the water level is 5-foot deep from every fishing spot. Add some dirt terraces at 50’ and 150’ to change the depth of the water — for the fish, and the kids.

Primary overflow tube for minnow pond — There are 11 minnow ponds just above the lake, wherever water would run in.

So where do you fish? For the kids, here are 92 hedge posts (protruding just above the water) installed in the first dirt terrace, at 50’ from the bank — and more at 150’. In most instances one would cast to the nearest post. Then there are the rock piles — broken up concrete strategically placed around the hedge posts and other places we want to attract fish, 700 loads of rock. Plus, we left the tree trunks that didn’t have to be removed. Since we expect to catch a lot of fish, a road connecting every fishing spot makes access easy.

Dump truck being dumped — Over 700 loads of concrete scrap were dumped in the lake in strategic locations.

An aerator keeps the water from turning over, a well keeps the water level constant, a picnic shelter houses the waiting guests, and a fish cleaning station.

Drone perspective of just completed lake — A completed 38-acre lake, just as the fall rains started. We did over a dozen different things to make this lake special.

Now, we are ready for it to start raining, then the first bait fish.

See also: Lake Midway - Part 2, Larry's Short Story #299