SUNDAY GULCH – Pennington Co., fishing pond construction

Sunday Gulch has been managed by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks since 1935 as a Game Production Area. A small perennial stream flows through the parcel, populated with brook trout, long nose dace, and white sucker. Few anglers were using the stream, so in 2002 we considered creating a new small pond fishery in Sunday Gulch.

The concept of a new pond with a disabled access fishing pier and trail began to take shape. Work to acquire appropriate construction permits, water rights, rock for the embankment armor, SD Department of Transportation approach construction authorization, and structural engineering followed. Part of the required mitigation for loss of willow shrubs in the future impoundment required GFP to transplant approximately 100 mature willows to a reach of Spring Creek also owned and managed by GFP as a Game Production Area. 

Construction began in November 2004 and was substantially complete in November 2006 when water filled the pond and began to flow over the new spillway for the first time. The new fishing pond, with a surface area of approximately 1.2 acres and a total volume of 5.32 acre feet, was complete.

The project includes a new parking lot, a hard-pack limestone trail (wheelchair accessible) from the parking lot to the pond with an iron bridge over the creek, a timber fishing pier, along with the new embankment and color concrete spillway to match local geology. The pond will be managed for rainbow trout (stocked as catchable size fish on a regular schedule), and brook trout. At the deepest location, the pond is nearly 18’ deep. This deep water can be reached by most anglers fishing from the walkway on the top of the embankment or anglers fishing from the fishing pier as it is just cast distance away. 

Your fishing license dollars were used to build this pond that cost just over $446,000 when complete. Many anglers have been using this new pond, beginning with ice fishing in January 2006. With an anticipated life of at least 30 years, the annual cost of about $15,000 makes this a worthwhile investment.