Our Story

In 1970, Steve and Leann Ouwinga established Stoney Creek Fisheries as a family business. They supplied lakes, farm ponds, and streams in the Great Lakes area with trout, bluegill, largemouth bass, catfish, perch, walleye, and crappie. The operation grew to include three working fish farms with a total of 96 fish production ponds.

Steve and Leann’s son, Dave, grew up learning and helping with the family business and eventually joined the company full time in 1986. This was the same year Stoney Creek expanded their services to include fish and pond lake aeration. This was a natural tie-in service to meet the need for ecologically balanced lakes and ponds promoting the year-round health of fish. By 1990, Stoney Creek was printing a small catalog of supplies geared toward the backyard pond owner.

By the mid-90s, Stoney Creek was operating the fish farms and selling pond supplies to homeowners, other fish farmers, and a growing number of landscape contractors who were building water features. The contractor business quickly became a major part of Stoney Creek’s business as water features rapidly gained popularity in the late 1990s.

Growing frustrated with the lack of quality plastic molded products in the market, Stoney Creek decided to enter the manufacturing business in the fall of 2000, and EasyPro Pond Products was created.

The first products consisted of pond skimmers and waterfall boxes, which were very well received in the industry. Over the years, the EasyPro line has grown to a full line of water feature products and ever expanding line of lake and pond management products.

Dave spearheaded this part of the business, sharing his enthusiasm for the quality designed products and design/construction of water features with others across the country — all while maintaining an “easy-to-do-business-with” style. Dave eventually found the need to spend less time doing installations and more time managing the growing production and distribution of products.

For six out of the next eight years, EasyPro added onto their warehouse, production facilities, and staffing to provide the needed support for their growing customer base. Today, EasyPro works with nearly 200 distributors and has served over 33,000 customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.