I am considering purchasing pallets for spawning habitat - mostly for FH minnows.

Where is the best place to get pallets? Do stores give them away?

Many companies have started recycling pallets, but some still throw them away. I used to work for the KC Star and at that time they were discarding them. You might try there.

I get mine from the large building material/home improvement stores. They stack them in an area and will let you have them if you ask. Also construction sites have them lying around and often will be glad for you to take them away. There is also a pallet recycling business that sells use ones for between $1-5 depending on condition. Also the high vol. furniture/appliance stores have them to get rid of.

OK, so I can etch this one in granite, definitely plan on laying out some pallets for structure...right? I'm getting a long list for this coming spring/summer, and I need to lock into each facet and keep on movin'. I think I remember seeing Ahvatsa's project with a triangle of 3 skids. Maybe one of these per surface acre? Maybe a few single flat pallets in a .25 ac area that we are going to leave "wetland" shallow?

We built some of the triangular pallets as well. We got 'em free from Home Depot -- we've seen them stacked at various stores and they appear to be free for the asking. We used twine to assemble, but have since gone back with zip ties or heavy clothesline wire.

The other thing we did with pallets was to build an extremely temporary "dock" to launch our 11' aluminum boat. Our shoreline is quite muddy due to the clay and low water. We stacked a couple pallets at the water's edge so that we could more easily get in/out of the boat. That worked nicely.

Then, since we hope the water will get higher, we stacked eight pallets flat, end-to-end and up the slope, to build a eight-pallet-long dock. We looped them together with wire and staked the whole thing down. For a while, it will aid our boat launching. Once the water comes up, it'll be spawning structure for a while. Eventually, it may be deep structure.

Captain Comp: I really like the 3-d nature of your pallet structures. Could I steal your picture and use it for my fisheries management class this spring?

Dave here is a link to ahvatsa's pond project pics. with pallet stct. and others. I have used pallets many ways (like Lincoln logs) to make fences, pyramids, attached to poles horz. & vert. for shade and depth , but did not take pics. Can draw or describe them if you want


http://photobucket.com/albums/b165/ahvatsa/

Feel free to use the pic. I've got some other photos of structure at...

Pond photos

Nice pics. CC. Looks like a playground to me.

Thanks, guys. Nice jobs by both ahvatsa and CC! Both will be very fun water bodies.

Super project, Cap'n. Great lookin' pc of property and pond/lake effort. Give us some stat's on dimension....looks like another whopper. That dam is lonnnngggg. What's the guesstimate on cu yds?

Cap'n - Great project. The catfish will probably spawn inside the tires.

Thanks. The pond will be 5+ surface acres when full. It was built in a lowish area where mining of surface gravel occurred 10-20 years ago. Took 10,000 cubic yards to build the dam. I want to say the dam itself is ~1000 feet long. The entire trip around the pond is about 1/2 mile. Deepest water will be ~15 feet, with an average depth of 6 feet. ~~~~ it's been lots of fun designing and creating structure, but much less fun watching only 5 1/2" of rain in 6 months. When we get into a normal rainfall pattern, this puppy should fill up, stay watertight, and be clear. ~~~~ Best thing about the lack of rainfall is that I may get the opportunity to build a dock before the water fills.

Congrat's, CC. I have a similar project on my radar rite now.
10,000 cu yd for a dam that is 1000' long seems slight, unless it is of comparatively short height...?

The area was already ~4 feet low due to mining, so there was less soil to move. Made things a lot cheaper. It's a pretty good size dam, height-wise. The NRCS guy helped design/stake it. ~~~~ I'm looking forward to becoming a real "pond boss", although I expect it'll be closer to becoming a "pond slave".