Today we get to maybe an advanced topic. What can you do to enhance exisiting vegetation to increase LMB and maybe forage. Or increase fishing access to LMB.

I have some native plants, bulrush and cattails in dense stands. Good for forage, and frogs. The LMB can't get in them, by them or through them. They are pond square foot eaters. I can mow them and shape them.

Do I cut triangles in them making several points like a zig zag pattern?

Do I cut channels from the shore all the way through them?

Do I cut behind them and leave a line of them parallel to the shore.

I have a pond fairly overrun with them, but am going to leave some just for balance purposes. I have noticed the forage like them, but the numbers of forage are much better elsewhere, in other plants I put in. I have caught some of my biggest LMB right off of them. It seems the lmb won't go behind cattails without a quick access back to the pond, even if there is a good depth near the shore. Almost nothing goes there.

I want to increase ambush points for the LMB. and channels for them to run in and out. I also want to increase square feet they can go. And places I can fish, and cast. I know eventually they will grow back, but I can mow them faster than they can grow.

Next plant is creeping primrose, or water primrose. I have this almost 20 feet from shore in. All fish are in here, thick. But I can cut a back channel through it between the shore and the edge. Or I can cut blank spaces in it to or near the shore. One blank space did naturally occur. Don't ask me why but the rest of the shore is dense with it. Practically a mat. Can't fish very well in it, but the edges provide the best fishing in the pond, by far. And the forage is loaded up in there, everything from dragonflies, to baby bullfrogs, polliwogs and every small fish there is. If I cut a four foot channel in it I can get the boat in and cast right along the shore fishing the same depth. If I cut notches in I can cast either from the shore out, or from a boat in. I know every pond is different, but my basic desire is to create maximum ambush habitat for my LMB, and fishing access for them, with existing vegetation by cutting and mowing.

What have you observed, what would you do?