Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Help with structure placement

We've recently finished our 1 acre pond. Now it's time to place some structure before it fills up. I'm planning to stock LMB, BG, FHM (or some other "minnow type" forage), and possibly CC if I decide they won't be too much of a problem. If I stock CC I do NOT want them to reproduce.

I currently have 3 underwater "humps" and one big 10-foot tall brush pile in the pond. You can see a crude drawing of the placements here:

I have a big pile of 6" - 12" rock waiting to go in but I need opinions on where to put them. All in one big pile? Spread out into several smaller piles? Where? I'm also wondering what other additional structure I should place (if any).

It's getting wet here. There's no standing water in the pond yet but everything is a muddy mess. The ground should be frozen solid for the next couple of days, so this is my chance to get in there and work. Any advice or opinions would be welcomed!

Remember that cover/structure should be situated in a way that helps the fish travel shallow to deep (and vice versa) with cover options along the way. So, consider using your rock in piles that accomplish that goal. Another point to keep in mind is that you don't want structure all over the place because it may spread the fish out too much - I think the general rule of thumb is no more than about 20% of the pond should have structure/cover. I am way guessing here, but you might want to make some rock piles that connect the shallows to each of the humps.

It might also help to have an idea of the various depths and contours in your pond. Can you redo the diagram with some depth numbers plugged in?

Good looking setup in my opinion. I bet you'll be able to maximize things with that rock. Hang on for more thoughts!

Archive structure thread - http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

Thanks for the tips everyone. Since the last post I've added a couple of rock piles and dug some channels to connect the various bits of structure. The channels are approximately 2' deep by 2 feet wide with sharp vertical edges. I left small dirt mounds from what we dug out next to the channels. I've redone the drawing to be more accurate and include some depth numbers. The lines connecting everything are the channels, with small 1.5 foot high dirt piles along one side of most of them.



Here are some views of the channels and some of the structure:











Any thoughts? I'm trying not to add too much and go over the 20% rule. I'd love any suggestions. In particular I'm wondering if I need more brushpile-like structure for baby fish and whether I should add something for FHM to spawn on.

Anything else important I'm missing for a FHM, BG, LMB, and possibly CC pond?

Hi Ack,

Things are looking good. If your pond is the shape of a "U," I would suggest coming all the way nearly to waterline with a couple of trenches in both ends of the "U." I would add structure along your ditches in the form of rocks you have or wood or something at intervals along your trenches as fish hangouts. Just don't get too carried away. As far as the catfish (I wouldn't if it were my pond,but..), remember, they are cavity spawners. This means that in order to lay eggs they will get inside something like a hollow log, rock ledge undercut, spaces between rocks in rock piles (if large enough), plastic buckets, old tires, etc.

-HH

Oops. I messed up when posting the new drawing. I've added it to the post above.

Thanks for the tips, HoneyHole. If I can get the dirt guy back out before it rains again I'll try to put in some more tranches to the waterlines on both sides of the "U."

That's really cool looking, Ack. I especially like the trenches - they basically imitate creek channels that are prevalent in a lot of big lakes and offer good places for LMB to do their thing. I agree with taking them up into the shallows in a spot or two.

You might want to make your brush pile bigger, extending towards shore so that any little guys who use it have a range of depths available to them depending on their size and stage of development. Bigger prey fish will use it, too, drawing bigger predators into that area. If you have some good ambush and escape features available for the predators, that will be a key area for future fishing, I suspect.

Again, really cool setup - I like it a lot and if I eventually redo my ponds, you can rest assured I'm stealing the idea of the trenches. They've probably been discussed here, but I've just never seen pics that lay them out as clearly as yours and I really like the concept.

Thanks Todd. I've heard them referred to as "fish highways." Hopefully they will be.

One conceptual suggestion. Think in 3-D with the lake full. Then look at the archive on structure http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463 . Might read the structure article dealing with types of structure ( islands , funnels , points , saddles , corners , island , humps , ditches, etc)