I am planning on creating some underwater humps and islands in a pond that I am building later this summer. I am curious to hear what others think about...
1. How big to make each hump/island, both in terms of radius and vertical rise.
2. How far below the water level to terminate them. (I am think about 2'-3' below the water level and anticipate weeds growing on top of them. But I think that the weeds will provide cover for smaller fish, so I am OK with it.
3. Do you need to rip rap the sides, even if they are all 2'-3'+ under water?
4. I am also considering laying a log/tree off of the end of each hump that I would anchor in place. The thought is that the branches would extend down into the water and create natural looking, quality habitat underwater, with perhaps a little bit of exposed trunk that turtles could sit on or birds could alight on.
Any other "island" or "hump" ideas or advice are welcome. TIA.
I made a hump in my pond that comes 12"-18" from the surface. It is not big, maybe 10X15, and I planted two cypress trees on top of it. And it does have grasses growing on it. This morning I cut down a forked tree that had laid over in a storm. Since it was right there, I cut two good sized logs and pushed them out into the pond where they are laying across the top of the hump. All seems to be working well.
As far as size, etc, I would say more smaller ones are better than fewer large ones, but that is definitely not a scientific opinion.
I don't have good overall answers to your question but will give a few observations that might be of help.
Was snorkeling today in mid 70 degree water (Hathaway Pond Cape Cod - google search will bring up lots of results), and all of the LMB and PS we saw were in 2-4' of water. The vast majority of them were concentrated near trees that had fallen into the water. Even the spawning colonies tended to be associated around a fallen tree rather than out in the open areas. The LMB nests that we saw were mostly a cleaned out bed under or right beside one of these fallen trees. Hardly saw any fish in deeper water although the YP schools were out in open water at about 3-5' depth. This was from 10-12 in the morning. At other times of day or year results could be different.
As far as rip-rap or rock covering the humps it would not be needed for anything like shore erosion. So not absolutely needed. But I can tell you that I put a lot of various sized rock around my pond shore line as well as piles and spawning areas in shallow water. I don't think you would ever be sorry the rock was there. It provides lots of cover for all kinds of tiny bugs and invertebrates so I'm satisfied that a rock substrate has advantages to the food chain over a mud bottom. And where the food is, the fish will be. So in my opinion, as much rock as you can afford will never be wasted effort from my limited knowledge, non-expert perspective.
That is about all I can safely have an opinion on. I have a small island in my old pond but don't know how much it is utilized. I did make various humps, both from the pond bottom itself as well as artificial structure in the way of concrete foundation pieces in my main 3 acre pond. I go diving in my big pond occasionally and there is always small fish fry around any internal structure in the pond. All types of vertical structure are utilized by fish. Will try to get some pictures posted some day of the fish inhabiting the structure.
If I could have I would have put them all over. Just was never an option when you are short on dirt and relying on compaction for holding water.
I like the humps and etc in the pond. But I would put the top of the hump @ 6' under surface. This will hold fish and give additional fishing spots and if your water level drops some, the humps might still be under water. And there are water or pond plants that can grow on top of the humps @ that depth if desired and water is fairly clear.
Tracy
OK, given that, I think I will aim to make the tops of the humps plateau out at about 4'-6' of depth and I will aim to "rock" the tops of them and/or place some PVC "trees" and/or "bushes" on top of them too, moreso just to add structure/habitat.
Thanks, I have read through that archive and received many good ideas...but FYI there are quite a few threads that seem to have lost their link. I can't remember the exact message right now, but probably 1/3 of the links are dead ends for me.
Yes I know and we can't seem to find a fix - very frustrating.
You can edit and change the links yourself in your browser and see the posts. Look at the url in a pbf link that works, then edit the beginning of the link that does not work to look the same. The urls that work start with the word forums. Edit the beginning of the non working link in your url address line so the beginning looks the same as a working link, and the link will then work. It needs to start with the word forums instead of www.
Edit the beginning of the link after it fails and hit enter. The link will then work once it has the proper beginning syntax.
Bad syntax.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreadsGood syntax
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreadsChange the beginning of each link to match the bottom one after it initially fails and it will then work.
Actually all that is needed is to make sure the start of the url is forums.pondboss.com ahead of the /ubbthreads. Don't need to type the http:// if you do not want to. The browser assumes it.
I noticed some of the url ' s have been edited so they work, and some have not. But after the link fails and the error message displayed, the url can be easily edited in the url address line in the browser and made work.