Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Winter habitat

I live in SW Ohio and we are already seeing some skim ice on our pond and wondered about sunken habitat for the pond. Last Spring I put in 7-8 large ceder trees, I waded them out into about 5-6 feet of water and they are held down with cinder blocks. Now we have had an extremely dry summer and fall here and my pond like most others in the area are down about 3 feet and now my trees are partially dry and above water so I wondered if I should try to move them another 3-4 feet deeper or if I should just add another half a dozen trees and extend them out into deeper water beyound these trees so I always know where they are and also to help deeper water overwntering for baitfish.

Any thoughts or ideas on this would be wonderful, Thanks ahead of time.

Salmonid

Hello Mark B, How about considering building some floating Islands with structure built into them and extending underwater 2 or 3 ft., then you can move them easily if water fluctuates.
I have 2 islands in my pond and they attract and sustain a large number of minnows, bugs, and frogs while also helping to increase water quality with the plant life on them.

Wow, you have a beautiful pond.

Thank-you Brett, My pond has become my main hobby, and many of my friends and relatives don't get it.
I believe from your posts that you have to share a lake or pond with other people, and I can see where that can be a problem.
Years ago I use to live on a small lake in Virginia and a few of us tried to improve the fishing thru the property owners assn.
We finally gave up because people would block almost everything we wanted to do. You have my sympathy if your in the same boat.

Yep, I do have to share the pond with other people. for me it's a blessing and a curse. I don't think we will ever have trophy LMB in the pond (which is a dream of mine) but we have been able to produce some good fishing. We have also been able to share the cost of managing the pond which can get pretty expensive. For the most part the people around the pond just want a balanced fishery which is fin with me. The property owners assn is pretty loose. I would like to tighten it up a little and start having meetings dues and that sort of thing. right now I bassicaly just pay for what needs to be done and then send a bill out to the rest of the owners. Some pay and some dont.

Managing the pond has become a hobby of mine as well. Just like you my relatives and friends don't get it. Hopefully some day I will have pond that I can manage on my own.

Now back to the winter habitat. My guess is that any structure placed in 8-10 feet of water would hold LMB, BG, and CC during the winter. The key will be finding the deepest level in your pond that holds oxygen. Since DO meters can be expensive a good bet would be 8-10 feet of water.

The structure I use is cheap and effective. I use tire triangles. I simply drill holes in 3 tires and bind them together using industrial strength zip ties. There are plans for larger tire structures but these ones are eneough trouble to handle in a canoe. I used about 18 tires that I got for free from my mechanic.

Thanks Brett but I am limited to ceder trees and the sort since I have Channel cats and do NOT want them to have a place to spawn by getting either under or inside the tires. I believe I will place an additional tree on the deeper side of these to basically make each of the 6 trees twice as long, meaning the total structure will now be like 20 feet long vs 8-10. and the trees will go from 0 feet now out to about 8 feet and in spring, the structures will be from about 3 feet down to about 10 feet. This should help out durring the ice fishing stage as well.
Thanks for the reply,
Salmonid

Mark, I wouldn't worry about the cats reproducing. They swim so slow that they have just about zero recruitment rate.

Mark, I think your on the right track just adding more especially if the trees are readily available. You might get into trouble trying to move the existing. I don't think extending the existing trees from shallow to deep will negatively effect fishing as far as having too much structure goes because the fish will likely only be using a fraction of the water column at any given time. It sounds like your plan would be convenient for fishing because you could probe deep and shallow structure without moving your chair.

Ryan, thats what I was thinking, just doubling the length of the habitat and yeah, I have acess to more ceder trees then you can shake a stick at, not too mention several dozen cinder blocks that need to get used for something useful around here. Let me know if you ever need either of those items.

BTW, you ever ice fish your pond?? I am eager to get those nice perch and big Black crappies soon so I can have nice tasty panfish breaded dinner!!

Mark /Salmonid

Mark B, I had that situation in my small pond last year as had access to many 20 ft cedars and pines, The water level in this pond was low and several were exposed.I extended those areas all the way to the bottom.I add some X-mas trees to our larger pond every year as they decompose quickly if you maintain a lot of oxygen from top to bottom.If memory serves there was a thread or it may have been in the magazine with some pics about how fast trees decompose in water over time, perhaps Theo will recall and can dig that out. I also found that no matter how many cinder blocks I used on the 20 ft pines that were laid on the ice the wind would blow the tree to the shoreline.After putting the trees back in position 2-3 times a had to cut a hole in the ice and lower one block to anchor in place until the ice left and the trees sank.

ewest had a series of annual Christmas tree decomp photos - after 4-5 years they were pretty much down to just a bare trunk.

Theo you are fast today. The more O2 they are exposed to the faster the breakdown .

Mark. I'm about two hrs south of you and some yrs I get the chance to ice fish my pond. I sink cedar trees every few yrs for fishing around. My problem was they would not stay vertical after being waterlogged or being on the steep side of the pond. I use a quart/gallon plastic jug tied to the upper trunk of the tree and they stay upright. The bluegill somedays will relate to the bottom of the trees,other days they suspend higher in the water column. If I were you,I'd be tempted to carry out on the ice a bunch of those blocks you have and make some nice piles that will sink in the spring. I like to ice fish,it's just so iffy this far south. Good luck

I've seen Christmas trees that at 5 years had only 1/3 remaining as ewest's 10yr pics. This was in a 5 acre lake with constant flow from a small creek that dropped over a waterfall before entering the pond. My pond is highly aerated and my pallets show almost no decomposition after 5 years, maybe because they're oak?

Ok, yesterday in the pouring rain, I went out and spent 2 hours just getting 2 additional ceders out extended past the shallow ones, the real problem was the 1" of ice I had to bust through to wade out to the end of the original trees and then I slid the new trees out on the ice and then used a huge 10' long 5" in diameter log to bust the ice in a outline pattern of the trees to get them to sink, it was hell getting them to fall but wanted them to fall right where I had them and not drift around with the ice, also wanted the deeper trees right away so the baitfish had a place to hide and to attract the gamefish for later in the winter when I get out on the ice!! Now I have 3 more trees to sink but have to wait until the waders dry since I took some of that nice toasty warm water over the top, yeah, there was some serious shrinkage going on, let me tell ya. 8^)

Salmonid

Wow mark you are a trooper! I can't say I would have done that in my pond. I probably would have waited untill spring. Cold and wet are two things I don't like.