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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?

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Well I'm no expert (JAIWAK) but when we had tons of elodea it had grown in very dense patches, there was space between these patches of the elodea. In addition in the first year (before we knew better) we used a weed rake and took out the elodea from the shore to about 8 feet out. So basically we had patches of elodea with open water between the patches and open water between the shore line and the elodea. Think "Elodea islands."

My observation is that many, many times we would catch LMB (or observe them) hanging out in the open water between the Elodea Islands. Cast a lure up against the elodea and reel into open water and you would get some amazing strikes. It seemed as thought the LMB would wait in the open water to ambush unsuspecting forage.

So my vote would be both (1) cut channels from the shore all the way through them and (2) cut behind them and leave a line of them parallel to the shore.

But I'm certainly no expert, so heed my advice at your own risk.


JHAP
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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
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I will do that and take before and after photos. And no disclaimer needed, I don't think there is an expert or a right answer. This is year 7 of my ten year plan. I'm off in a few minutes to go there. Good thing is anything I do is temporary, the stuff grows back in a few years. So the risk is minimal. And I am going to recapture much of the space wasted to cattails/bulrushes. What I want to do is maimize my most effective plants, and minimize my least effective plants.

Right now too much cattails/bulrushes and they just are not effective.

American pondweed, just about right, effective.

Water primrose and lilies very effective. Not nearly enough lilies, and they die where primrose goes from 10 feet deep to shore during drawdown, but dies back to nothing in winter.

I am dealing with a drawdown also. My long term goal as far as fish population is max amount of 1-3 lb lmb. Even if I have to artificially exceed my holding capacity. Right now I have to augment forage with about 500 bg per season, but I started 7 years ago with zero forage. I still have one dead useless shoreline. Completely overun with previously cut willows. Whatever works best is going to go there year 8 and 9.

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate real life examples.

And yes, my most productive casts are working the weedline from outside. I have had one bas pro in and he was just amazed. I have another one coming out this season for free fish and consult. They are good guys who just want to c and r finesse style, relax and bs. Zero pressure and putt putting around in the aluminum instead of the 50 K bass boat.

Last edited by The Pond Frog; 02/19/10 11:42 AM.
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If there is enough area to do so, it would be interesting to try different configurations in different areas of the pond to determine if there is any noticeable difference in catch rates.

Jeez can I use the word different, or a derivative thereof, any more in a sentence?


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Exactly, plenty of room, approx 7 surface acres. Maybe a little bit of everything. I have a couple of hours of spillway maintenance, and then the rest of the day. Last check two days ago I was one foot below sill and bass were patrolling the shoreline. Weeds way down, but emerging. Water clear, no runoff sediment. Today overcast and before rain. Drag the 4 year old along and fish from shore only.

I know one thing that does not work and that is small areas behind cattails. I have areas in back of them with access and clear water that nothing goes into. Whether it is from herons or grebes or? But anything that you can't go through they just don't like it as much. They can buzz through primrose and lily pads. Also not too thick pond weed. Gotta roll.

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OK, did a major bass cover renovation Saturday. No photos yet though. I had a very large cattail patch that just never had any bass in it or near it. Just hung on the edge, which extends 30 feet out from shore. I used the Jenson Lake Mower with a rake and a helper to take out everything from the shore all the way to the deepest cattails which I left. I used the HD5000 model as this was very tough cutting. I have a lot of floating material to be removed all at once as most of it has been windblown to a common location.

I read a lot of archived bass behavior articles from The Pond Boss. Even an article where Bob offers a different opinion from another author. What I am doing is making a picket fence of cattails, with 4 foot gaps along the line. The water is at least 6 foot deep at full pond. There is some changes from distance from shore, and minor depth changes. So what my goal is casting lanes inside this fence and boat access. But more important open the entire area up for LMB entrance and exit points. From my experience, they do not like swimming through or into dense stands of cattails. But I am giving them a lot of wide paths, entrances, exits and ambush points with changes of cover.

When there was a hole behind the cattails, and just one shoreline access in and out, nothing was in there. Even though it was open water, it seemed cattail locked. Now I have deep water access, many different spots and lanes in and out every ten feet or so. I am modifying what naturally overgrew. Trying to make it forage friendly but LMB feeding zone.

Giving one bulrush patch one haircut after another. This stuff is just too stiff and dense for bass to do anything in it. I have one patch extending out to 7 foot water at least 30 feet out. I am planting lily pads at it's former deep edge, and cutting it back to two feet from shore, maybe 2 feet deep. It's good for shoreline forage, but out deep it just occupies space and bottom. The lilies I am shaping into a large circle with a ten foot diameter opening in the center. LMB swim through it, and lay under it in the shade. If the forage try to make a run for it from the bulrush to the lilies I think they get ambushed. I have seen one 5 lb LMB live on the edge of the lilies, and several smaller ones on the inside of it. Again, I am just modifying what had grown way out of control. But I am also adding another plant, for diversity and able to shape it and put it exactly where I want it.

Last is another bulrushes patch but this has grown in a line, almost perfectly parallel to the shore, in a ten foot deep area. This patch has grown to about 25 feet in length. Here I cut gaps in the line, alternate 4 foot of bulrush, four foot space. I hesitate to do a lot with it as I have caught a 8 lb LMB and an 11 lb albino channel cat right off of it. LMB both hold inside of it and outside of it. But they can't swim through it. A lot of forage hides in it. But it is pretty close to a spillway entrance which makes it a liability with further expansion. So I just made 3 seperate but in a line patches.

The hardest part of all of this is just originally changing the overgrown areas and removing the dead and old growth. Cutting the new growth is just routime maintenance. My long term goals are to keep two invasive plants from taking over pond. Stay in compliance with CA state guidelines. Make isolated areas of cattails and bulrushes, not total eradication, but maybe 2-3% of shoreline, and keep it out of everywhere else. Mainly contain it, but leave enough for variety, forage and frog and coot areas. Improve the fishery. You could call it cattail/bulrush management. I'll take photos and report on observations as far as how it worked for LMB cover and fishing.

Last edited by The Pond Frog; 03/14/10 12:36 PM.

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