Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Help

I am also planning on making part of my project creating spawning cover for the bass by placing a number of plate sized stones and within the perimeter of those stones placing pea sized gravel for the bass to spawn.

Get the survey that will give you a good idea on the bluegill. But in my pond i take out any bluegill caught that is hand size, I throw back all big males and females, and i really dont catch many small ones. Ive never taken a bass out of my pond can i cant catch the channel cats if there still in there.. This is just what i do it is not a suggestion for your pond necessarily but it works for mine. Everyone else that i let fish my pond is catch and release unless im with them then they can keep 500 hand sizers if they want i dont care just dont think you can come into my house and still my kids lol..

Hopefully some of the bass guys hop on here for ya.. I really dont know much about raising big bass my pond is managed for bluegill. Also get to know the search feature and going through the old post. All the questions youve asked are answered in old post somewhere in one way or another..

Thanks for the advice guys, I just want to make this pond the best possible

So I shouldn't add brush piles and PVC trees to the pond along with dead evergreen trees?

Oh yeah you want to or else your fish will never be able to hide long enough to grow past fry.. The thing is placement of it has to be right. Needs to be in transition area and around spawning areas for the babys to get too..

Well you did the best first step (PONDBOSS.COM) also pondboss magazine is good for learning..

I have some ideas on where to put them, there is a spot at the pond where there is a shallow flat (less than a foot) that kind of slopes into deeper water (2 to 3 feet) , them goes shallow again

How much structure is too much?

boyscout, welcome to the forum. There's a lot of things to talk about for these ponds, and it's hard to figure out where to start.

Nutrient Loading:

Since they are water retainment ponds, I'm assuming that they collect excess water that has run off of some peoples lawns, and water from other places. If so, then the fertlizer that they put on their lawns is contributing to the high nutrient load and the weeds. The cattails in the one picture will completely encircle the pond in a number of years, making it impossible to fish from the bank. I'd work at removing a lot of those cattails, but that won't help the nutrient loading, in fact it'll make it worse. Decisions, decisions......

Before you start removing/adding fish, get a scale that will read in 10ths of a pound, and a good yardstick or ruler. On the pond that you want to manage for LMB, you need to start a log book. EVERY LMB that you catch, weigh and measure. Check in the archives here for the Relative weight chart for LMB. Check the fish against the chart. Do the same for the sunfish that you catch. The size of the sunfish will give us an idea what the LMB have to eat. What I'm saying next isn't written in stone, but this is what I'd do if it was my pond. If they are 110% or less than the listed weight for their length, then I'd start removing the lighter (skinnier) LMB. It might be that they have enough food to get to that size that you are catching, but not enough food to get bigger. Or, they could be that size because the pond winterkilled a few years ago. Ask the older guys if anybody remembers a winterkill on the pond.

If the LMB are over 110% WR, then I'd look into the BG population. What size are they? Again, catch and log sizes. LMB will eat fish up to 1/3 their body length, although slightly smaller fish will be preferred. The LMB don't chase really small fish once they get bigger, they like a larger meal for the energy that they expend catching it. Are the BG really BG or another sunfish species?

Fatheads will be a waste of $$ because of the fish that are already in the pond. It takes 10# of food to put one pound on one LMB. That 3# LMB had to eat at least 30# of food to get to be that big. When you multiply that by a lot of LMB in a pond, you can see that they can eat themselves out of house and home pretty quickly. So adding baitfish to a LMB heavy pond isn't a very wise choice if you want to grow large LMB, it's more cost effective to remove LMB.

I agree, let us know what the Maryland Fish & Game have to say about the population.

As for adding cover, go here find the water retention ponds and measure their size. You want to limit the amount of cover that you put in to around a maximum of 20% of the surface acreage. Too much cover will allow too many of the baitfish (i.e. bluegills) to hide, making them too hard to catch for the LMB.

Will this chart work: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1193/ANR-1193.pdf

General rule of thumb = no more than about 20% of pond area should be structure.

These might be a tad more accurate because they are from Northern waters (Pa) and not southern waters (AL) like the chart that you posted.

Beat ya to it Todd!

You beat me to the structure percentage, too! I didn't realize that was in your post before I posted - that's what I get for speed reading!

This may also be a good source of information for your project.

Manual of Fisheries Survey Methods II

Chapter 17 has a great deal of information on length/weight relationships.

Good luck on your project.

What a great line of information coming thru this topic. 123, you will get great help from these pros. I would like to address the structure materials. Your plan and list is the perfect way to start such a vigorous endevor. Try the local plumbers and building contractors for scrap pipe and wood products. We all end up with piles of cutoffs we save and never use. The lumberyard has all kinds of scrap and damaged lumber they give away. Also, all these guys can let you know when they have more. The plumbers all throw out used pvc pipe. With such a good cause, they will surely help. It can be an ongoing connection to more material.
Lastly, send me an e-mail through our site fishiding.com. We would be proud to donate some products for your project. The only catch is you have to take me fishing in a few years when you succeed!

Good info Peepaw.

I'll bet you could get a pallet manufacturer to donate pallets for forage structure. Probably could also get all the hardwood scraps they give away.

Todd, you just need a refresher course!
Reading help

Ouch.

We were both typing at the same time and I hit the sbmit button first?...but it must be extremely important or we wouldn't have thought of it at the same time!

Also, Would planting small rockpiles in the transition areas and in the deepest parts of the pond(S) help at all? May dad works on a Construction site and can probably get me some scrap wood and PVC pipe. Also, I had an idea of building aned putting together an artificial stump field made of scrap PVC pipe. The project has to last for at leas 2 saturdays, 9 hour days.

Any cover you put in the pond will help, just don't exceed the 20% rule by a bunch.

I've read through the entire thread (thus far) and think this is an awesome Eagle Scout project. My 10 yr-old son just "crossed over" into a Scout Troop. Our community has three detention ponds (all populated with fish) that we've discussed as a similar Eagle-project in a couple of years.
The portion of your introduction that caught my eye is below....

Hyacinth was included in your list of proposed plants. You better check out that plant very closely before proceeding. Winter temps at your latitude would likely prevent hyacinth from posing a problem - or benefit. Either way, it is on the Federal noxious/invasive specie list. As such, transporting and introducing it to new sites could pose issues.
Also, determine if any herbivores (fish, reptiles, invertebrates) currently exist in the ponds - in case they might interfere with different plant-culture introductions. In some cases, it may be necessary to construct enclosures to provide protection for newly stocked plants.

Kelly, could you weigh in on the cattails in the picture (good or bad)?

Right now the only reptiles that live in the ponds are a few snapping turtles and some water snakes. In terms of fish species there are catfish, Koi, bass, and bluegill. There are a few blue heron that visit the pond, there are also ducks and geese that come to the pond.