Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Boulders/Rock around waters edge?

I have access to many medium/large boulders free of charge and was wondering if placing these at waters edge around the pond would be better than just a mowed grass edge? I also visited a pond recently that was lined with 8-9" erosion stone and really liked the looks of that.
I dont imagine I have enough quantity of these boulders to line the entire edge, so if I had to pick and choose areas should I line the dam/deep area or the hillside/shallower area?
Moving these large rocks across the road from my neighbors is my weekend project tomorrow so any help on placement would be much appreciated.

I would say the shallow spawning areas would be great cover for new fry.
Put as much of the rock as you can underwater to provide lots of surface area for food growth.
Gills will love em' forever!

The rock piles I put down, along with cynder blocks have proven to be very effective cover for FHM at my puddle. You won't be disappointed.

Use most of the rocks on the down wind shorelines that receive the most wave action. This will minimize shoreline erosion.

Here is my work after Saturday, bringing up a skid loader tonight to push some rocks that fell down the slope back up to their rightful place. Cant beat free rocks from the neighbors across the road!

From my experience the water level almost always goes down during dry periods unless the pond receives frequent filling from a well or spring. This will leave the rock collection high&dry. Is it possible to extend the rock line deeper or will they all roll down to the bottom. It doesnt look like there is stone ledge to keep stuff from sliding all the way to the bottom.

Thanks for the input Bill. We'll be digging a well to fill the pond and then maintain it in the future. But I do agree with you that the rock may need to be moved down a foot or so.

I've had experience placing large rocks around the upper edge of a pond with a 3:1 slope. It gets tricky. One thing we did was use the backhoe to make or cut 'steps', flat areas, or small ledges to help position the initiator rocks from rolling down the sides. Then other rocks were placed on and upward from the initiator rocks. Needless to say a few larger rocks still rolled to the bottom. Rocks don't always roll out of a bucket the preferred way.

Here is the finished product of the rocks around the edge project. Also shows most of my structure excluding shallow gravel area with several fishiding structures for young/smaller fish. There are four humps throughout the pond about 4' taller than surrounding grade, one of them has the old sidewalk chunks you can see(just up from the culvert).
Anyway, this a better overall pic of my past month of work.

Looks great! I think the fish will like the shade from the awning.....

Looks awesome how do you plan to keep the weeds around them in check? Also if it's anything like this year your water level will be way below the rocks.. I love the looks of rock wrapped ponds but these are the questions I always ask myself..

Hmmm, interesting on the weeds, hadnt thought of it, should be mainly grass that I'll have to weed-eat every week or two. The price you pay I guess.
As far as water level goes, I think I fixed that issue. 140' 40gpm well got done yesterday and we started pumping her full. Shouldnt ever have to be below the rock level if all goes as planned.

I went back and read you was adding a well.. Also maybe you could flood the rocks every once in awhile to kill or slow the grass and weeds..

Looks fantastic. Take all your pics now, here comes the water! Fishes next and the fun begins! Congratulations on all your efforts.

I really give props to the people that plan out their structure and put it in place before the pond is full. When you only have just a few acres of water to work with it really pays to make every drop of it as fish friendly as possible.

Just finished putting 30tons of boulders around A section,for weed control I hope this will work we put down 6mil plastic covered that with tough weed barrier. The fry loves the boulders all kinds of hiding spots. I have A concern with water pockets within the rock will this be A breeding ground for mosquitos.

The small fish will find ways to get into the water pockets among the rocks to eat mosquito larvae.

Well finished my boulder project 42 tons put around new part of pond,turned out really nice. Nice having A gravel pit 1 mile away,new grass coming in good planted on oct 1. Will leave rest of the pond the way it is.