Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat RES nesting box

Looking for suggestions on how to build a nesting tray/shelf/box for RES. Has anyone done this?

My pond has a 3 to 1 slope and it's full! Could I build a tray, fill it with sand or gravel or clay (?) and prop up one end to compensate for the slope? I have a backhoe and could use that to place it where needed or I can put it on my boat trailer and guide it in.

How deep and big should I make the tray/box?
Bigger is probably better but would a 3'x3' or 4'x4' tray work? I would be happy if even 1 RES would smawn.
Is wood ok to use? I also have a welder.
What to fill it with? clay?
How deep should I place the box?
Is there a better way to do this without drawing the pond down?

TIA

I would try and make it round. Why? Dr. Laura Tiu once told me they put square containers in a tank for bluegills to spawn on and they "turned their noses up" at them. As soon as they put round ones it they began spawning.

If I was doing this I would cut of the bottom of some plastic drums and fill them with gravel.

Bill Cody is a good one to ask about this.

What about a small kiddie pool sitting on a wooden shelf? I've seen some small 3 footers, probably 6" deep or so.

You think gravel is best? Pea sized or 3/4" type? I have a hill of sand here that's free.

I'll see if I can get Bill to read this too.

I think a kiddie pool wood work fine. I would be inclined to use pea gravel myself.

I used kiddie wading pools filled with road gravel [pea gravel and sand] for my BG and RES hybrid reproduction ponds and they were used regularly.

When you mentioned kiddie pool, I just remembered seeing something at Home Depot today that might work well for you instead. In the concrete section of the store they have these plastic mixing tubs that are made to mix mortar or concrete in them with a shovel. They had two sizes.

Here, just did a google and found them. Big one is 2'x3'. They might be higher cost than kiddie pool, but they would be pretty tough I would think.

concrete mixing tubs

What I did was use my farm tractor and loader and just dumped rock piles, then smaller rock on top. But my water was still down a few feet from full pool. So I could run the tractor over the edge, use the bucket on the loader to scrape a dirt ledge, then dump the rock on this ledge. You probably can't do that with a full pond.

You might be able to get into the water and place two concrete blocks (about a buck and a half each) down into the mud, then set the outer edge of your container on these blocks and let the other end rest on the dirt. That would keep the container more level than just trying to let it set on the 3-1 slope.

Edit: oops, just read Cecil's post above about not using square nesting areas. Disregard everything I said.

Loretta, how big is your backhoe? If it is a regular size TLB (not a mini) and if you do not have a pond liner or clay liner to worry about you might be able to do this.

Load the backhoe bucket with pea gravel or whatever your desired bedding material. Set the bucket into the pond up against the bank at the desired depth. Uncurl the bucket with the back of the teeth gouging out some mud towards the center of the pond. This should push out a little mud ledge for the gravel to sit in as the bucket uncurls and dumps into the new depression.

You might have to do one, get into the water and feel around with your feet to see if the desired effect happened. I think the fish will do the final job of leveling and rearranging the gravel to suit themselves. I don't think the job has to be particularly neat, just getting the gravel so it does not slide down the bank to the bottom.

Thanks snrub. I definitely don't want to set it on the 3-1 slope because I think it's too steep for the RES to nest. I haven't had a spawn from them yet, I stocked them in the fall of 2012.

ETA: My backhoe isn't a mini, I'll have to see how far I can reach, how deep should the bed be? It will be difficult seeing anything though. once the clay gets disturbed the water will look like coffee with cream in it.

Loretta,


It may not be optimum but I have seen bluegill nest on a very steep slope in a Massachusetts lake.

I don't think you would have a bit of problem with the reach. Come to think of it, I think even a very small backhoe would probably do it.

As far as depth, better let the experts say for sure, but from my reading as I recall 3-5' depth. I can tell you about equipment and operating it, but when it comes to fish most of what I "know" has come from reading and little practical experience. Just the last couple years have I gained much hands on.

One other thing I recall from reading here on PBF. Wish I could remember who posted it, but maybe they will recognize the story and take recognition. Someone had "washed" quite a lot of lime into their pond off of a barge of some sort. Well all ag lime has a few solids that are larger than the fine lime. So when he was done with the job these coarse lime (which was actually very fine limestone gravel) dropped directly to the bottom of the shallow area where he was washing the lime into the water. So there was a pile of it on the bottom. As I recall the story, the poster said the BG loved this gravel and spread it all out into beds. So it started out as a pile and the fish rearranged it to suit them - ie spread it out.

Point is, I think all you have to worry about is getting the gravel to the desired depth and making sure it does not slide on down the bank. The fish will level it out. I think as you uncurl the backhoe bucket (while putting pressure against the bank) it will push up enough mud ridge (with the back side of the bucket teeth) to keep the gravel in a shallow pocket. At least that is the way it is woring in my "minds eye". Sometimes my "minds eye" needs glasses though and it does not work out like I planned . So if you decide to try doing it this way, verify it is working to suit you before going on to "bed #2".

I wish mine would spawn on the steep but I don't think it's gonna happen. I still have an abundance of minnows and they aren't having any problems reproducing. Maybe my few WE are making the RES nervous. I'm going to remove a couple or few of the WE if I can catch them. Around here a lot of people fish for WE at night on the St. Clair River, would I have a better chance catching the WE if I fished at night?

Snrub, I can envision what your saying about how to place the gravel with the backhoe. My minds eye sometimes needs glasses too, lol, I get that! Some good suggestions, thank you! My pond is small and I don't want a lot of reproducing going on, just enough to keep them going .

I've seen them spawn anywhere from 12" of water to about 4' of water. I would put it no shallower than 18" to try and eleminate problems from GBH.

Thank you! Do you think sand be a good medium or gravel?

How deep should I fill my container?

I think sand would be O.K. but pea gravel would be better. If you have a gravel pit nearby you can load some up on buckets and they may just tell you to take it as they deal with much larger amounts.

I would put in about 6 inches but you might be able to get by with less.

This is the first year I've seen my RES spawn, and they're still on the nests.

After the drought last year, I had an area that was covered with bermuda, and mowed on a regular basis. This is where some of the RES made their nests this Spring. The area is about 20'X4', and it's packed edge to edge with the RES nests. Is this normal, or just where they decided to spawn here at my place? All the soil around this area is the exact same depth, clarity, and the same clay/sand mix that the CNBG use. There was not one RES bed in the clay/sand area.

I'm not sure on which shoreline to best place the structure. My initial guess would be the shore that receives the afternoon sun. Others with RES would be able to tell us which shore their RES use for nesting.

You are getting good ideas. I, like Cecil, prefer to use the circular pans or pools - 3ft to 4ft dia is optimum. IMO 5"-6" of total gravel depth is best. You could even use a thin layer of coarser gravel as the bottom layer, then pea gravel on top. Nest structure should be placed 18"-3ft deep. The cement block idea was good as a base to level & set the nest structure on. Put some stakes in the cement blocks to keep them from slipping down the bank, then set the gravel filled pool on top. The nest structure does not have to be perfectly level. Slight down slope is okay. Maybe even pound a stake through the pool on the shallow side to help hold it in place. When finished make a shallow or slight saucer depression in the middle of the gravel in the pool. If you want them to use the nest site this year, you better get busy building it now. RES nesting will be in late May early June in our area.

If you want to get fancy in the nest design, cut some openings in the bottom of the pan or pool. Lay plastic mesh or fence on the pool bottom then the thin layer of coarser gravel then the 3"-4" of pea gravel. The opening in the pool bottom should allow the dirt-detritus to sift down through the gravel and out the bottom of the pool. TJ used that idea for his SMB spawning beds.

IMO in marginal habitats and since RES are minimal spawners, to have the best RES population one should purchase some 3"-5" RES every 2-3 yrs to keep the population numbers common. In many ponds the RES population seems to gradually die out or decline to very low numbers.

Note this thread was added to the Bluegill management and Sunfish Primer (RES section) threads.

In our ponds the RES nest all around the shoreline. I never thought about a correlation to afternoon sunlight, but I will pay closer attention this weekend when I have more time.

Nesting strong right now, and the RES and BG's are side by side in the colonies as usual. Which may explain why we have such high numbers of BG x RES hybrids.

Sprk you got some pics of those bg x res crosses.. I'd sure like to check some out

Top fish.

Thanks everyone for the great responses!

Al, how deep is the RES spawning area?

Dave, it can't be over a foot deep, and crystal clear water. We had a strong westerly wind one day, and all the RES were leaning left into the waves. It was a very cool thing to see. They were lined up like soldiers at attention.