Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Tires For Fish Habitat.........

I have access to quite a few truck tires. What are the pros and cons for using them as fish habitat???

IMHO from what I have read, tires work well. I would drill holes to get rid of gas pocket collection points though.

The only downside that I can see is if you do NOT want CC reproduction in the pond, and you have CC in the pond.

They are cavity spawners and possibly could use the tires for spawning habitat.

Never use old tires they are a eye sore and lead to more snakes and less future land value ,They never decompose and in time will be a eyesore to you and you will be thinking Why Did I Do That

I use tires and cut 1.5"+ pvc scraps to 12" in 1-2' depth for FHM spawning structures in my YP/BG fishery - both work very well for that purpose.

I used 9 tires tied together in a pyramid. 4 on the bottom, the 3 on top of that then 2 on top. I drilled holes in the tops of the bottom 7 to let air escape when they sank. The top 2 tires I didn't drill holes so the tires would hold air and keep the pyramid upright as it sunk. I put rocks in the bottom 4 so it would sink upright and be stable. I built this on the ice and when it melted the pyramid sand upright.

I had a lot of channel catfish and never had any offsprings. But I had bass and that could be why.

Tbar, there are a lot of tire reefs all across Texas, both salt and fresh water environments. I know of several reefs in Texas lakes and are marked by surface markers so people will know where to drop a line. I think tires placed in the right location in a pond can be a good thing. After building a few of different designs, and adding them to my pond, I learned to make sure to drill several holes in the tires to let air escape. More holes than necessary is not a bad thing. And I would place them in an area where they will remain under water in the worst of the drought years. Look in this forum for tire reef designs. People are litterbugs, and I hate that. I drive the rd frontage of my place and on a couple of occasions I have found tires along the right of way, and I pick those up until I have 3 tires. I build a pyramid, laying one flat and then tie two leaning up. Tie them up using nylon rope. it's easy and I am ok with it as a place to throw a bait at.

Tracy

I used probably 15 or so old tires when I refabbed my pond last spring. I can't speak to how well they work yet - plan to do a little underwater camera work this year to check - but I did a good bit of research prior to using them. Based on my reading they are a very good solution - they won't decompose, they don't gas off into the water column, etc. I used stainless wire to tie mine together to make sure that I wouldn't be seeing floating tires in a few years.

X2 on making sure that they are deep enough in the water column so they won't be visible during low water times.

Tbar, I have a couple of tire structures in my pond. Mostly I used concrete foundations and cedar trees, but do have one completely tire structure and one that is tires and concrete combo.

To add to what TGW1 has already said, most tires with all the air removed are just slightly negatively buoyant. In other words they will sink, but not by much. Once they get some sediment in them or settled into the muck, they they can become fairly hard to move around. When first put into the pond, they are fairly easily moved (by a snagged line, anchor or such). For this reason of only slight negative buoyancy, I like to shove at least some rocks or gravel inside them. And if you do not drill holes, even if you "burp" all the air out and the tire initially sinks, gasses produced from the pond bottom can fill the air space and cause the tires to float later. Trust me on this one. I had a few derelict tires I had to re-sink from the first ones before I learned to drill holes in them. And I even had rocks inside to help keep them down. The gas gathered lifted the weighted tires and they floated to the bank driven by the wind surface current.

My 2 acre pond is only a little over a year old. I put about 20-25 tire tripods in before it filled.When we say drill holes...make them about 2 inch wide at least.I used a hole saw bit on a drill and worked fine.Even then I had one tripod get up and float off. Not sure why. I tied a concrete block to it and have not seen it since.I took a measurement from the bank where full pool would be with a string and line level and placed all my tripods where 5-7 foot would be at full pool.As the pond filled and before it completely covered my tires...I paddled out and tied duck decoys on a string to each tripod.Not only do I know where to fish but it looks nice. These will work great for lmb later and I am already catching 1/2 pound cnbg right next to the ducks.So...I can look out and see a duck and know that is in 5 ft. water and adjust during a drought. Just how I did it.Hope that helps.