Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Depth of Structures and Covers?

I am wondering how deep to place the structures and covers? My pond is about 1-1/4 acre. It has a shallow 2-8' half and a deep half up to 18'. There is also about 400' of creek that feeds it ranging from 5' wide and 1' deep to 25' wide and 8' deep. It is a new pond (10 months) and is stocked with bluegill, sunfish, fatheads, channel cat and blue cat.

The trees/debris was not removed from the creek but entirely from the pond so I need some structure and cover. I have built a couple to start and need your input. I received 8-1/2 inches of rain 5 days after the pond was completed so there was no opportunity to work on structures or a dock without at least 5' of water to work around.

[img]https://goo.gl/photos/UR2b3Nyg5386k6iQ9[/img]
[img]https://goo.gl/photos/4XJWStEwNmCUuUC38[/img]
[img]https://goo.gl/photos/MdhdZ6AAoZqjKuZb8[/img]

I see you have not got any answers yet so I will chime in, although I am far from being any sort of expert on the subject.

Some cover at all depths is good in that as seasons change and the fish go deeper the deep cover will be good in the winter months.

It depends on if you aereate or not also. With aereation fish will use more deeper cover than if there is a thermocline and the deep water is mostly devoid of oxygen.

Another thing to think about is your goals for the structure. Are you trying to provide cover so YOY fish do not get eaten as quickly so they provide more forage for your predators? Then some very shallow near shore cover from a few feet deep all the way to the surface would be beneficial.

Are you trying to concentrate fish to make them easier to catch? Your cover will be different in that situation than trying to provide cover for newly hatched fish.

Also depends on what natural cover you already have. Have lots of shore line weeds to 3' deep? Probably do not need to worry about adding more shallow cover.

I know I ask more questions than I gave answers, but these are the thoughts that go throuh my mind when thinking about the subject.

Check out the cover/structure archives in the forums list for some more discussion ideas.

Give us some specifics about what you are trying to acomplish and some of the experts (not me) can give you more specific answers.

Hope this helps.

Snrub,
Thank you for your reply and questions. You bring up concerns I had not thought of. My lowest concern is the ease of catching fish. They respond to the fish feeder with reckless abandon.

There is not any natural cover at all. The pond reach full height only about 5 weeks ago and was not clearing until about 12 weeks ago. Now I have close to 3' visibility and the sun is finally getting through. No algae blooms as of yet. The water does not get cool until about 5' deep. I am going to get a submersible and surface thermometer so I can monitor the temperatures better than just taking a plunge every now and then.

As for aeration, I will be using some. I have a little tweaking to do on the aerator. I have designed and built a solar powered aerator but need to set the depth of the venturi to as shallow depth as possible. There is not enough draw to overcome a 4" water column. The components are two 6" PVC pipes for pontoons with two large solar panels with charge controller going to a deep cycle battery. This then goes to a low voltage shutdown and then to a 2000 GPH pump. The pumped water flows through a venturi to draw air into the water and jetted downward to stir up the water column and propel the pontoons in a circle controlled by an anchor. Based on weight calculations and water volume displacement, I only have about 25 pounds of positive buoyancy with the two pontoons.

[img]https://goo.gl/photos/56Ly7fDFm5nxh3Zb6[/img]

Here is the Structure Archive. Snrub made some good points.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

That is an "out of the box thinking" aereator. I like new ideas and approaches. State of the art doesn't get that way by doing things always the same. When you get it perfected let us know more about it. Heck let us know anyway.

I have had the crazy idea of suspending one of my old farm auger tubes and screws in the middle of the pond and let a horizontal windmill turn the screw. It is likely to get done about never, but I like to toy with new (to me) ideas.

In my pond, out in deepest water, I stacked up old barn foundation concrete (1'x2' by various lengths up to about 10' long) Lincoln log style from the bottom at 10' to about 4' deep water. In the middle I stood a cedar tree vertically to the surface. Did a half dozen of these. Did a couple of used tire tee-pees. Did a brush pile. Did three upside down hedge stumps held down with concrete foundation pieces.

Did some rock piles around near the shore line. I also was thinking more about the fish than me catching them. Did several other miscelanous things. The one thing I did that is of little value is put some individual small structure items on the bottom. It pretty much just blends in with the muck and soon becomes of little value. Anything small on the bottom just becomes an almost indecernible bump in time.

Oh, I also took pallets and nailed boards between and made 3' tall dense structure for FHM and fingerling BG hiding places.

I have went out with SCUBA gear on and any dense structure above any thermocline was teaming with small fish. This was all done before I learned about "fish highways" and the desirability of connecting structure with the shore line. The fish were so small, my eyes not so good and low light so I could not identify them, but have to assume they were mostly BG.

I tried to put most of my structure in 3 to 5 feet of water. A few are a little deeper. The main brush pile is connected to the shore by a long thin tree trunk.

Several of my rock and brick piles are on top of large pieces of old carpet to slow down problems with muck.

Charles,
For your pond, looks like you need to place structures in water 5-8 feet deep, with some material rising within three feet of the surface. Mix the media, some dense, some "fluffy".

What an awesome aerator design Charles. There are some impressive homemade aerators on the forum lately! Wish I had the engineer gene!

Thanks everyone for the replies with information and kind comments about my unique aerator. I will do some more work this weekend based on everyone's information. Obviously, there is more for me to do. Based on the links in the archives, I thought of another thing I can do to help. I have an old 30' RV trailer that was given to me for salvage (frame, axles and wheels). I told some of my friends that they can get what they want regarding windows, doors, etc. The appliances were all removed by the owner before the land/property was foreclosed on. Anyway, I am going to take the vinyl blind slats and arrange them in concrete for artificial grass structures.

Photos to follow and maybe a new thread about the aerator once my tweaks and testing are completed. Seems like I need to draw up some plans/specs for it too.

The whole pond project has been so much fun and something I looked forward to for over a decade.