Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Structure for Redears

I recently caught a 10" res out of the pond but just that one. It has me thinking of what I might do to concentrate the res where they might be easier to catch. There should be plenty of them in this 3+ acre pond. I have quite a bit of different types of structure but I have not found a place where they are concentrated. Maybe it's because the stuff is not located in the right water depths. Or maybe they prefer wood over rock or instead of plastic or rubber type material. So, I thought of asking all you guys who catch their fair share of Res. What type of structure works best for you, and what water depths work best when fishing over structure other than when they are spawning? I have plenty of structure in the 3 to 6' water but I am thinking of adding some to deeper depths, like 9' to 12'. What material works best for you to hold RES.


Thanks

Don’t know Tracy. I’ve stocked a bunch of them over the years but don’t believe I’ve ever caught one.

They seem to love stumps in the lakes/ponds that I have fished. Especially the roots of flooded trees. Second best spot is near willow tree roots/limb overhang.

Tracy,

IIRC you already have a dock on your BOW. There's a BOW near our house that has a dock and we've been successful in winter months with harvesting RES under it and its walk way. I don't know if they were attracted by the dock or if they were equally distributed in the BOW. But we have enjoyed catching them off the dock from December to February. Other months of the year they were more difficult to catch on account of BG which dominated the catch. If the dock was an attractor then brush in the vicinity of your dock may be a good place to start. There is probably an ideal depth but I just wouldn't know. We caught them between 4' and 8' of water right off bottom. Get your bait down quickly to avoid BG. Good luck with it.

Just as a curious experiment, you might try baiting them with a sinking feed around the dock to concentrate them. Something that sinks quickly and blends with the bottom, like perhaps trout feed. RES feed in the benthos and so it may be most attractive to them. Just a thought.

Electro survey shows that RES are flourishing in my BOW, but I haven't caught any. However, I can say that in the past I've had my best luck fishing on the bottom with crustaceans such as PK shrimp and small crawfish. Maybe I'll have to give these a try!

I have heard it said on this forum that RES like shade and subdued light. Something like an overhang where they can hang out under it.

My personal best luck at catching them is just before dark around the shore line in shallow water on the bottom. My theory on that is they are coming up to feed when the light is not as bright and where the snails hang out in shallow water.

Some old threads.

redear habitat

where did they go - how deep to fish

[url=low and slow - carching RES]http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=411902[/url]

how to catch RES

a few RES this week some nice pictures by Shorty

additional information about RES and links to other threads

They also like sandy bottom and cut earth worms fished in 18-24” on bottom.

Thanks guys, I should have res four yrs old and I put a lot of them in the pond in the beginning. About 500 per acre and I am pretty sure some have been eaten by the lmb and maybe the hsb but still, there should be plenty in there. I have not fished deeper water for them as of yet, so maybe I will give that a try but was thinking deeper cover might hold them and make then easier to catch. And your right about the bg as far as getting the baits past them to the res. Pat, not sure I would ever get a worm past the bg lol. It would be nice to locate and catch some more of the 10" sized res.

FWIW When I think about structure to target a specific species, I think about what those fish like to eat and what kind of structure holds that forage. For RES, IMO I would work to provide structure that holds snails, etc. When I fish for my PS, I only catch them near my growths of vegetation that hold snails.

snrub, Thanks for posting All that information on the elusive Res. They may not be all that hard to locate and catch at your place and at Shorty's but not so easy to find them at my pond. And Bill, I remember when we both added plants to our ponds. For me, the plants have been hard to get established. The Crawfish seemed to love eating the plants when they were young and tender eats. I have only recently got some American Pondweed established in a couple of small patches. I'm thinking I need to increase my fishing time for res and see how that works.

No problem on the RES info. For some strange unexplained reason I have taken a fancy to the aggravating RES.

They are not easy for me to catch at all in my main 3 acre pond where I also have BG, GSF and HBG.

That said, I actually did catch a small 5" one tonight off the end of my dock in about 7-8' of water right off the bottom. I'm starting to catch them more than I used to in the main pond because I have been adding RES each year that I raise in my forage pond and transfer over. I would guess my catch rate for RES out of my main pond is somewhere around 1 or 2 to 500 of other sunfish I catch.

I have a little better luck in my forage and RES/SMB ponds where there are no BG to compete for the bait. But they are still not easy to catch.