Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Do I have enough cover ???

This link will take you to some pics of the cover.

http://www.guestfamily.com/robertg/cover.htm

This is just a small part of a 3 acre lake, the backside if you will. We are building the cover as if the pond is full.

I'm curious to see what other's may say about too much or needs more. I will be adding a bunch more of the rock piles scattered out. This is a LMB / BG pond, and there's nothing under the water line as it is right now. That will be 14' deep when full. Keep in mind, this is just 1/3rd on the finished pond.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Bob

Bob :

Below is a copy of my thoughts from your other post in case you did not check there.

Good pics. but I have a hard time getting the big pict. of your pond. I will try a few observations. Look at the fourm heading Creating Habitat for ideas. Did not see a pier. If there is one think about what you want close to it. Like fish beds to fish and watch or rock piles or other ambush points near the beds. BG nest sites -- I did not see any flat areas in 2-5 ft. of water. Clay , sand or small rock are good BG nest sites. I saw a big pile of brush in the background not in pond. It looked like hardwoods piled to burn. They would make a good pile/hump in deep water. Might go from +1 to -12 ft. and make deep part of pond productive. May even be big enough to make several. They would make a good place to fish outside of summer or when the fish are deep. Posts or big limbs driven into the bottom where the water is deep so they stand up above the surface make great places to tie xmas trees or brush for years after the pond fills and also mark your brush piles for fishing. Can do the same in shallow water 0-6 ft. Pallets stood upright and posted in pond bottom in a line make a great underwater fence . If put so it runs north to south in 6-8 ft of water the fish can for most of the day pick sun or shade depending if winter or summer. Also a gerat ambush point. Last point -- it is much easier to do this type of work while the lake is empty or down and the equipment is on site. My thoughts for now , probably more than you wanted .Good luck. ewest

Take a browse through the structure section and you will glean enough info to take care of your needs. One thing I found was that I placed the structure too far from the water line. It looked good when I placed it, but as the pond continued to fill the distance between the water line and the structure increased dramatically. The other thing that I found important for me was hiding the structure. I had a visitor with a cast net and he/she removed about 30 fair sized tilapia and would have possibly gotten more except he/she got hung up in the structure. I used a system that golf courses use for yard markers and just point out the markers to my guests. Might not work for you but, I don't live at my pond just yet.

Looks pretty good to me. I like the idea of rock piles! I find that the fish seem to prefer a larger area of rocks or brush versus small isolated pieces of cover. I would combine the smaller rock piles into a sort of rock reef and run it down the point where the pond opens up. And maybe combine several trees or bushes into larger clumps of cover rather than having smaller cover spread out evenly. Just my ideas, hope they help.

I love the way your pond looks. I really like the idea of rock piles.

That's great! How did you do the primary construction? Is this a pond built into a large draw or ravine? Is there any inflow from any other creeks or water bodies? How would you estimate the water sources by percent?

Hey Bob,

Your pond looks great. I see your jon boats ready to go. If it was me I would be fishing it already even if there were no fish.

One things I did notice was no shelf around the edge of the pond. I think someone mentioned that in a previous response. YOu may want to rethink that before the water rises.

This can be a very effective shelter for larger fish as it gives them both an ambush point and quick access to deep water when predators are near. Another benefit of a shelf is plant life. If you have invasive plant species this keeps them from growing out farther from shore. If you have a drop off, most will only grow to the end of it.

I think the structure is spread out great, and I like the variety of rocks, trees and brush.

How many more rocks do you have? If you have a large supply, coating a side of your pond with RiP Rap would provide excellent ground covering and make for some fun crankbait fishing.

I would agree to create some kind of reef with your rocks. Also stacking wood pallets could make good additonal cover. (I know rocks can get pretty tiring to lug around).

In my opinion, most ponds I fish don't have enough cover, barring invasive algea/weeds. Some of the best fishing I have had is with vast exapanses of lay downs and plenty of 1-3 feet brush, trees etc..types of cover. (Visual Cover)

I mean really, what is better then to be out o'dark thirty in the morning when the sun is just rising, and you can see a nice tree sticking up out of the water, you cast your spinnerbait right past it and as it wobbles its way back and passes next to the tree, you see the swirl then the atomic blast that follows as your lure gets inhaled...I live for that! I love visual shallow cover. So my suggestions may be a bit biast on that.

Also I found that no matter where you put cover, there will be a few spots that you bass will like to congregate regardless of what cover is around.
Somehow they will always be catchable in numbers near these spots. Finding these spots is half the fun of fishing! But I really haven't figured out why they go there. In my experience for small ponds it is normally near drop offs or deeper water.

Good luck on your pond, it is looking terrific, I think if you left things the way they are now you would still have a terrific pond.

Keep those pictures coming.