Thanks ML and George. Let's let this thread play out a little more and see what happens. That's what this entire give-and-take of info is all about....good stuff. Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas to da bote a ya's...thanks for stepping aboard this thread. Bob Lusk diplomatically admonished me when I first posted here a little over a year ago. He noted that my plan for the pond construction seemed to be "build it as I go". I kinda disagreed, but ultimately, when I look back, I did. The pros: I went slow and discovered/added some cool features that weren't even on the original radar. Cons: I did some stuff bass-ackwards that may have cost $ in the long run. Regrets to date? None. Unless...I did it again with my "late to the dinner table" plans for stocking. If SMB are a main player for me now, then my focus needs to be on placing rock structure....even tho it would have been easier before I closed the drain valve. Ewest (and others) You likely provided all this already before, but paint a picture for me of the optimum SMB spawning design. If I had a ton of rock, what size would it be? How would I lay it in?...just a pile? Would a one ton pile be better that 4 piles of 500# each? Would it be a 500# pile of 1.5" river rock with a couple of basketball sized rocks at the edge of the pile? Is there a minimum distance between this pile (or whatever form you recommend?) Or, instead of river rock, would it be a ton of softball sized rocks? Also, at what ranges of depth? I really want to consider laying some SMB spawning structure somwhere in the gradual slope between the tire-PVC tree reef and the treeline. I'm getting this vision of a half dozen piles of smaller river rock, maybe 36" dia, with a couple of larger out-structure rocks next to the pile. These would be spaced out maybe 20 ft apart...somewhere at about 2' to 7' deep...?
