I was wondering if this would be a good idea or not....
My thought was to cut tarps into variaous lengths and secure it to something that would anchor it to the bottom of the pond. The theory would be to have structure that resembled bottom vegetation for forage fish to seek refuge.
Since we're just talking theory, here's my first thought. I would probably get 1" pvc of whatever length you want, fill it with sand, cap it, then drill holes in the caps so water can get in. One tarp would take multiple pvc pipe pieces.
Trim your plastic tarp according to the water depth you're targeting. I'll use a cheap plastic 8X10 tarp for numbers. Cutting 4" strips for 3-4' of water, if everything goes right, should give you 60 "plants". Each piece of tarp should have one seamed edge. Cut a 2" slit in the center just above the seam of each piece, and make that cut parallel to the piece(longways). Take the top of a piece, thread it through the slit, and around the pvc pipe. Now you have your anchors. The amount of pvc pipe you would need, is determined by whatever spacing you want between each piece of tarp. The wider the gaps, the more pipe you would need.
The top of each piece of tarp can be floated by whatever means is the easiest and cheapest. Fishing floats, small noodle pieces, etc. can be used with UV zip ties. I would think the tarp pieces would algae up and could get heavier pretty quickly, so I might account for that when selecting the floats.
Shallow water cover is always a good thing, so keep us all in the loop, whichever way you decide to go.
