Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Artificial spawning habitats

Does anyone know where I can find information on artificial spawning habitats? More specifically, I'm looking for information on warm-water fish.

I know for largemouth bass, at least two methods have been used. Something called a "bass bucket", which is just a 5-gallon bucket filled with pea gravel. Another is a "bass box". It is a 2'x2'x2' box filled with 1 1/2" pea gravel. I know bass buckets were used in an experiment on the Ohio River by the American Fishery's Society, as it was hypothesized that lack of suitable spawning habitat was keeping bass populations low. Unfortunately I do not know the results of the experiment.

I was speaking with an old bait-shop owner, and he was talking about the pond he had. He said he had concrete cylinders in the shallows, and he could see channel catfish fanning the eggs in the concrete cylinders in about two feet of water.

A website mentioned that both bass and sunfish will spawn on pea gravel, but I think this would quickly become silted over without additional protection.

Any input would be appreciated.

Once the pea gravel is there, and it doesn't disappear into the bottom of the pond, I believe the fish will sweep off any silt that accumulates from one year to the next. Catfish are cavity nesters, and need something to nest in to help protect the eggs from predators. A 55 gal drum, old pieces of culvert, etc. Only one end needs to be open. Place it in water 2'-4' deep, with the open end facing deeper water. Search here for smallmouth spawning structure, some people have used the plastic snow saucers and filled them with gravel and small rocks for SmallMouth Bass.

Hmmmm, interesting. That'd be a neat experiment, to see how long a bag of pea gravel would last on a mud bottom.

One more question, why do all of these fish spawn in such shallow water?

I never thought of that. They are exposed, aren't they? Probably has to do with the shallower water warming faster in the spring.

That's an idea that I didn't think of. I wonder if a bag of pea gravel is big enough for a bed? I think that the bag would last for a while if the top half of the bag is cut off. The plastic on the bottom would help keep the pieces of gravel from sinking into the bottom.