Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Idea for structure - addressing weaknesses

I have a piece of land that includes two ponds that are about 10 acres each. These are old borrow pits from when the adjacnet highway was built. As such, they are pretty much big flat rectangles. The soil is sandy, so the ponds draw down significantly in the dry part of the year. Right now they are down about 3 feet from the spring. They both probably average about 3 or 4 feet deep right now. I seem to have good populations of LMB, and they feed on hordes of small GSF primarily. The bottoms are covered with 1-2 feet of grass, which provides most of the cover.

I would really like to add some structure / deeper water. Each pond has one small deep hole (2-3 feet deeper than the rest) that seems to hold most of the LMB in the summer months. In winter and spring when the water is high and stained, you can catch them anywhere.

Here is my idea: Rent a trackhoe when the water is low, and start from the bank, digging a deep trench on each side, piling it in the middle to create a levee that will serve as the working surface to continue working out. This will give me a point surrounded by deep water. I can do this in each pond and go as far out as I want. Due to the size of the ponds, I can't come up with a more cost effective way to improve habitat.

I have felled quite a few trees along the banks to provide cover, but that does not address the problem of how shallow the water gets in summer/fall.

What do you guys think? Am I overlooking anything? Any other ideas?

Interesting questions, sandman. I'd love to see pics of your place.

With that much water loss each year, structure would definitely need to be planned so you have coverage in all phases of the year. Keep in mind that it's probably a better idea to plan out the location, type, and size of the structure you are using so it follows a logical plan that is more likely than not to hold fish. Dropping trees randomly may not be the best way to achieve those goals, so you might want to give some thought to where the trees are located relative to any other work you do.

There are some great structure/habitat threads on the forum, so be sure to search around for them and read up. If I'm not mistaken, a general recommendation is that no more than 25% of your BOW should have structure so you can avoid spreading the fish out all over the place.

I really like your idea of going in while the water is low and adding mounds and ridges, etc, if that's what you're suggesting. That would be a great way to use dirt to create actual structure such as ledges, shelves, mounds, peninsulas, etc. around which you can then work to add attractants such as trees, PVC structures, and types of stuff to draw fish in.

I think you'll get lots of great ideas, so just hang on and, again, consider posting some pics so we can see what you are working with. It sounds like a really interesting setup.

Try this from the archives.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

That's what I would call a structure tour de force! If a pondmeister can't find a solution there, he ought to stick to swimming pools!

There are some pretty cool ideas there, some of which I would like to do. My problem is that right now, all of that would stick up above the water. I am thinking that I really need to add some depth in some areas before I can really take advantage of any ideas to create structure.

The eastern pond has one deep hole (2 or 3 feet deeper than anywhere else in the pond, probably about 6 feet deep right now) in the NE corner. Most of the fish we are catching at this time of year seem to be hanging close to this hole, which is really small (20 x 30 feet maybe).

The western pond has a larger area of deep water (a trench about 20 feet wide by maybe 100 feet long) but it is about a foot shallower (about 5 feet) than the deep hole in the other pond. Once again, right now all the fish we are catching are hanging close to this trench.

The water is crystal clear, and I am thinking as the water temperature goes up, the fish are sticking to the deepest water they can find. During the winter and spring, rainfall and run-off keep the water much deeper and stained enough that the fish spread out over the entire ponds.

I have caught some nice fish, and some decent numbers. The fishing just really goes down in the dog days of summer.

I attached an aerial view. That is all I have for a picture right now.

Here is the same photo with the existing deep areas marked off. Keep in mind that the rest of both ponds are almost flat, maybe 3 to 4 feet deep in the north ends gradually sloping to 1 or 2 feet deep on the southern ends. They pulled the dirt out from North to South, thus the gradual slope and flat bottom.

I agree you need more water that is a little deeper. A track hoe can fix that. It can dig holes and make mounds all at once. You might need some ag lime with all the pine trees.

From the pics are the ponds at Glenmora ? If so my mother was raised there.

Yep, about 2 or 3 miles West of Glenmora on Hwy 113.

Sandman, I think you came up with a very good solution to your problem.

There were a few gas wells in that area at one time. Are these old reserve pits ?

"There were a few gas wells in that area at one time. Are these old reserve pits ?"

I am not 100% sure, but I do not think so. I am relatively certain that these were borrow pits were they excavated clay to build Hwy. 113. I have been told that the ponds have been flooded by the Calcasieu River in the past, but that has not happened since we have owned the land (late 2005 / early 2006). It did back up through the overflow once.

I am pretty sure I am going to put my plan in motion, the question is just when. I may not be able to do it until next summer. I just wanted to see what you guys thought first, to make sure I am not overlooking anything and end up making a big mistake.

I know a common concern is digging in to a sand layer and developing a leak, but with the soil being so sandy throughout and as much leakage as there already is, I can't imagine it getting any worse. Two summers ago it got so low that some high spots in the bottom of the pond became dry. I walked out onto sand flats and planted cypress trees that were in five feet of water the following spring.

Well, mother nature helped me out to some extent. The drought down here has reached the point where both of my ponds are now dry. We did bring in a trackhoe a few months back and dug a large deep area in the East pond. At the time there was still water in the West pond so we didn't do any digging in it. I am interested in what happens if they ever fill back up... Of course, I may have to restock now.

Here is the East pond. As you can see it is down from 10 acres to about 2 acres of water and most of that is about 6" deep. It is actually much drier now, with only the far back corner int he picture and the area we deepened holding any water at all. The West pond now looks about like this picture.

Wow! I'm sorry to see that. All the work that we do on the ponds just to have them dry up.

Yeah, with water that shallow, I don't know what will survive.

It might be better to kill it if it doesn't completely dry up, and make sure that only the fish that you want in there, are.

What is the width of the strip of land between the 2 ponds?

The water levels on my ponds are really low as well. My upper pond is about a half acre at full pool but now is down to 1/4 of that size. The dry areas are growing weeds and volunteer trees. Assuming that the drought will end at some point, what if anything should I be doing now with respect to the new vegetation?

I was back out there this past weekend, and the East pond is completely dry, except for the new deep holes we dug. There is not a fish left in that pond.

The West pond has a deep strip down the middle that I could see some fish still moving in, but I can't imagine many surviving with it as low as it is. They are easy prey to predators as it is.

Here is a pic of the West pond from this past weekend. The area to the left is the remaining deep water. The water you can see to the right is only about a foot deep and full of grass.

Oh, and the strip of land between the two ponds is probably about 200 yards wide.