Hey guys , just finished digging yesterday, i have been reading a lot on this site, and it's a great source of info. But most of the fourms are for up north, or just different area from here.. South Louisiana. mostly clay. ( surely no problem holding water ) my pond is about 3/4 acre. I'm looking for a good fishing pond for the grand kids as well as us big kids. i'm thinking, BG,HBG,CNBG,LMB, or what ever fish yall think i should stock and how many of each to end up with some nice bass, and some big enough Perch, (thats what we call em) to make the little ones have to change their britches when they hook one! So i guess if it was one or the other i would choose the large perch, with enough bass to keep them in check. but first my question is, should i put gravel beds in this situation? in the attached picture, ( if i can get it on this time) on the right and left there are shelves, but they ended up being about 5 foot deep then the bottom drops off another 4 to 5 foot deep. ( i'm pumping out the water from a recent rain in the picture ) are those shelves too deep for BG spawning and should i leave them alone without gravel at that depth ? I planned on putting my pvc trees on each side of the shelves. Thanks for the input.
When my pond was new I put in a lot of crushed limestone beds for the bluegill to spawn on. Over the years they get covered with silt but the bluegills always find and uncover them to spawn on.
Bayouhunter, my lake has clay also, and the CNBG spawn well in the native clay. Like John, I "built" spawning areas and those were used by the CNBG also. I'm certainly no expert, but it seemed the areas that had clearer water, especially around aquatic vegetation that kept shoreline clarity up, produced the most beds. All my beds were less than 18" deep, but that may just be nature of my lake.
BG will spawn on clay. Gravel is a little better but not absolutely necessary. One thing to watch is not to put spawning beds right where dirty water runs into the pond. BG will avoid spawning where they have to fight dirt washing in on top of the eggs. Depending on water clarity at spawn time BG will regulate depth to get enough sunlight but not so shallow as to increase predation. That is why you often see points with BG nests down the point from 2 ft to as deep as 8 ft. Multiple spawns with different water depth , plankton conditions (clear to green) along with photo period and temp all play a part.
Thanks, cause i was wondering if 5 foot was too deep. and as far as water coming in the pond, with the levey the only water input will be rain or water well, so it should clear up fine. once the pond is full and clears. aireators working and structure in will i be ready to put fish at that point and if so how many of which spiecies.
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