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?
