Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Mo' Bettah Bed Pix from SMB repro pond

2011 SMB Reproduction Update PART I

Thought it was high time I provide an update on my SMB repro project. Pulled a nice spawn in 2011, but my rooted vegetation got the upper hand during the Summer and Reward treatment did little to improve the situation. In the Fall of 2011 we pulled the seine a few times but it was simply too difficult and we only collected a few fish. Reluctantly I decided to refill the repro ponds and hope for Winter survival and tackle things in early Spring of 2012.

We seined four weeks ago and it's apparent there was some serious cannibalism occuring, as I'd feared. Half the fish [150] were 2-3.5", the remaining were 7-8" with a handful pushing 9". Sold them all, and drained the pond down to inspect the beds and to get ready for 2012.

My original beds, pictured on this thread, were in pretty bad shape. Beds were silted in and the limestone walls were crumbling, too.





I needed to create a new SMB bed design in my clay ponds if I wanted to continue or improve spawning success. I tried to envision a design which used Eric and Bill's cinderblock prototype but also address the siltation issues I'd been experiencing. I looked for materials already on hand, and this is how things began to take shape.

Pallets provide elevation I need from the clay bottom plus allow silt to flow through and provides cover for YOY SMB. I needed to use cinder blocks on the front of the beds in order to keep them somewhat level:







I had concern the beds might, over time, begin to slide down the slope of the pond so I used stakes to keep them in place:





Needed something to hold the 2-4" limestone bed material in place and prevent it from falling through the pallets:



Always important to create a little privacy for magic time: