Originally Posted By: fish n chips
I really like your idea of raised spawning beds TJ. I would wonder if the SMB will find them disturbing sitting higher that the rest of the area. I certainly would have tried this idea had I known.

Someone recently also posted a tip on cleaning spawning beds. He used the discharge end of a trash pump to blow off the sediment. Sorry I can't remember who said it.

Combination of all these ideas seems like a good way to go.


Thanks Fish - I was worried about the elevated beds too, so I added as much additional cobble and pvc I could to try and make the elevation more gradual and less invasive or artificial. At full pool the beds are sitting in depths of 36-60", and I noted that 3/5 were being utilized last year. When I drainged the pond last Fall after seining the SMB YOY I noticed very little silt had accumulated, but I did have a bunch of FA that developed throughout the year. Dried FA is easy to remove though, like peeling an orange, and it was good as new.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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