Teehjaeh57
Would you think a pathway of trees from the bank out to 5-6' would be a good option not only for BG but also for gambusia to hide in? My minnows get hammered by the LMB YOY
Pat W
Yes, I would not leave 50' of open water from shallow shoreline vegetation areas out to the brush piles...that's a lot of exposure to predation swimming out to the brush and back to the shoreline vegetation for feeding of invertabrates. Would likely take a beating - might be setting up the forage for major damage. I like the idea of placing trees from shoreline out to deeper water - like a finger - maybe with a T on the end. Allows them a safe highway of travel with limited exposure. Experiment with placement and map how you situate the brush piles. Some designs will hold more BG than others, then you retrace your steps, refer to the map, extrapolate data and determine what characteristics made the structure more or less successful. You'll likely arrive at a pattern and depth configuration that will prove the most successful model - then use that moving forward.
I wish I had read about fish highways before doing my structure/cover. I have a lot of isolated islands of structure. The good part is they go from the deepest water (10') to near the surface, but are still isolated from shore. Did all this just before discovering PBF. I may make some attempts this coming summer to install some cover out to a few of these structures to see how it works out.
I did get the chance to scuba dive a couple of times and see what was in various cover schemes. Lots of small BG in the cedar tree cover. The wooden layered structures I put in for FHM had tons of tiny fish around them. They were so small my poor eyes could not determine if they were FHM fry or BG, but some fish were definitely making use of hanging around what cover I had provided. Had to get my mask down within a few inches of the structure and bottom to see them. Maybe a half inch long.
