Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Aquatic Plant and Hard Cover Fish Habitat

Hello,

OVERVIEW

I have the initial design for a 1 acre pond where the pond will be stocked with forage, Blue Gill or Red Ear Sunfish and LMB. I believe that the design of the pond provides a good mix of shallow flats and quick depth changes and I will have long trenches dug in the 5-8 foot depth range to act as travel lanes parallel and vertical to the shoreline. All cleared trees, cedars and rocks will be stockpiled for use as hard cover habitat.

MY ISSUE

The most important part of the pond design, IMO, is the design of fish habitat. I'm struggling with adding the aquatic plant and hard cover habitat to the pond design. I DO NOT want to ruin my dream by poorly designed habitat, so I desperately ask the Pond Boss Community to help me design this part of the pond.

Any and all advice is encouraged and welcome! I look forward to hearing from the community and sharing this experience with all of you as the build progresses.

Lots of folks who are good at this kind of thing are out getting work done since the weather has gotten better.

I imagine you have come across THIS LINK , but I'll mention it just in case you haven't. There is a ton of info in that, and if I remember right, some if it (or links to other threads) talks about how to place it in the best way. Sorry it isn't a quick easy answer for you.

Thanks for the reply. I had found that thread but i found many of the links did not work for me. I keep getting the error message attached so not sure what the issue is.

Here is a link that will work that might help on the vegetation question. Keep in mind your area may be different than those discussed but perhaps it will help with strategy.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=myhome&tab=topics

Hopefully, one of the Mods can tell you how to fix the broken links you want to view. I know I have read the forum was hacked in the past and there is a fix you can use.

Take a look at the internet link when you get the error message. It will be something like this:
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...ite_id=1#import

In all the broken links, you need to change

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Forum=22&topic=000022&Number=0&site_id=1#import

to:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Forum=22&topic=000022&Number=0&site_id=1#import

and the link will work like this:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...ite_id=1#import

I've decided that I will be using artificial fish attractors like the ones that www.mossbackfishhabitat.com develops and may throw in some of the porcupine fish attractors.

If I provide enough cover with artificial fish attractors, would there be any added benefit to adding concrete rubble piles as well?

My research on whether to add gravel for BG/RES/LMB spawning is mixed at best. Some say put it in, some say the extra cost isn't worth it. What do the majority of people do here?

All,

I've updated my pond design to include trenches from shallow to deep as well as 2 points that I want to go from 6' immediately to 9' deep.

I've also included where I would like spawning beds to be and plan on "encouraging" spawning in these area via different methods such as course sand and gravel areas.

From there, I plan on placing dense cover nearest the spawning beds and then intermixing dense and fluffy artificial cover between the beds and other travel corridors.

With more detail provided in the latest design, do you think this is a good approach?

I'm no expert but I think it looks great. The channels from shallow to deep should be used and you have a lot of spots to fish from.

I would cover your damn in rip rap if possible. That will give your crayfish and young forage some hiding places especially if you struggle to get vegetation established. It is one of my biggest regrets that I did not get my dam covered in rip-rap before it filled.

Also you should put your fish attractors (along with rock piles, stumps, christmas trees etc) on those two points in varying depths. Fish will spawn on the shallow parts of the point in the spring and stay on the deeper part of the points in summer and winter. Putting the fish attractors there will further concentrate the fish.