Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Depth of structure for LMB and fingerlings/forage?

Planning to place some 5 ft. PVC "trees" in 6-9 feet of water for bass & Bluegill. Then looking to put more dense "brush" type structure for fingerling survival/forage along the shoreline in shallow water and then again in 2-4 feet of water. Any thoughts on those depths? Are they correct? Do I need to go deeper on the "brush"? Other considerations? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

When I walk the pond I see lots of fry right up to waters edge. So weeds or something in the shallows would be good.

I also snorkel and scuba dive in the pond at least a couple times in the summer. I don't get out there when the water is very cold so can not comment on early season, but later in the season I see fry around structure I have placed all the way down to 5 or 6 feet depth. I do have aeration so there should be good DO down at depth.

I saw fry around one of my scrap plywood FHM spawning structures I made that was in 3-5' of water (from top to bottom of the structure) out in the middle of my pond where there is a hump. No fish highways from the bank to there (this was before I started reading PBF and already had most of my structure done before learning about fish highways) and yet there were lots of half inch long fry in and around this layered structure. Although I have prescription lens in my dive mask, it is for about 3' focal length so I don't see such tiny fish very well and although I had my masks up to within inches of the fish, I could not identify if they were FHM or BG. Too fuzzy. I needed a magnifying glass or something to see them better.

So while fry are generally associated with shallow water near the shore line, at least when the water is warm later in the summer, I see them all over the pond anywhere there is structure with enough cover to give them some protection from predators. Never see them out in the open, but everywhere I placed structure down to about 6' I see small fish.

My opinion, for what little it is worth, is if you are targeting cover for small fish, place most in shallow water. 3' to the surface. But as water temperature changes through the season, fish will go deeper or shallower for comfort, food and to escape predation. So I think having a fair amount of cover even in deeper water say 6 or 7', fry will use it at least some portion of the year.

Have only been managing a pond actively for a couple of years. So this is all based on limited observation. But I do think being a diver and going under water and actually seeing where the fish hang out is beneficial observation.