I did not add the gravel the first yr I built the 9 brush piles, he suggested 5, along the shoreline. And even without the gravel I had a boom of 3" cnbg about 90 days later. I will never forget on how many I saw along the shoreline all over the pond. Brush piles were suggested by Todd Overton along with adding 25 lbs of fhm's. I had no vegetation and he told me the minnows would take the pressure off the cnbg fry. I refresh the brush piles each yr since along with some FHMs. I think you will see a difference. I also saw a difference in how many GBH showed up daily for awhile.
I saw my first swim up fry this week that I have ever seen in the pond. I am pretty sure they were lmb because a 15" lmb was swimming under one of the two schools of fry that I saw. Lots and lots of fry about an eighth to a qtr inch long swimming together in schools and they were in the area where the lmb nest were.
I have debated adding any structure to boost BG production, but since stocking LMB in the fall of 2017, and seeing that class reach 14-16 inches and near 100% WR, I worry I won't be able to keep them in proper groceries to maintain that growth. So, I decided to help out the BG production (in theory). We shall see if my pond, the BG (and Mother Nature) are agreeable with 'the plan'.
"He who thinks he can and he thinks he can't, they're both usually right." - Wyatt Hendrickson, 2025 NCAA Hwt Champion
