Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Rock pile?

I have made a couple of DIY structures, and ordered a honey hold shrub and tree to put in my pond. Is small rock pile a good structure to have? How would it function differently? About how deep should I put it? Pond is in NC and is approixmately 1.6 acres. Max depth is 15 feet.

Rock piles are great structures that provide contrast and quick depth changes for your predator fish to ambush from. In the 5'-7' depth range. However, I have always found it difficult to add a rock pile to an existing pond. It is good to put pallets or something under the rock pile to help keep the rocks from just sinking into the pond muck and becoming more of a bump than a pile. If you have some type of equipment that can help place the rocks that could be helpful, but putting rocks in one or two at a time can prove difficult and hard to ensure they are actually piling and not scattering. Maybe some others will chime in with some advice or experience.

Thanks. I had thought that it might be a difficult job. Also, making multiple trips if on a boat, might be hard to get the rocks in the same place and on each other. I think cinder blocks would be too apt to hang your lures on.

When evaluating lakes over my career, I've found most fish attracted to structure or cover absolutely love rock piles. I'd actually pick that as my Numero Uno choice. They need to be larger than most of us think...like at least 6'x 6' wide and 4-5' tall. Bigger rocks are better than small ones--rocks from softball to basketball-sized. If you'll drop a marker, like a duck decoy on a string, you can find that place again. Another hint, put a piece of 3/4" plywood across the bow of your boat, stack the rocks on that and you can drop them off by hovering over your spot, then raising the plywood. Don't load so many rocks as to make it too heavy, or to sink your boat when you raise the wood. Ask me how I know...

You're a genius. That sounds like a plan. Thanks.

In a few ponds that we have done, the fish seem to like the rock piles even more if there is some woody structure nearby, like a tree trunk and branches.

LOL.

On the other hand, a sunken boat with rocks in it would make outstanding habitat. Just saying....... ;-)

Heck, why not go all out and sink the Titanic to make some interesting dive targets in the pond!

Same method - plywood across bow of boat , is good for putting out other structure as well as lime.

Rock piles are great! Crawdads and little fish can hide in them and big fish hunt them and suspend on them. For us we just make sure they are deep enough not to bother swimmers if anyone swims in the pond.

Here is one we put in our big pond two years ago when we dug it, a single load with a dump truck about 18 tons. Now I wish we had put two or three piles in.

How deep is the rock pile? If too deep will it have enough oxygen to support fish?

H2Ofwler - The middle of the rock pile was too dense and not accessible for good forage production, Actually IMO that rock pile would have had more benefit if it was spread out as a longer 1-2 rock layer thick along the top of the waterline in a fashion similar to the pond's existing stone ledge shown in your picture.

Walked around the pond once today with a swim bait and jig. Caught a keeper and had 2 other bites (we've had a cold snap). One of the bites came off of the small rockpile. A good sign. I need to make it a little bigger though.

Prolly close to twenty feet at the bottom of it. I'm sure at certian times of the year it might not.

The rocks are from small football size to maybe 2-3 times bigger than a basketball. I agree on the coming out from the ledge being better habitat but with the top concerns being for recreation and swimming at that particular pond putting them shallower was never an option.

In my opinion, several areas are needed where structure is present that covers 3-6' sections of the water column-vertically, with overlapping depth coverage.
For example... If pond is 20', there needs to be a few structures covering 20' up to say 15', then several structure types starting on bottom in 16-17' going up to say 10-12'-in a vertical fashion. Need to intersect the water column in a way that allows fish to move "up & down" on that particular structure, not just in and out following pond slope. A couple of earthen piers from bank line out to 5-7' protected with riprap covers the shallower portions and adds shoreline structure and the very important diversity and extended linear feet.
Bill is correct in that the forage would utilize more riprap if laid down in "beds" up to and above the actual waterline-which will be where a good percentage of forage species will produce-and survive. but they will be moving out and collecting on other vertical structures later that are important also but it's important to have that available up shallow for the forage to continue to cycle in a more protected environment.

Fished my rock pile the past 2 days, and have caught alot of bass off of it. The best 2 days I've had on it by far. The 94 degree temperature, and maybe a line of variable leaf pondweed pushing them away from the bank is probably why. It's awesome having a line up that only you know about, strategically hitting a target almost a full cast away, and fighting decent bass out in the middle of a pond. Alot of fun.

Great job shooter!

How deep is the water at your rock pile? How big of rocks did you end up using?

Are you seeing crayfish feelers when you lip the bass? The bass may be using the rock pile for their ambushes. The bass may be eating crayfish or other forage that is concentrating on the rock pile.

Did you clean any of the bass and examine their stomach contents?

Honestly, not sure about the depth. Id guess between 5 and 8 feet. Different sized rocks, probably from a mini basketball size to irregular soccer ball. I have not seen any crayfish evidence, and didn't filet any. I wonder if it's a food hangout, or just more of an attraction since it's different/irregular. The fish weren't big, but were big for my pond. Several 14 to 15 inch fish. Im trying to get them bigger.

Every trophy bass in the history of the world was once a 14-inch bass.

Sounds to me like your plan is proceeding nicely!