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Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 573 Likes: 161
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Joined: Mar 2017
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My dad made his dock pillars by taking a hog panel (cattle panel), rolling it into a circle, then filling them with rocks. This makes a vertical pillar of rocks. Can ALWAYS catch as many perch next to those as you want. Invertebrates can also be seen crawling in and on the rocks. (also a great place to find snakes). The habitat and life those pillars makes is impressive.
19 acre watershed pond
LMB, BC/WC, Bluegill, Crawfish, GShiners
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Joined: Feb 2024
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Joined: Feb 2024
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On that smaller rock pile, consider lifting it on top of cinder blocks and spread out the size or area that it covers or on top of several pallets. Almost every manufacturer or small company has many pallets for free. Just as for permission for getting them. Tree tops could be laid horizontal on the bottoms of the rocks to hold the brush down to keep the brush in place from floating lose in the pond. IMO you want the rock piles to sort of serve as weed beds or large dense structures as refugia areas and not to serve as small fish attractor structures. Small structures actually concentrate predators who eat many of the fish that come close to it for protection. Refugia are large expansive areas such as lake weed beds that provide protection for thousands & thousands of small fish.
If you are using FHM I would lay those flat pieces of concrete on top of one layer of rocks spread out among 5 -10+ pallets so the concrete pieces have lots of various types of elevated angled pieces; some even vertical. Lots of jagged pieces angling upwards; a city of upward angling irregularities. Be creative.
Search this topic in In-Fisherman website:
Habitat and the Importance of Structure By Dr. Hal Schramm
April 15, 2021 I read this: outstanding article, an extension of what you and others here have been discussing. Got lots of ideas now vis a vis "connecting" the two rock piles I established; adding the pallets/cinder blocks, etc., and also the idea of using cattle / hog panel to create a vertical rock structure (guessing I could use chicken wire / poultry netting, as long as it's good and solid? Maybe double thickness? ideas?)
Last edited by BJ Nick; 02/11/25 02:52 PM.
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,897 Likes: 63
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,897 Likes: 63 |
Okay for enlarging your rocky areas. Be creative - the more expansive it is the more habitat that is created that in turn increases productivity.
I like what local municipal water supply reservoirs do by adding city waste concrete from construction projects to line the shorelines. Concrete pieces extend from above the surface down the entire slope to the flat bottom area. This creates lot of habitat. Fish like to patrol the rocky shore areas and where concrete pieces meet the flat bottom. Concrete lined shores also stop wind and wave erosion of the shorelines. We like lining our dams with old concrete. We extended it to where it is 5-7 ft below the surface when full. Prespawn bass and crawdads make great use of this habitat.
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,897 Likes: 63
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,897 Likes: 63 |
I like rock piles but my primary interest is about 10 ft cedars close to the shorelines. It covers a lot of growing fish and larger fish orient on them. We have a cedar pile about 20 ft from where our rip rap ends extending 5 to 10 feet in depth. Can always catch fish there.
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Joined: Apr 2002
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Moderator
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Field Correspondent Lunker
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Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Apr 2002
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I wouldn't worry about the harmful chemical composition of construction / demolition of waste concrete when it is added to the pond. Air pollution striped out of the air during rains probably adds more contaminants to the pond compared to discarded concrete. If waste concrete is so bad why do municipalities add concrete from demolition projects to the drinking water supply reservoirs as shoreline stabilization?
As the pond is managed and if one is concerned about contaminants in the pond remember that the algaecide copper sulfate is heavy metal based product and the copper byproduct is stable in the environment and never rots up or goes away. The more copper based product that is added to the pond the more the copper residue that builds up in the sediments. The copper can under certain bottom sediment chemical conditions be dissolved into the overlying water layer. This IMO does more harm to the pond ecosystem compared to adding construction waste concrete pieces to the pond.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/12/25 10:16 AM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management
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1 member likes this:
jpsdad |
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Joined: Mar 2017
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Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 573 Likes: 161 |
I added dump truck after dump truck load of waste concrete to my north shore to stop erosion. Worked great and have no observable side effects. I wish the next town over would rebuild their water system too. Worked out great for me!
19 acre watershed pond
LMB, BC/WC, Bluegill, Crawfish, GShiners
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Joined: Aug 2014
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 4,119 Likes: 236 |
I would think since concrete is got a lot of lime in it it would be great for ponds
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1 member likes this:
gehajake |
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