Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Ideal Size of gravel beds for BG spawning

Is there an ideal size for building a pea gravel bed for BG spawning? We are wrapping up construction on a 25 acre lake and will have several areas in the 3-4' depth range and I would like to build some bedding areas. The plan is the use some 2x4 or 2x6 lumber to make a square or rectangle frame and line the bottom with geotech fabric then spread pea gravel in them. We have lots of space for this but just trying to figure out how big to make these bedding areas. 20'x20'?

What's your budget? I've had BG colony nests spread out over 100'x100' (on bare clay).

Plenty here on the subject. Pics first. Mimic nature. The last pic is from a drawn down lake.



See these threads for a lot of info - how to create, rock size, depth, size, location, etc..


Bluegill Beds - Pond Boss Forum
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=544846&page=1

Creating Bluegill spawning area - Pond Boss Forum
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=199269&page=1

We did 16x16 sections in three different locations.

The only reason we chose that size was it ended up being cost efficient because we already had the wood for framing it up. Any size will work. The smaller pea gravel is easy for them to move & build. Putting down some type of landscape fabric or plastic sheet allows the pea gravel to avoid sinking into the mud/muck.

Our bluegill love them. For some reason they are partial to the walls...i think they feel the protection. The entire area quickly fills up with beds after those wall spots are taken.

I am certain bluegill will spawn without these pea gravel beds. But I also know they prioritize them for a reason. I've read about good water circulation and oxygen to eggs and that does make sense. Maximizing bait is always the priority in a good bass pond so I'm glad we did the work.

From 1 of the threads referenced above;

" In Role of Male Parental Care in Survival of Larval Bluegills by Mark B. Bain and Louis A. Helfrich in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 112: 47-52, 1983 the authors noted optimum Bluegill nest materials were exposed coarse gravel ( 8-32 mm diameter) and pebbles (32-64 mm) in nest substrate and that Bluegill removed particles smaller than 2 mm. Particles larger than 8 mm provided suitable interstitial space to accommodate bluegill larvae. Survival of larvae was directly correlated with the proportion of coarse substrate in the nest."