Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Open water structures?

My ~1.66 acre pond has artificial habitats scattered within 20’ of the shore in 3-7’ of water. It is weed free. This means that there is at least 2/3rds of an acre that are more than 20’ from both shore & cover. Are those open water areas (maximum 10.5’) effectively ‘dead zones’ in terms of productivity?

For sake of argument, imagine a circular pond with a diameter of 210’ and a central depth of 10.5’ feet. Am I wasting real estate by not placing habitat in the inner 100’?

No, the open areas of your pond are NOT dead zones. The bottom of your food chain mostly starts with photosynthesizing organisms, or tiny organisms that eat the tinier photosynthesizing organisms. Your open water supports that necessary part of your food chain.

As to specifics, expert advice is good! Experimentation is also good!

Do you have some more artificial habitats readily available that you can install? If so, maybe try 1-2 in the water a little deeper than 7'. Try fishing (or observing) that cover throughout an entire annual cycle and determine if it truly provided a benefit. If there is no benefit, then you know to keep adding in your existing shallower zone. (That is the experimentation for your pond.)

The experts (not me) generally say that the cover in shallower water should be denser (more hiding places for smaller fish) and as you get cover deeper in the pond it should be "fluffier" (more space to swim through, ambush cover for larger predators, etc.)

Another rule of thumb is that up to 15% of your pond could be cover. Most of that should be place peripherally, with very little in deep water.

That does kind of depend on your definition of deep water. Can you post the max. depth, and average depth of your pond bottom to get better recommendations on your current depth to structure?

Finally, here is a link to the archives and the best source of discussions of cover.

Cover and Habitat Archive - Pond Boss

Good luck on your pond improvements!

There is no "all year" dead zone. Your entire pond has potential. Deep water structure works best if it goes from bottom to near surface - so fish can adjust vertically with the temp/time of year.

I dug holes in the center of my pond and put 6-7 trees upright in the middle, then attached 2-3" long 2x4s to the trunk sort of like a ladder for additional cover. When the feeder goes off and the feed starts drifting towards the middle near those trees you can see increased activity as bluegills using the trees in the middle as cover come up to get the food. So even a novice like myself can tell you that the fish will use the cover in the middle of your pond. My pond goes down to 12' deep, the "ladder" that I built only goes up to around 6' from the bottom. The canopies of the trees are mostly out of the water. If I did it again I would put in two smaller trees where the canopy would be submerged. I just put in my fingerling bass, but I'm betting in a year we will be catching fish off of those trees.

If the pond has a bottom diffusion aeration system in it, the fish will utilize the complete water column providing that there is sufficient O2 in the whole water column. I say that because some aeration systems are not designed properly for the pond that they are in and do not provide sufficient water mixing and O2 distribution.

Even without an aeration system, the fish will utilize the very deepest part of the pond during the winter as long as there is sufficient O2 there. Placing cover in the deepest part of the pond will concentrate fish around it in the winter, and like ewest said, if the cover comes up to the surface they will utilize that cover at different depths at different times of the year.

I have a pile of Christmas trees in my pond that go from 18' water depth to about 3' water depth. In the winter, ice fishing, that is the most productive part of the pond. During the summer I can cast to that area and pull a lure past it and catch fish.