Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat new pond

Began digging new pond on 4/2. Will be 1 acre/15ft deep, in southern mn. Plan on stocking fhm and bg first. Then lmb and crappie. Is it better to use christmas tree and branches, or plastics/tires as cover?

The bluegill and fatheads prefer dense cover like christmas trees so that they can hide in it. I dont have any personal experience with them but I believe they last 3-4 years.

I dont know about crappie but bass like more "fluffy" cover like an oak treetop.

Hi fatswede and welcome to Pond Boss. I don't have an answer to your question but I'm sure some experts will chime in soon so stayed tuned!

Good luck on your new pond and post photos when possible.

Both natural and artificial added structure have advantages and disadvantages. Natural decays over time, which means it must be replaced and also that it increases the organic load built up in the pond. Artificial stuff can run into some money or can be the budget project for a master scrounger.

If just now building a pond from scratch, I'd figure on three types (layers? categories?) of structure:

1.) Built-in dirt structure - gullies, humps, ridges, etc. built in to the pond bottom. This stuff is minimal cost/minimal effort when done during construction; in some cases it can even reduce excavation costs by providing a use for extra dirt that therefore does not have to be removed at higher expense.

2.) Natural placed structure - this includes both prefill (e.g. large trees/stumps/branches placed at strategic locations) and postfill (e.g. Xmas trees sunk through the ice or placed by daredevils in canoes).

3.) Artificial structure - tires, porcupines, sputniks, bluegill condos, etc. IMO these are best placed before the pond fills. I am working on optimizing methods of placing them postfill, thusfar with less than perfect results.

I think a combination of these three types of structure would be the most effective and would probably have the lowest overall total cost/effort.

The best money you can spend on your pond will be used buying a copy of Bob Lusk's Perfect Ponds book; it talks about the above structure types and, most importantly, gives advice on the hows/whys/wheres of placing them.

Also look over Brettksi's thread on the design and construction of his pond - an excellent piece of documentation including type 1 and type 3 structure.

HEY BRETTSKI! GIVE US A LINK! (He's started too darn many threads for me to be able to find it without remembering the name.)

tire stuff
PVC tree thread
crib thread
the entire tale
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go to the PB archives for a number of other options.
Welcome aboard, Fatswede!

Welcome fellow Minnesotan! I'd advise against the crappie. I put some in before I knew better and while I haven't had the gross overpopulation problem in my pond that some warn about I think it's only because my pond is small (1/2 acre) and I routinely trapped hundreds of them out. They don't grow well because there is not enough natural feed for them and I'm sure they are taking food away from by BG. I wish I only had the BG now cause I think they would grow faster and have more room. My two cents.

I would put post pictures. But we can't figure out how. Spent 1 hour last night trying. Is there a problem with not putting any bg in, and only stocking crappie and lmb? Do bg grow to 1lb quicker than crappie?