Today the EZ Dock folks came out and extended my dock ten feet further into the pond. Pond is the lowest I've ever seen it, close to 2' below normal, and gangway was resting on the bottom. Good work, they finished early to beat the worst of the heat.

Anybody else doing dock work to deal with low water? How about placing artificial or natural habitat under the dock? I haven't seen much here on the subject of shade & how it impacts water temps & fish, especially in summer.

Been trying to figure out how to extend my dock. It's a floater and I'm considering extending the walkway by mounting the hing over the water instead of on the bank. Would take some pipe, cement, and welding. If I had pipe on hand would probably already be working on it.

Cat, I have a floating dock as well. I put some brush under it five years ago, but not much of it still exists. Have you placed any structure under the dock? I know lots of people do that to attract crappie, but in my experience it's a huge draw for LMB too.

Our dock is not a floating one. Our pond drops several feet each winter.
I shove christmas trees and other stuff under the dock each year when the water is low. It's easy to see the degeneration of the trees from year to year when the water is low. The fines are gone in a year. The larger branches last a few years then decompose. The main trunks are still around after many years.

No brush under the dock. It's for swimming too so the wife said no. What I have done is anchored a bouy a little ways to the side and tell everyone that swimming beyond it is off limits. That's where I sink brush. It's within easy casting distance. I still get a fair amount of crappie, bass, bluegills, and shiners from under the dock though.

No swimming off our dock, so that's not an issue. However, we've had a lot of broken lines on sunken brush. Plastic habitat should be better in that respect, though admittedly imperfect. No matter what the marketing folks tell us, hang ups are always possible, even if less frequent.

I'd love to see some research into the impact of shallow water shade in summer heat. Not sure I believe theory that sunlight hurts fish eyes, but I do believe shade offers them a kind of visual cover, plus a thermal refuge when things get really hot.

I too would like to see some research or hear from knowledgeable people here about it. I assume it's somewhat individualistic as I catch fish that are really dark, and some that are really pale. Maybe some individuals are ok with some sun and maybe some aren't. Or maybe the most dominant fish get the best habitat and the others have to live on the fringes?

I am fortunate to have a well that I can feed my pond with so I keep it level during the heat of summer

I'll bet that also helps mitigate heat somewhat. Do you have to oxygenate or treat the well water?

I have a dock in the middle of my lake. If you want to catch a fish, that is the first place to go. It is about a foot off the water so you can get a bait under it. With the dock, don't know if it is shade, protection from birds or water temp but the fish are there. 60% of my lake is so thick with timber you really have to work to get a boat into it.

I hadn't really considered protection from bird predators, but that makes perfect sense. Probably doesn't help much against cormorants, but herons, eagles, kingfishers would be hampered.

https://www.dockbuilders.com/shop-by-category/floating-docks/floating-dock-framing-hardware.html

Use male and female "T" connectors and back up plates, or use outside and inside corner male/females with the inside corner bracket. Use the 3/4" connector pin set to mate them together.

No I do not - we use the well water in our home - had it tested and was told it is better than municipal water - only issue is it is hard but our softener takes care of that

Thanks for the link. Those aren't bad prices! I already have the dock and hing built though, just thinking of moving it further out into the water which would require new anchoring to the bank (not new hinges). I do like those though!

We have 40 feet of walkway to our dock. One 20 foot section is fixed to bank and fixed in height. We have a giant rod that connects the sections. The other 20 foot section along with the dock is allowed to pivot with the variations in water level.

Here's pictures: https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=269335

Wow, that's exactly what I want to do. Right now my pivot is mounted to bank. Want to extend a solid walkway out like you did to put the pivoting section further out into the lake. Nice work!
I was just in Edmond last night and this morning...

My docks are on pilings, 6x6 posts. When I had them redecked last year, we extended the T dock 4 feet by cantelevering, extending the floor joists out 4 feet beyond the rim joist and back 6 feet to the back of the T. It's quite solid and provides extra seating and standing area, and it provides a bigger shade area under. I already had several trees at the end of the dock so they are now under the extension.

Hit me up the next time if you are in Edmond regularly. This is only about 40 minutes away from Edmond.

Will do, but I'm not there often and when I am it's to see a buddy I grew up with. Usually have plans and no idle time.

Understand that.