Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Help me place some structure

This is my crude rendering of my new 5 acre bass pond. I was in the process of adding rock piles and other structure to the pond but only 2 days after the dozer left, it was FULL. Now that I have a small boat im ready to add more. I have christmas trees in buckets, do it yourself porcupine fish atractor look-alikes, and other items ready to go in.

Im asking for you guys help to show me where to put some of this stuff.

So I made this with my best guess of the depth, I will be out on it soon with a depth finder, but I feel confident about my estimates.

The N is North of course
The D is the dam
The S is the spillway
The Green is water that is from 0-3feet of water (gentle slope in most spots)
The Brown is water that is 3-6 feet
The Red is the deep portion 17 ft
The Blue is what I call the "ramp" or the steep portion where it goes from about 6 ft rapidly down to 17ft. (Really there should be blue on all around the red, the reason I didnt show it that way is because it is much more gentle slope than the North side.)

The X are rock piles and wooden pallets I have already added.

The black circles are areas where there were thick sunflowers that have yet to decay, so im counting them for now...maybe I should not?)

And there is a small natural channel running the entire length of the brown "neck" about 2ft by 2ft, making that area in the neighborhood of 6-8ft.

All the small black dots are small mesquite trees and other things that I would think are great places for fish that were naturally there.

On a side note, the entire pond bottom is covered in grass about 18 in. tall and looks like hair waiving around in the water. It is dead, but has not decayed to ANY degree, right now there is so much of it I dont see how a bass could ever hunt a BG down (pond is void of fish at the moment). Should I just call this good structure, or maybe some grasscarp or tilapia to trim it for me?

Thanks Jake B.

See this thread from the archive.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139766&fpart=1

Jake,
Focus on water from 4 to 8 feet deep. Don't put any structure shallower or deeper for a five acre pond. If it were mine, I would find the five foot contour, first, and add my ingredients. The rock piles are perfect to attract baitfish into the cracks and crevices and the periphery is pretty good for intermediate size bass. Just beyond your rock piles, add Christmas trees and porcupine fish attractors. Put them in close proximity because you want your fish to be attracted by a community, or diverse habitat. Bring in the babies, give them a place to hang out and feed while bringing in the intermediate bass. But, also put some places for big bass to hang out. My choice, for your pond, would be the blue areas. "Fluffy" cover in shallow water adjacent to deep is perfect for bigger bass.
Since you have so much terrestrial plant material, give it time to decompose before stocking fish. I would gear up to stock bait fish around the end of February or March and bass late May or early June.
The dead plant life may be a good harbor for fish now, but it won't last long. You will have some stems for a few months, maybe a year, but everything else will fall off and sink to the bottom and try to deterioriate.

I always suggest in southern ponds at least one deep water structure ( from bottom in 10 to 12 ft of water to the surface) to congregate fish all year. After fall turnover and cold water fish will move deep and move up and down in the water column to feed and still stay as warm as possible. In summer they will use this structure at the shallow part so they can feed and escape to deep water when spooked.

I suggest placing structure to concentrate fish where you would like to fish for them - wrt prevailing winds, afternoon sun, shade, and other factors (good places to set the drink cooler).

Another Theo'istic structure placement strategy (that follows the drink cooler thought): select a spot or two that is within casting distance from shore.

These are my "Medusa Fish Structures" It is my brain child after seeing similar structures such as porcupine fish attractors, and honey hole fish attractors. I made 3 and plan to sink them in my new pond. Ill let you guys know how they work, fist I need fish in my pond .

Let me know what you think, they have well over 100ft of tubeing. Do you guys think they need less tubes, or more? I can also make the tubes any length I desire.

Some longer tubes .

Jake B, great idea on the homemade "honey hole" structure. I looked at the brand name ones and liked them a lot but not for the price, considering it would take a number of them to be useful. What did you use for the tubing, and about how much does it cost?

just some 1/2in. Polyethylene tubing $100 on a 500ft roll. If you go by "honey hole" standards you can get 2 out of a roll.

Jake, it is said that 90% of the fish live in 10% of the water. However, I believe that you can spread them out by creating fish lanes, highways and irregularities like humps and dropoffs. Also, by concentrating cover where the forage can take advantage of it, the predators will always follow.