Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Another bed idea

I like Bluegillerkiller's tire idea a lot, but my mind has been going a slightly different direction.
I am getting involved with some very large gravel pit ponds that have no sand, little gravel, and lots of submerged weeds.
Since I have access to large pallets, I was thinking about mounting some kind of round trays on the pallets, and filling them with sand and/or fine gravel. I was thinking of reusing something of plastic or metal, and also wondering about constructing them of cement. Now (thanks guys!!) I'm wondering about using tires, but cutting/splitting them in half so that each tire makes two nest areas (no gas buildup then).
I had already been planning on raising fathead minnows and was planning to place pallets in certain areas anyway. Well, now I wonder if I can raise bluegills and fatheads at the same time utilizing the same pallets.
Then I started thinking that if I added sturdy legs (I have a source of pallets made with 4" X 4" posts), I could place pallets in 4 to 6 feet of water, mount bed trays on top (2' under water), and have a nice "shelf type" cover for larger fish to hide under. That makes you wonder if you could raise fatheads & bluegills, while providing cover for bass, all with the same pallet???
But, I'm not done thinking yet . . .
Today, another thought came to mind: If I could place pallets with artificial bluegill nests in deeper water that had no weeds (longer support legs needed), a new thing might happen. Bluegills that are ready to leave the nest, would not have any nearby cover to hide in and would make much easier prey for the bass.
This way I get to increase bluegill production, while minimizing the potential for overpopulation of the second and third year fish. Wouldn't it be great to produce thousands more bluegill fry, knowing that most of them would become easy dinner for the bass?
It's all just an idea and a thought. Hopefully I can get some feedback before investing too much time and effort into the experiment.

Creative ideas, for sure. Given your lack of suitable substrate, that is a pretty clever thought for overcoming the problem. One issue could be the BG finding and choosing to use the beds, but giving them options is never a bad idea. I'd love to see how that plan could be pulled off and particularly like that there are secondary and tertiary benefits of the design concept. Nice thinking!

See the archive for structure for spawning structure ideas. These may work if put in a group.








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IMO tires will not work well for spawning. I have tried it with poor results. Turn the ends of the points into spawning areas with rock , sand or clay. BG are colony spawners with beds like this

You could put a bunch of saucers (see pic above) on pallets but over time they will fall through. The problem is not bottom composition but lack of shallow water. BG will spawn on most surfaces even if some (gravel , sand , clay ) are better than others.

pandscorp, I had good luck with Pumpkinseeds spawning in oil drain pans from Walmart $1.99ea., filled them with sand and stream gravel.

In my case, I think heavy submerged weeds is the biggest problem. I know pallets would break down eventually, but if saucers were placed above the 2 X 4 joints, a sturdy pallet should last quite a few years, adds environment for more than just fish (aquatic invertebrates), would help block weeds, and more.
I'm just curious, and like to experiment with materials that I have access to and can get for free.

I like the oil drain pan, but I would look hard for something headed top the landfill first. As far as them finding the nests, that is where experimenting comes in. Iamgine floating a huge array of beds in Lake Erie, suspended over very deep water. At some point (or at some size of array), the bluegills would find it and nest I would imagine. ??? I like the idea of luring the bluegills to a nesting site that is ideal for hatching, but ill fated for fingerlings leaving the nest.

BG will clear beds in weeds if the depth is ok. I have used pallets held down with big rocks and covered them with gravel. It worked ok but not great. After the pallets rotted and collapsed the rocks all piled up and the BG still use the site. It is 4 pallets in size (8' X 8").

What is the preferred depth?

??? I don't know the average depth yet, but the shore drops fairly quick around most of the big pond and weedless areas out from shore indicate significant depth. The medium pond is shallower and appears to average around 4 - 5 feet. The big pond has a few areas that look like they could go twenty or more easily, as well as a few outer plateus that provide shallower water away from shore. Remember, it was a rock quarry formerly.
They don't allow boats, so I will have to obtain special permission before going out. I wanted to be as prepared as possible before approaching the county, so they will take me seriously, which is why I posted here.

I'm sure others with more experience will share their thoughts, but in my pond all the beds were in 1 to 2 feet of water.

Bed depth for BG depends on several factors. Often BG beds will be at different depths in ponds that have multiple spawns over the spring and summer. Two reasons for that - 1. Water temps change over the period and 2. Plankton/turbidity changes during the time period. Does that sound familiar ? Two biggest factors in BG spawn site location are water temps and light penetration (including siltation). I have seen BG beds from 6 inches to 6 feet. In clear water they may be even deeper.

Did some checking from published source data (Carlander and Bluegills by Spotte)and the spawning depth range was .15 to 1.4 meters ( 6 inches to 4.6 feet).