Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Plastic Soda and Water Bottles Will this work?

From time to time I pick up plastic bottles that blow into the lake and I was thinking what can be done with them.

If I tied a bottle every 4 inches to a piece of Spiderwire/strong fishing line, and then tied the end of the string to a brick, would this not create some type of tree, bush, or structure/cover for Bass or Crappie?

Would there be any advantage of cutting off the tops of the bottles or cutting them in half then bundling them together so shiners could use them as kind of a cave?- Almost like a pyramid of half bottles or would this be too small?

I just hate to throw these bottles in a landfill of hope they get to a recycling plant.

Thanx

Sounds interesting, but I wonder if getting
swim baits tangled up might be a problem?

Fish habitat with plastic bottles:

FF

First off, thanks for your efforts to collect the bottles - well done. They are posing as one of our greatest pollution problems globally.

I think you could put these to good use making a reef like Zep suggests, or maybe stringing them together to make floating islands. Key in my mind is to use very durable material to string them together. Spiderwire sounds like a good option, also heavy test monofilament. Maybe there are even better options out there.

Hopefully other ideas will come flooding in here - looking forward to how your project progresses!

I am pretty sure Peepaw makes plastic habitat from bottles to sell. Grinds them up and places them in plastic netted bags..or something like that. One link I could find is below.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...amp;Search=true


Here it is:
http://www.fishiding.com/artificial-fish-habitat-fish-feeder-bag/

possibly you could simulate the idea the best way you can.
Most important, Have fun!!!!!

I just take the two liter bottles, use a step drill bit to drill multiple holes in them, slit it down the side a few inches so I can insert a rock that will not come back out, and throw them out in shallow water.

Does it do any good providing protection for small fish (since I do not yet have any shoreline weeds or cover)?

Danged if I know but it keeps me occupied and entertained for short periods of time.

The original intent was to provide FHM spawning sites.

Good idea rub - I do the same with odds and ends of PVC - lay them perpendicular to shoreline in 1-3' depth for FHM and BNM spawning. It sinks, and I think it works.

Here's what I did with soda bottles back in 2009. It is still floating with no intervention four years later.

my floating island (about halfway through page)

Mobilus

How is the pond shaping up? Did the water ever clear up for you? Any recent photos or reports?

TJ, the pond is doing well! I've learned a lot from it. It has held water very well throughout the drought. I had dug it out to about twice the size in the 09 pictures.

From a week or three back: the bigger CC was 5# (from 2009 stocking) and the smaller guy at 3.5# is from 2010. I like eating them at this size.

Good work! Nice looking CCs. Cleaning them up in the tank before eating?

No, I haven't found the need...real tasty meat with no odd flavors. You've heard catfish called "Southern Lobster", right? I just put them in the tank while waiting for some of their siblings to take a hook on the trotline. I hate to dress one or two now, then again later...so I wait until I'm done fishing.

Well done. Very crafty people on this site.

Cheers Don.