Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Tree Spacing

Do you guys find it more beneficial to lump up cover or to spread it out?

I am preparing to load a 4-8 trees and I am trying to figure out if I should make one big structure or 8 seperate smaller structures.

or put them in doubles.

I have seen pictures of clusters of 2-3 on this site. My plan is to have several "neighborhoods" of 2-3 tree clusters in my .75 acre pond, and other structure also.

Lots of structure threads:

Here's one:

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000007

Just do a search for more!

Thanks for the link.

I am creating dense cover right now. I have put in 2 trees in our small 4 ac. pond. I placed one in the deep end and one in a shallow cove.

2 days after I sunk the deep one, I saw a school of small fry swarming it. I have fished this pond extensively for over a year and have not seen this many fish in one place before. The pond is barren of any tree structure or dense cover. Mostly underwater rock formations. Other then that not much else.

It surprised me to see these fish here, there is not really a nursery for them to live so I would see 1 or 2 occasionally along shallow edges and over deep water, but that was it.

I see this as a good sign and hopefully will add more for these little guys to hide and grow in.

Also the pond has a good bass supply but minimal to no sunfish/bluegills. Most bass are 12-14 inches and the larger are 16+ they are about 4 years old I would assume, all stocked. It does have a few greenies. It is also fed by a stream with a few hundred or so minnows, so they keep a few of the bass happy from time to time. In the evening the minnows venture out from the creek to the shallows of the pond, all you can hear is the bass blasting through the schools in shallow water. It looks like shark attacks as the bass rush the school up on the shore.

I am hoping by adding some more dense cover it will give some of the bluegill fry some places to grow without getting picked off so fast.

I have even gone so far as to plant cattails, as the pond has no aquatic vegitation anywhere. So even a menace like that would be attractive at this point.

I plan on adding some lily pads as currently there is no shade around the pond. Any vegitation is welcome at this point.

I have also added a semi-submerged plant. It sticks up out of the water about a foot and grow to about a foot deep. They spread like wildfire, about 6 inches a month. It's like a vine system, and sprouts up new roots. When they take hold it will be excellent shoreline fishing through these weeds and along the edge. I only planted in areas that are rarely fished and are surrounded by deeper water. Since I am there so much I will keep an eye on all vegitation growth and monitor its growth patterns.

I transplanted it from another lake, where there are sparce populations of bass. But with our ponds thick population of bass it will be awesome slow drifting a worm through this grass and watching the grass move as the bass barrel through it to get to it.
I have had a blast creating and designing structure and planting plants, its almost as much fun as fishing it. I guess I am a bit impatient for cover that is why I would you use rapidly growing plants. Oh well, you live and learn, I can't wait till they start growing. To me a pond with an over abundance of vegitation is better then a pond with none.

Most of the cattails I planted did not take root, they didn't last the summer. I planted 6 areas and only 3 took root and survived the summer. They only seem to work in certain places, which gives me hope that it will take a while for them to really spread.

Until then I still have a barren pond but with good fishing.

Well I started adding some brush piles while the pond is frozen, here are a few pics:

Pictures Here

I peeked at your photos. Great idea...but not dense enough. Make the piles larger, broader and taller. You need more mass.

Thanks Bob, That is what I was wondering. Should I make one big pile or smaller piles of less brush. Since the pond is so devoid of any cover I opted for many sparce parcels of sticks or brush just so I would have about 3-5 new places I could fish at. I will start adding more brush piles in larger quantities.

Should I mix together Dense Brush with Fluffy cover? I have been using some bushes and tying them together for dense cover, then I cut down larger branches for fluffy and keep them seperate.

What happens if I mix the two types of cover together?

Also where would you generally place Dense Cover as opposed to Fluffy Cover? Do you prefer one in shallow and one in deeper water?

As noted above I placed a christmas tree in deeper water and saw lots of small bait fish around it. I just recently placed fluffy and dense cover in shallow water so I will see when it warms up if the fish take to the attractants.

here is the before and after picture of placing cover on ice then after it melts:

http://www.bassinsight.com/index.php?module=v4bJournal&func=journal_view&mode=detail &uid=3
Thanks again for all the great suggestions.

Mixing cover is okay. Look at it like this...you are creating underwater condos. The sticks are like pup tents. Put a pile which measures 6'x6'x 4' and you have a Holiday Inn Express. Where would you stay? Mix some, segregate some. Have diversity of cover. As you plan it, think about travel routes for fish. Bass and bluegill don't like to travel across big distances of open water. Too risky. Build a highway with sticks, but create social gathering places with larger amounts of cover.
When you mix the two, you congregate different sizes of different species of fish, except largest bass. They like sharply defined cover, big tree trunk, big rock, that sort of thing, in fairly shallow water with quick access to deep water, off a point. That's perfect big bass cover.
Dense cover is for small fish. They like fairly shallow water. Fluffy cover should fill the water column, within three or feet of the surface.
Don't put cover in deepest water. Wasted space.