Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations pond

Does anyone have any good ideas for structure in a pond I have put in trees just a couple and I have done ray scotts idea of putting trees in buckets but thats about it my pond is about half full any and all suggestions are appreciated. thanks. thanks i have not quite mastered this page yet so /i have to add it here. 1 thing I do know they say cats spawn in long holes

I put in about 10 cinder blocks put 2 together and made a tube type structure and put this in 5 areas in my pond after that I covered the top, sides and one end with a pile of brick I got free from a neighbor. My kids always seem to catch cats and bream around these structures so they must work. Bob

When I put my pond in, I stacked about 6 pallets and tied them together and placed a large piece of broken concrete on top so they wouldn't float up. They are some of the areas that produced the most catch. I also stacked up boulders into piles about 4ft high and placed 4 xmas trees under my dock when I built it. I also heard of a guy that took 2" pvc pipe and put it in vertically in a group to creat a structure such as flooded tree trunks. I thought this would be a good idea so that hooks couldn't get caught on them as easily as wood. For catfish, I took a 6" pipe smooth on the inside and tied concrete blocks to it. Before I filled the pond up I took several pictures of the structure locations so that when my buddies are over I always know where the structure is.

I've tried the pallets also, but I personally wouldn't use them again. I've lost too many lures casting near them and getting snagged. They just don't "give" like a tree branch, so I'd favor something else. They do seem to hold fish, though!

I had an idea along the PVC line. I thought about connecting a number of 3-5 foot pieces of that black corrugated drainage pipe used in home construction, landscaping, etc. Thought about placing them in a "tree" structure and sinkin' 'em in a concrete block. Their diameter would allow small fish to hide but might also attract bigger fish like a tree would. The best thing would be that lures would just slide right over them, not snagging. They'd last forever too!
Anyone ever used such a contraption?

Tight lines,
Dave

That sounds like a pretty cool idea Dave. It seems that ideas for creating structure are endless. As good as they appear online the premade fishhabs I see are a little too expensive in my opinion so doing the home made approach (especially with scrap if possible)is the best way to go. I remember watching those two guys in the video series of Ray Scotts pond trying to lift and set those 5 gallon buckets full of cedar tree and concrete; I just knew that boat was going to turn over but it didn't. I've seen some good looking structure made of many different sizes of pvc in kind of a stacked wood look.
Good Luck, I would love to see some pics of your structure before you place it in the pond if you can.

Dave,

Although I have not done it yet, I had the same idea with the black corrugated drainage pipe. You can get 100' for $20 at a local hardware store. This is something I'm definetly going to try out.

Another form of cover I put in was "standing timber". I drilled holes, filled them with concrete and put 4" - 8" diameter tree limbs in. They are in 2' - 4' of water. I created nine groups of this standing timber in my 5 acre pond.

kevin

That sounds great and I bet they look pretty cool too. Are the fish congregating around them?

I have liked that method because it isn't to hard to do, supplies are readily available. I'm thinking of the same concept but with pvc or some other medium that won't rot or get hooks hung up.

Forgot to add that I had also taken black 4" pvc pipe cut it in 3.5' lengths split it in half lengthwise on the bandsaw and then pushed it in at an angle in about 18 inches of water in six places around the shoreline for tuffies to lay their eggs and protect the young. Seems to have worked as I put in 2 pounds of tuffies in the spring and when I feed the catfish it looks like you could walk on the minnows everything from "2 eyes and a wiggle" up to good size minnows. When I stock bass in the spring they should be quite happy. Bob

The best structure in my lake seems to be rock piles. Some people refer to the rock as "Rip Rap" Rocks are 10" to 12" stacked in pyramid style with the top about 1' under water. I stuck a rod of steel rebar down the top to mark. By and far this is always the best place to fish. Local concrete plant has broken concrete pieces that you can pick up for free.
I did mine before lake filled but I guess you could drive the rebar in lake bottom from a boat and drop a few of the rocks in everytime you go fishing.

After 23 years designing, overseeing building, stocking, managing and sampling private lakes and ponds, I have seen some definite patterns, especially with fish cover.
I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and my dad bought a few acres of land on the Brazos River, near the small town of Granbury. In 1969, just after acquiring our little chunk of sandy earth, a brand new dam was to close its gates and form what is now Lake Granbury. I was 14 years old at the time. My dad, my brother and I were driving along what is now the bottom of Lake Granbury, trying to picture what the lake would look like soon. We came upon a cut in the natural river bank and an old man was dragging a jon boat up from the river, to load into his truck.
He wore overalls, khaki shirt, tobacco stains on both corners of his mouth.
I don't remember much about his conversation with my dad, but I know the old timer was mad, mad at the "guvment", because they were preparing to flood all his old fishing haunts, changing his river into a lake. The river he had fished since childhood would soon be no more.
But, what I remember specifically about the man was a statement he made straight to me. He looked me straight in the eyes, gnarled finger inches from my face, eyes hard as steel and said, "Son, if you're gonna fish this river, you better learn one thing right now...90% of the fish live in 10% of the river. Figure out which 10% they live in, and you won't have to be a good fisherman. You'll catch fish."
The reason I remember this? I thought he was dead wrong. How in the world could so much water be overlooked by fish.
I am here to tell you...90% of the fish live in 10% of the water. I have hours and hours of sampling time that has me totally convinced of that.
Here's my thoughts on the subject.
The type of cover is less important than where you place it.
Here's a few tidbits. First, place cover in water less than 8 feet deep. Deeper water is below the thermocline during much of the growing season. Stay relatively shallow.
Use cover for different species. Catfish like to hide, they like their home dark and confining. Bass like to ambush their prey, so use "fluffy" cover, like hardwood limbs with lots of space, to move around and through. Big bass like big cover, like a tree trunk perpendicular to shore, starting in shallow water, ending in deep. Bass like shallow water off points, with quick access to deeper water, with structure or cover to linger beside.
Small fish, such as bluegill, redear, minnows, and young bass need confined cover, dense things like rock piles, tight brush, wooden pallets, that sort of thing.
Again, shallow is good. A 5 or 6 acre pond? Shallow means water 6 feet deep or less. A bigger lake? Shallow means less than 8 feet.
Put cover peripherally, with no more than 20% of the entire surface area dotted with fish cover.
20%? Another thing I have learned is this...we can't exactly figure out which cover, where, fish will actually use. So, hedging our bets, no more than 20%. And, don't be surprised to learn some of your "best" cover fish won't even use. Go figure.
Cover serves to protect young fish, to congregate all sizes of fish. Cover is important in developing a long term predator/prey fishery, so give it the thought your lake bottom, and fishery, deserves.

Good posts, I am now thinking of taking this years xmas tree and putting it into a concrete 5 gal. pot and setting it out on the ice this winter. I have lost a few lures on my skid piles but I think that is just part of the excitement of knowing where the cover is and taking a chance of landing the big one. I was told by some ol' timer that if you didn't put the trees below 8ft that they would rot out because of the sunlight. any response???

Sunlight does not rot the wood under water; bacteria and bugs do; similar to wood decay above water. Old timers are often wise, but not always correct. "His reasoning of trees below 8' do not rot out is because you don't see them to keep track of the decay. If you don't see it rotting it must not rot.???? Yea, Right!
I drained a pond abt 30 yrs old with numerous 1"-3" branches & some roofing metal deep (15') on the botttom placed initially as fish structure; all gone; young and dumb! I'm learning.
FYI - Wood sunken very deep in cold Lake Superior essentially does not rot, but it is not due to no sunlight it is due to constant cold temps (39 deg F) and inactive bacteria and bugs.

Thanks for the info Bill. If my pond was that cold I'd stock some Salmon and steelheads!

We are always fighting the onslaught of cedar trees on our property. We cut them down on average probably once a year. We have dumped them in our lakes and they seem to provide good cover for the fish. I don't think the cedar presents any problems in the water and they sure are abundant in our neck of the woods.

Buzz,
I use cedar trees quite often. They're great, especially for forage fish. But, I like to use a conservative approach, placing a few at a time, so they don't decompose at the same time. Needles will fall off, and break down in water, over time. And, experience has taught me cedar needs to be replaced every four to six years.

In my newly reconstructed ponds I placed three different types of cover. #1, there is a cement fabrication plant 10 miles away, and they had various sized culvert "culls" that they sold to me very cheaply. I stacked them pyramid style, so no matter what the level of the water, some of the culverts will be attractive to the fish. #2, there were lots of old wooden pallets on this property that I piled in three stacks per pond, and then tied down with the use of fence posts and wire. #3, I drove fence posts into the bottom of the new ponds, at various future depths, and wired 4' to 8' cedar trees to these fence posts. I arrainged them in groups of three so the bass could hide in the trees when they are small and between the trees when they are 10 to 20 pounds(I wish). Marty

No doubt about it, Bob is right! 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. You need to focus your structure in the conversion area from shallow to deep water. I am all for non rotting structure that is hard to hang up on. anything plastic or concrete works for me. Wood looks good but causes more work and lots of hangups! Go with Bob!

Couldn't help but add my two bits to the rotting
question!

Besides cold, and lack of burrowing turritos,
the major reason that submerged wood does not
rot/deteriorate is lack of oxygen. I did survey dives for sunken logs (decades of being waterlogged and deep below the tidal plain) in a number of Washington and Oregon rivers. Some of these logs were sniped on the ends and showed notching where they had been tonged and yarded out of the woods by oxen.... When removed from the water, they had some mud stain but otherwise were in excellent condition.

The Japanese would often submerge imported logs as a way of pickling/storing them until they are needed. They won't check (crack)as they would if they were left to dry out on land. (Also,
it doesn't take up valuable land space in this
island Nation)

The repeated cycle of wetting and drying wood
hastens rot. That is why a wood fence post rots
first at the area just below the ground surface.
The part above the ground is dry most of the
time. The deep part of the post is removed from
oxygen and damp most of the time. The part just
below the surface gets the most moisture variation
and is exposed to oxygen....hence this is the
part of the wood fence post that most always rots
first.

Bob is right on. There is actually a booming business, (Pun intended), on the Ottawa river right now as divers bring up hundreds of thousands of dollars of sunken hardwood. Beautiful stuff, some logs worth thousands alone... pretty much undamaged.