Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Concrete Man-hole tubes?

Tannerite? Will there be beer? Can I come to watch?

I am pretty sure we all want a videographer to be present for this event.

How good are your "cameraman" skills while still holding a beer?

Rhetorical questions? Of course there will be beer!

I am pretty sure the buoyancy of two empty kegs would be sufficient to float a concrete tube into place.

I like it when a plan really comes into focus!

If the kegs are full to begin with and need to be emptied first...we need a lot more help just to get started or I won't be worth a hoot when it comes time to set the structures...lol

Everyone needs a purpose in life.
My purpose is to serve as a bad example.

Like a counter-weight of some sort?

Like beer and explosives and don't try this at home kids. lol

Get Sunil involved. He is really good when bad ideas are happening.

Came home with another load of these tubes. I think I have 13 of them now plus a lot of "curved" rubble that I plan on leaving in shallows for crawfish habitat.

Still undecided on how and where I'm going to place the tubes but I'm thinking a pile of them just past the weed line in front of a point I made would be a good idea. Water depth would be around 9' deep there. A single layer on bottom would put structure at about 7' deep. If I can stack them double somehow the pile would jut up to about 7'. No clue if I can make that work but I think it would hold fish. If I sunk a couple of cedar trees or hedge limbs next to it I think it will work out nicely.

They're going to make great structure, but I have to assume they'll be laying flat on the pond basin, and not standing upright as you had indicated you'd like some of them to.

If my assumption is correct, I think they would be best utilized in 4-5' of water. That's not to say that they couldn't do great in 7' of water, but depending on the type of fishing you'll do, sometimes you can't the lures down that low.

Help me out with ideas on depth...
The vegetation growing in my pond consumes everything shallower than 8ft. I didn't think it would be good to put the structures in the weeds so that's why I've picked the depth I have... it's the shallowest I can put them without having them covered. Should I consider putting them in the weeds?

I would consider a few in the weeds. Bass are ambush predators. Consider a tube suppressing the weeds under its footprint. A LMB could lurk in the tube and ambush any forage fish that ventures forth from the nearby weed beds.

Maybe even "spill" some of your rubble in front of either end of the tube. That might create a little more open water to throw a lure and the LMB could also ambush crayfish out of the rubble.

Another option to consider is to experiment. Place a few this year in different habitat scenarios. Determine which are the best fish enhancements and then repeat those scenarios next year with your remaining tubes.

P.S. Your life insurance agent accidentally left a message at my work number today. Something about needing all of your premiums paid up in full before installation work begins on the concrete tubes?

Despite all the wonderful suggestions about floating them with beer kegs, which I'm sure would work without a single glitch, I might add a suggestion or two.

If you stick them vertically if the bottom is sealed off the water inside will mostly be anoxic, devoid of oxygen. I scuba dive and here in Bonaire in the ocean I have occasion to dive where large pipe pilings have been driven into the ocean floor. I always shine my light down inside them but I never see any fish or critters over a foot or so down into them. On down in the pipe is devoid of most life.

My ideal way to stack them would be three (or more) horizontal straped together on the pond floor with a ratchet strap. Then stack 2 on top in the valleys between them, then one on the top. Tee pee style. How you get them down in the water and in place...........well that is a trick. A telehandler, trackhoe, or some similar large hydraulic crane type thingy along with appropriate sling would be just wonderful to have for an hour or two.

Life insurance is all paid up! For some reason the wife has always been a stickler on that one.

Hadn't even considered creating a dead zone in the tube with it sealed to the bottom. Good point!

I might try to put a couple in the weeds just to see what happens and if they are fishable. The tee-pee idea is ultimately what I think would be best. Not sure I'll ever be able to snag the equipment with that kind of reach but maybe I can muster it by hand and friends.

Depending on your bank and slope where you are going to put them, might be able to "roll" them down by hand (staying on the up side of course) to the bottom or a ledge or post driven into the pond bottom. Roll by hand several down into a cluster.

Then if they are not so heavy so you can lift one end, end it up on top and move it down the ling. If you can lift one end, might be that two stout guys could manipulate them in the water as long as they were not too deep to stand on the bottom.

I still feel that some kind of video will be needed to 'document' this daring attempt at structure placement.

If the pond isn't too wide run the rope to the opposite bank and pull the tubes into place with the motor vehicle of your choice.

No chance of running a rope, it's way to wide (600 feet).

I might be able to role them across the bottom but my boy tried to role one through some mud. It was heavy enough the mud just pushed up in front of it and created mud wedge that stopped it. I could see this being a problem in shin deep muck.

I'm considering a couple of 2 inch oil field pipes with 2x4's strapped between them. Make a 3 foot wide ramp from my stone point out to the weed line and carefully role them into position (staying uphill of them of course).

I can't wait for the water to warm up and for me to get some more daylight time to tinker with this!