Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Commercially available habitat

Last year, I bought a honey hole tree, honey hole shrub (Pond King), and a Trophy Tree (Mossback). Thought about adding 1 to 3 more pieces of cover (shallow or moderate depth) and possibly 1 deep piece. Does anyone have any recommendations about something they've bought in the past? For fishing, or to enhance the pond trajectory.

Yes, I have made a couple of diy structures. They don't seem to hold fish well (I probably put them too deep, and in a low percentage area years ago). My small rock pile has gotten me alot of bites though.

I use cedar trees which are readily available and free. Of course, in my current drought, they are high and dry. My water level is down about 7 to 8 ft.

I make structures from used 1" black plastic well pipe that the crooks* running a well drilling business throw away every week. I drive past them on the way to/from work each day.

*Repairs on wells they drilled in the subdivision next door show that the wells there are only half as deep as what the crooks charged for. I suspect they throw away the pipe on every well they rework; I've pulled and replaced various pumps three times over the years and always managed to reuse the same black plastic pipe.

P.S. It's fun being a cranky old man.

P.P.S. Everyone stay off of Theo's grass!

There is an auction company in our state that does ag tractors and industrial equipment.

They also frequently auction off "junk" that has built up in the back corner of a contractor's lot. I see all kinds of plastic scraps of all shapes and sizes sell for next to nothing.

I suspect there is a similar company in your area?

I went with the all of the above approach.
- Pond King for the Eel Grass PVC
- DIY for the spiderblocks and my attempt at a fake tree or twelve
- Mother Nature on some real trees that will be replaced over the years in Cedar and Hedge formulas
- Mother Nature on riprap and limestone rock features in the pond.

Still trying to implement the real pondweeds that I hope to get in this spring and summer.

I am trying these:

Amazon Fish Habitat

I have 6 of those in my new pond, They are probably 7' long and 3' tall, I attached a floating duck decoy to each one so I know where they are located LOL

Jason D, how do those work for holding fish for you?

I was going to try some of the Honey Hole Grass, but the bright green color (probably turn brown eventually) looks too visible imo. I don't want everyone to obviously see it.

From what I have seen so far on it. I put mine in the 3-5' deep zone and it almost disappears. If anything, I see the tips of it. I hear it will accumulate periphyton on the surface which should mean that the bright green will change. The green doesn't glow or look out of place in my personal experience.

I guess the other nice thing is that the weights on it aren't too heavy. If you don't like the place it's installed. Grab it up and move it a little deeper.

I’m not sure yet, my pond got a fresh overhaul in May. I have read that the PVC wouldn’t hold algae
For the fish which is false news. I pulled one up a few months back and it’s full of nutrients.
Planning on going out with livescope this spring to have a look.

Livescope in a pond would be AWESOME

These are the bomb https://www.fishiding.com/diy-artificial-fish-habitat-structure-materials/

They have DIY kits, which is what I bought. Got a ton of material and made lots of structures and still have leftovers.

Second this. David is a great guy.

My LMB and SMB were fingerlings when stocked this fall, My HSB were a little larger,
We went out with livescope late this afternoon, there were many fish suspended along the bottom half
Of the structures we checked, but can not confirm the species.

I have never used livescope before, heck, I’ve never even seen it until today.
Was very versatile for sure. I always thought it was something that was attached to a larger boat,
Was not aware it was portable

Are those kids made from vinyl siding scraps? They seem cheap even if the materials were free for him, lots of cutting and shaping.

Keep your eye out for crews laying spooled up poly pipe for fiber optic projects. Every time they make a connection they end up with cut off pieces. We talked to a crew and they offered up about 200 cut offs, perfect lengths of 3 to 6 ft. We took 5 gallon buckets (we got these free also from some painters) and set 5 to 7 of the pvc pieces in the buckets, then screwed them to the sides of the buckets. Note - orient the bucket handle 'upright' between the pvc. We used old rock to fill up the bucket about half way then mixed concrete to fill the voids around the rocks. The only cost in the project was time and the concrete. I think one bag of concrete was good for 3 to 4 buckets.

To keep the bucket upright, we used a length of rope through the bucket handle, and lowered the bucket to the bottom then pulled the rope back around the handle and repeated. I think we ended up with 25 or so of these bucket trees. We did this in Feb of 2023. By summer of 2023 the bass and crappie were congregated at these trees. Lots of fun!

Oh, prior to setting the pvc we ran some sandpaper down them to rough them up. I tried to use a drill but was easier to do by hand. This went super quick and really helped the algae to take hold as mentioned above.

Correction this was poly pipe, not pvc.

We did the same thing with cinderblocks. Hit parts of the pipe sand paper to scuff it up. We had algae growing on them as soon as water reached them.

You can't go wrong with a mixture of products and materials, giving the fish the variety to choose from at any given time.

I remember Bob (The Boss) once saying that if cover were all the way to the surface, Bass and other predators would not be able to swim over the top to feed. This always made sense to me and I have repeated it several times to customers.

Vinyl siding is only about 15% of the materials we use these days. Sheet goods, moldings, edge banding and protectors make up the majority of our Reclaimed PVC materials.
This stuff is brand new, unused and being discarded as old inventory, discontinued stock or blemishes in manufacturing.
The products we get the most of are from a company called Inpro PVC Products who makes interior/exterior wall protection products.
Everything from operating room walls/ceilings and common areas to airplane fuselages, signage and those fancy curved walls and desks in the doctors office.
All of those bumpers and guards around a healthcare center, sporting arena, courthouse walls and even the walls of elevators. Anywhere public areas get heavy traffic.

Materials come in thicknesses from .015-.080, which gives the habitat limbs/pieces unlimited movement and variety when cut by hand at random shapes and sizes.
Siding is still one of the best products we use to grow aquatic life. Limited by size and shape, the other materials come in hundreds of colors and styles, we keep making up new designs to compliment what the fish prefer.
There is far more available than we will ever use, let us know if we can set you up to DIY some for yourself.