Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Wading Pools As Bluegill Spawning Beds

Anybody out there had any experience using these round wading pools as spawning beds? I am thinking about getting some of these, putting them in the shallow ends of my pond and filling them with pea gravel to enhance my Bluegill spawning. Not my original idea but I think it has some merit. Any suggestions from some of you more experienced pond owners would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Why pea gravel?

The BG will spawn on whatever substrate is available - mud, sand, or gravel.

Here is a link to an old thread about BG spawning habitat. (Scroll down a bit from the top for some great pictures!)

BG Spawning Beds

The consensus (not perfectly proven science) is that they prefer small gravel because that allows a little more water flow across the eggs in the depression.

Gravel mixed with mud or organic muck will not allow that process. The BG will fan away the fine material building the nest, but don't make them work too hard keeping it clean.

In my (fuzzy) recollection, a couple of people did use kiddie pools for their beds and then added clean gravel. A kiddie pool is big enough for more than one nest, so someone put cinder blocks(?) on the surface of the gravel bed to split the pool into BG condos.

My dogs like having kiddie pools in their yard during the summer. If you wait until fall, when Walmart only has five left in the store they will mark the price way down to get rid of them. You could probably buy out their entire stock for your BG!

When enough pea gravel gets knocked out of the wading pools, they will float up and you'll get the chance to remove them.

If your water level varies a lot in the summer months, this might not work as well as intended. If i put pool nests in my BG pond, they would have to be in four plus feet of water in the early spring, in order to give a foot of cover for the last summer spawn. I have gravel beds installed at various depths in order to try to accommodate. No kiddie pools, but that might be a good idea.

BTW, I have had accidental BG spawns in my forage pond. When I drained it a couple of times, I found hundreds of small BG. My forage pond is a clay bottom pond, with very little cover, no gravel.

Part of the charm of BG as a forage species.

If you have optimal conditions, they spawn a lot. If you have less than optimal conditions, they still try their best to spawn a lot!