Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Rocks and brush in Coontail?

My water is very low right now. There is a lot of exposed pond floor and it would be super easy to add pallets of rocks or anchor bush down for when it eventually rises again. But, this is all going to be in less than 2 foot of water once the pond fills back up, and will be completely covered in coontail in the summer months.

Is it worth putting cover in just to have it swallowed up by weeds?

Also, I had thought that even if fish didn't benefit directly from the cover that maybe the crawfish would. But, every summer bass I catch has crawfish in it so maybe they are doing fine with just the coontail in the shallows. Thoughts?

Fathead spawning would also benefit from rocks if you have them, in addition to crayfish.

I can't remember Catscratch, did you contemplate (or add) ghost shrimp for your lake at one time?

I think in your mature watershed lake, they would thrive in a shallow water environment with some rock piles and heavy vegetation. They should also be a nice "independent" addition to your food chain.

I think crayfish would also like that environment, as well as any of the "crevice spawning" fish species. (You may have some of those species in your inflow stream.)

I do NOT think I would put the rockpiles on pallets. That wood is so cheap and spongy, I think it might rot away in the very first year. If using pallet forks on your tractor to place the rocks that were pre-positioned on pallets, I would put down some good landscape fabric first, to keep the rocks from settling down in the soft silty deposits at the upper end of your lake (after the pallet wood decays).

I really wanted ghost shrimp but didnt make it happen.

I have some fabric i use for tree plantings. Would be easy to make piles on it.