Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Open water crappie structures? Where?

Pic is from very low levels that aren't normal, but you can see the normal shoreline. The dark around the shore is coontail. Top left of center is a shiny spot, that's a dock. I've sunk brush in front of the dock and catch plenty of crappie there. I've also got a couple of brushpiles sunk on the flats on the east side (right).

I want to sink some brush for crappie more in the open part of the lake. It's mostly 10 foot deep in the middle once you get past the coontail.

What's your guys's recommendations, where do I put them? I'm thinking of standing some trees up vertically in front of the damn. 7 foot tall trees in 10 foot of water. Isolated structure in open areas.

See this - text on fish structure on pg 3.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463


This is what I would do assuming the long red line is on the creek/water inlet channel.



Each structure in groups of 3 -4 trees using Ray Scott method.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...rds=Ray+Scott&Search=true#Post487146

Thanks Ewest! I like your drawing on the pic.

Catscratch,

You already have brush at the dock ... +1.

I really like your idea of doing brush on the dam.

There was a municipal lake I used to fish extensively for crappie. In the dead of winter the best place to fish was near the dam. There was a concrete structure that rose a little further distant than the base of the riprap of the dam. It housed the valves that supplied the water treatment facility. Really not much structure to it. It was probably 8 or 10 feet in diameter and rose above the surface of the water. Anyways, in winter, crappie seem to love vertical structure that covers all the possibilities of preferred depth (whatever it may be at the moment). FWIW, we typically found the crappie deeper when sunny and shallower when overcast or near sunset. In winter, they don't seem to go out foraging as much and will hold on structure for longer periods of time. From the middle of December to late February we tended to find crappie concentrated there.

Sooo ... on your dam ... I do like the idea of a string of brush going from say 6' deep to the deepest portion of your lake. Just for crappie, I would probably put all the brush in a column on the dam and spruce up your dock pile. For LMB, I would want brush spread around. You bow is a good size, but crappie love to share structure and don't seem to be territorial. Plus they move a lot when foraging. Its not to large that crappie don't see all of it. Personally, I wouldn't want to give them very many choices to align with structure and I would lean toward making two locations extra special. If you do that, when they are not out on foraging trips, you will know exactly where they are and they will be more concentrated.

There may be a difference between BCP and WCP with regard to structure orientation and foraging behavior. FWIW, my experience is 95% WCP.

Cat, I don’t worry about making the vertical. I just tie a cinder block to the base and get them far enough out to sink.

I kind of like the idea of not giving them a whole lot of places to congregate. But the definition of "whole lot" might be different for each of us. I think I'll find a spot in the open water and sink something. Then give it some time to see how it does and then decide if I want more scattered around.

The pond has black, white, and I'm pretty sure some hybrids.


Dave, if I sink a cedar or hedge in 10' of water and it ends up just laying down will it still be attractive as the fish want to move up and down the water column?

catscratch,

Your stand up cedar devices are pretty cool, but look like a fair bit of work.

How about trying a hybrid approach? I was think of something like just putting together a couple of cedars with a cinder block to lie down, and then adding a simple PVC tree to one end of the pile to create some vertical structure. I would have the top of the PVC just above the normal water level so you have a target for casting to the brush pile.

That target would also be handy when fishing with kids and a minnow under a bobber. When just the top of the PVC is sticking out, then you know 6' (for example) of line below the bobber is just above the brush pile. When a foot of PVC is sticking out, then you need to shorten the hook to 5' below the bobber.

I don't want people getting snagged on your cedars. I have never fished with an underwater camera, but I think it would be interesting to watch what happens to the crappie when you start lifting one of the cedars off of the bottom.

I also like your plan with the definition of a "whole lot" not being THAT many. The experts can give you good suggestions for locations, but experimental data may be even more valuable. Put out a few different configurations in a few different locations. Whichever ones are the best crappie producers, then repeat those configurations in future years and locate a few more a bit away from your existing piles but in the pond features (dam, flats, creek channel, etc.) that also produced the best results. Unless you have a severe case of OCD, I don't think it is possible for you to put too much cover in a 19-acre lake!

P.S. Does your old creek channel show up on your depth sounder all of the way to the dam, or has it been eroded or filled with silt over the years?

I'm not sure about the creek channel. I have zero electronics. Guess I fish old-school.

If there is still a distinct creek channel, then that might hold some bass in the summer. I was just asking because some crappie cover adjacent to the creek channel might really hold some fish.

You can even do soundings yourself with a small weight on a rope. We did that as broke teenagers when we used to haul a jon boat around to fish on a big landowners watershed lakes. It is slow and inefficient, but we were young and stupid ... so a good fit for us.

We used to trade farm help for fishing privileges. One of which included clearing cedars. I wish I had been on Pond Boss 45 years ago, because we definitely could have improved the fishing in his ponds and small lakes!

I've done a lot of "bottom bouncing" in my time. Probably should just buy some electronics and do this right the first time.

One of the largest watershed ponds we fished and one of the small reservoirs still had standing timber outlining the channel. That was very easy to see on the depth sounder, or even to feel when fishing with a Texas-rig plastic worm.

Any submerged timber in the middle of your pond? If so, does it hold some of your biggest bass and catfish later in the season?

P.S. I am trying to rebuild a workable bass boat with my brother. I did price fish locators a while back. Lowrance has a decent one (Eagle 4x) that is only $120. I am sure there are several others near that price point that have many more features compared to the ones I started out using 50 years ago!

Do you only fish your watershed lake, or do you sometimes fish the bigger reservoirs around the state? If the latter, maybe put up a thread for fish locator recommendations? I would also enjoy that thread to see what our experts on the forum use for their own ponds and for fishing public waters!

I don't fish bigger water unless I go with someone else (very rare). Ponds, watershed, or wade rivers and creeks.

I would like a nice screen to look at on the watershed though. You could start a boat rebuild/electronics thread. I'd certainly follow along. I'm pretty much clueless on fishing electronics. Spent most of my life canoeing rivers where you "read the water" as you go.

Yep, will do a new thread on electronics when we get to that point!