Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Open water structures?

My ~1.66 acre pond has artificial habitats scattered within 20’ of the shore in 3-7’ of water. It is weed free. This means that there is at least 2/3rds of an acre that are more than 20’ from both shore & cover. Are those open water areas (maximum 10.5’) effectively ‘dead zones’ in terms of productivity?

For sake of argument, imagine a circular pond with a diameter of 210’ and a central depth of 10.5’ feet. Am I wasting real estate by not placing habitat in the inner 100’?

No, the open areas of your pond are NOT dead zones. The bottom of your food chain mostly starts with photosynthesizing organisms, or tiny organisms that eat the tinier photosynthesizing organisms. Your open water supports that necessary part of your food chain.

As to specifics, expert advice is good! Experimentation is also good!

Do you have some more artificial habitats readily available that you can install? If so, maybe try 1-2 in the water a little deeper than 7'. Try fishing (or observing) that cover throughout an entire annual cycle and determine if it truly provided a benefit. If there is no benefit, then you know to keep adding in your existing shallower zone. (That is the experimentation for your pond.)

The experts (not me) generally say that the cover in shallower water should be denser (more hiding places for smaller fish) and as you get cover deeper in the pond it should be "fluffier" (more space to swim through, ambush cover for larger predators, etc.)

Another rule of thumb is that up to 15% of your pond could be cover. Most of that should be place peripherally, with very little in deep water.

That does kind of depend on your definition of deep water. Can you post the max. depth, and average depth of your pond bottom to get better recommendations on your current depth to structure?

Finally, here is a link to the archives and the best source of discussions of cover.

Cover and Habitat Archive - Pond Boss

Good luck on your pond improvements!

There is no "all year" dead zone. Your entire pond has potential. Deep water structure works best if it goes from bottom to near surface - so fish can adjust vertically with the temp/time of year.