4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Concrete culverts work awesome as well. One of my best fishing spots has a pile of concrete culverts stacked up. Bait fish love it.
New Project
- Thread starter H20fwler
- Start date
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
Cedar trees make great, long lasting cover. Cedar takes a LONG time to rot. Many dead standing cedars have been in Table Rock in SW MO for close to 50 years..
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Just took these pics.
Right side about ten feet deep now, waiting to take out the left side because there is a tile they are going to divert.
Spoil dirt horseshoes around the back side then up along road.
He runs the pan for awhile then levels out the pile some and repeats.
Also building up east end where buildings will go into a plateaued hill that will slope towards pond.
Driveway will go right between.
Right side about ten feet deep now, waiting to take out the left side because there is a tile they are going to divert.
Spoil dirt horseshoes around the back side then up along road.
He runs the pan for awhile then levels out the pile some and repeats.
Also building up east end where buildings will go into a plateaued hill that will slope towards pond.
Driveway will go right between.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
While a bench and dropoff is a great fish structure, if fish is the primary objective, I would vary depths all over the place with mounds and dips. This may not be great in places where clay is limited for sealing it, but if water retention is not a problem, it is something to think about.
This is not the same thing as a pond context, but it may shed some insight. Penn State did a stalking study on Spruce creek years ago. The idea was to see the impact of stocking on the native trout population. They used the analogy of "seats in a restaurant". Basically there are certain spots where the energy expended to stay suspended in the current was less than the energy produced by the food that floated by. In the end they found stocked fish like native fish would gravitate to these spots. The native fish easily fought off the stocked fish, but then another stocked fish would come try to take the spot. Eventually the native fish would get exhausted and die. The stocked fish would be much easier prey, rarely made it through the winter, and did not reproduce,
So, a pond is a different situation since there is not an ongoing current like a trout stream. But I suspect there are going to be certain places where temperature, oxygen, food, and such keep them void of fish. I think the more variety you have the better...Guess we have circled back to the deer structure observation. Fish structures can certainly provide some of that, but varying depths, bottom types, undercut banks and such offer a different kind of variety.
Just thinking out loud... I'm in the early stages of considering a pond. It is years out and may never happen, but I'm following this thread with great interest.
Thanks,
Jack
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
We are sure looking at a lot of different structure options right now, the window to put that stuff in without water in the pond is going to be a small one. I totally agree with what everyone has been saying on creating "edge" type cover, the last thing I want is a monoculture underwater. With the depth we are putting in I shouldn't have to much trouble with weeds.
Today one of my buddies called me and said he had spotted a bunch of old clay tiles of varying sizes stacked along a barn, he knew who the owner was gave them a call and got them for me for free! He said only stipulation was that I take them all, there is at least a pickup truck load so next Friday Morning I know what I will be doing. With all the options we have I'm going to try and get creative with the structures there will be a lot of room on the bottom of the pond at some varying depths deep enough that won’t affect the swimming.
On a side note Jack;
The wife is starting to cave on having a wood duck nest box on the pond! The other day I told her since the pond is so big it shouldn’t affect her esthetic look at all and would be fun to watch, I saw her thinking about it...I asked her if she preferred look of a capsule style or a cedar one. She replied cedar and I said we could build it as a hubby/wife project and she bit on it.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Congrats! Sounds like a great project!
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
As of tonight you can really see the shape of how it will be, just twice as deep.
Tried to get pics from different angles to show what it is like so far gives you a good idea of how it will look. Deep end maybe 10’-12’ now
Beach area top left, front of pond.
back of pond
From deep end of pond looking towards where house and barn will be, pole barn will be on far end left, house on right
From inside at deep end
From barn side.
from beach area looking out into pond
Tried to get pics from different angles to show what it is like so far gives you a good idea of how it will look. Deep end maybe 10’-12’ now
Beach area top left, front of pond.
back of pond
From deep end of pond looking towards where house and barn will be, pole barn will be on far end left, house on right
From inside at deep end
From barn side.
from beach area looking out into pond
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
Neat! What do you plan to stock it with?
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Starting out with a whole lot of minnows, then some hybrid sunfish.
A few months later largemouth bass and smallmouth bass, channel cats and a few flatheads and some perch. A few black crappie.
Would eventually like one pike and maybe a few walleye also to help keep little bream in line.
The main reason we are digging so deep is to see if we can sustain some smallies in the pond, even if we can’t the boys will be tossing in some adult ones every year anyway.
We plan on doing a lot of ice fishing over the structures and keeping a lot of bream to eat. We also like eating catfish caught in colder water.
Both my boys are crazy about bass fishing and fishing in general, so the bass will be #1 in the pond fished pretty regular whenever it isn’t frozen…I like fishing for bass to relax also.
The bulk of the stocking will be over a three year period with minnows being added every spring and fall. The plan is to have a LOT of fish fries in the future, our family and friends all enjoy a good fish fry!
No fish will be exempt from being eaten but bass will normally get a pass.
The minnow stocking will probably never stop.
Hopefully it will be a great place for family and friends to fish and swim for generations.
Sounds like a great plan and similar to how we did our pond 20 years ago. Hate we moved from that place, but the kids needed better schools to attend.
Not sure how the flatheads do up there, but I caution you about putting them in based on how they take over down here in the south. Fun to catch and great to eat, but they can decimate your sunfish population in a small pond.
What area of OH are you in?
Not sure how the flatheads do up there, but I caution you about putting them in based on how they take over down here in the south. Fun to catch and great to eat, but they can decimate your sunfish population in a small pond.
What area of OH are you in?
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I'm in NW Ohio Mercer county. This is going to be the wife and my "forever house" and we will be leaving it to the kids as a weekend getaway, or one of them may want to live there.
We kind of want the flats to help keep the bream down and we will be pulling some of them out to eat, only putting four or five of those in.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
H20 - If you're wanting smallmouth, I wouldn't introduce any catfish. They'll keep the pond muddy. SM like clearer water and will do likely do better if no (or small amount) of catfish used. Catfish are also minnow, sunfish eaters and will compete with them for food. Just an FYI..
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
We aren't planning on loading it with catfish or anything, but we do like to eat catfish too. I definitely do not want bream to overrun the pond either.
Booner21
5 year old buck +
Think hard about hybrid sunfish when talking with a fish biologist he recommended against them because some will not be sterile and back cross to green sunfish. He recommended redear and regular bluegill. Also he said no flatheads if you ever want decent bluegill absolute worst thing for a pond except for crappie.
He also didn’t recommend minnows after the first year said it isn’t needed in a pond and the amount of feed it provided the fish was negligible.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
That is all fine and I appreciate the fish input and opinions….
I’m not a big bluegill fan at all they can over populate a pond like crazy can get stunted and are a pain in the ass while swimming.
Will just have some for us to catch regularly to eat and to feed predator fish. I’m not worried about a few catfish that I like more than bluegill ruining our pond or having to many minnows.
Do whatever you guys want with your ponds I’ll be fine with ours. Everyone’s goals are not always exactly the same just like habitat work and plotting or anything else.
I’m pretty sure we should get plenty of enjoyment from this pond for a long long time.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
WOW! I see you've got the fish structure in place before filling it.
