By Scott Cherones

For many years ponds have been built with essentially no fish attractors. In fact, cleaning a pond basin completely during construction was encouraged for many years. We still visit many ponds that are nearly void of any type of cover to harbor fish.
On the other hand, some ponds have some form of cover lying on almost every square inch of the bottom. If managed correctly, a balanced fish population can be maintained in a pond regardless of the amount of cover available to the fish. However, the amount of cover and its location in a pond, will dramatically affect your ability to catch fish.

Cover, whether natural or artificial, is attractive to fish for many reasons. Cover attracts many aquatic invertebrates that are consumed by fish, protects fish from other predators, provides ambush locations for predator fish, and provides fish with shade from the sun. For these reasons, fish attractors play a large role in the management of small impoundments. By concentrating high numbers of bass, fish attractors help anglers meet recommended annual bass harvest goals. To maintain a balance between the predator and prey species within a pond, adequate predator harvest is necessary.

Not only do fish attractors enhance the fishing experience by making the fish easier to locate, but overtime each attractor develops a history of what was caught on previous trips. The anticipation built up from this history as well as the added strategy of locating each attractor creates a whole new dimension to pond fishing. Often times you will hear conversations like, “Had a big fish break off at the old chevy, but I didn't even get a bite at the satellite dish.”

Type of Cover
During construction any debris such as trees, stumps, rocks, and brush can be pushed in to piles or windrows on the bottom. For existing ponds, different types of cover can be sunk from a boat. Either way, any object placed under water has the potential to attract fish. Certain types of cover will attract more fish than others. Generally, objects with a high surface area (i.e., brush piles) will attract more fish than objects with a low surface area (i.e., large rocks). However, cover with a high surface area tends to decompose or deteriorate quicker. A variety of different cover types, whether grouped together or mixed, will attract the most fish in ponds.

When choosing natural cover to be added to ponds, keep in mind that hardwoods such as oaks and hickories last longer than soft woods. Cedar trees are also an excellent choice because their branches are finely divided and they maintain their structure for 3 to 5 years. Osage-orange (“horse apple”) trees, located in black belt soils, provide exceptionally long-lasting cover in ponds. Trees can be weighted using concrete blocks and wire. However, another popular method of sinking trees or limbs is by placing them in a bucket and filling with concrete. These “pickle barrels” offer excellent vertical structure. This same technique can be applied to dry ponds by placing trees and limbs in holes dug in the pond bottom and then filling with concrete.

Many different types of artificial material can provide good, long-lasting cover for fish. Wooden pallets will attract all sizes of fish when tied together in a triangular formation and weighted. Used tires should be tied together in rows and the rows can then be tied together. If tires are used, be sure to drill a large hole at the upper most point on each tire to allow air to escape. Large construction materials such as concrete culverts can be stacked on top of one another. Materials such as car bodies or other motorized appliances should have all potential pollutants removed before sinking in the pond.

Location
Most small impoundments develop a thermocline during the warmer months below which oxygen is too low to support fish. To ensure the attractors are where the fish can use them year-round, they should be placed in water less than 10 feet deep. However, fish will utilize cover in deeper water during the colder months.

Typically, any sharp change in bottom contour is attractive to fish. Often times bottom structure such as humps, points, ridges, ditches, etc., are formed when building ponds. Cover placed in these areas is usually very productive. However, areas with a relatively flat bottom can be greatly enhanced with fish attractors. Placing fish attractors within casting distance of piers is also popular. Be sure they are far enough away from the pier that a swimmer would not be injured diving off of the pier.
Keep in mind, it is possible to have too much cover spread out in the bottom of a pond. If too many fish attractors are put in a pond, catch rates can decline because the fish are spread out instead of concentrated. Occasionally, we visit lakes that have several fish attractors within casting distance of any one point on the lake. Anglers typically have difficulty catching high numbers of bass in these lakes. In some cases, extreme amounts of cover can decrease bass foraging ability and growth rates in ponds and lakes. This is most often the case if submergent vegetation occupies a large volume of the pond.

Obviously, fish attractors are not useful to anglers unless they can be found. Some attractors may be visible while others may be strategically placed in areas that are hard to find. One popular method of marking off-shore fish attractors is with a physical marker like a floating duck decoy or a metal stake. Physical markers will facilitate the addition of new cover when the attractors deteriorate over time. Triangulating between 2 or 3 spots on the bank is a more inconspicuous method of marking these spots.

On larger lakes, a GPS unit can be used to store fish attractor locations. Most hand-held GPS units will allow you to navigate within several feet of a location. These locations along with their coordinates can be plotted on a map using mapping software. Other features of interest, such as humps, road beds, creek channels, contour lines, etc., can be recorded and displayed on the map as well.

Norman Latona
Southeastern Pond Management
888.830.7663(pond)