About 4 years ago the wife and I moved into a fancy neighborhood (I grew up in a double wide) with 2 small “lakes” 1,10 acre 1, 5. I started getting back into fishing about this time as well.
Fished both spots for a couple years from shore then got into a fishing kayak. The lakes are stocked and teaming with small LM bass and hybrid sunfish or maybe Rock Bass, some crappie, and a few bluegill. I’ve seen one large grass carp and found some big carcasses one spring.
It’s a nice place to go, but essentially they’re retaining ponds because we live in a swamp and everyone has a basement.
I think both lakes only get 8-9” deep at most and the bottom is 12” of pudding mud. There are no rocks, trees, stumps, nothing. The HOA pays someone to spray something to kill moss every spring and it works but it also kill all the other aquatic plants. So basically there is zero structure. Also no shade anywhere, the water is basically in full sun all day.
Some of the older guys said after the lakes filled up in the mid 90’s there were regular 5-8 lb bass, but I’ve never caught anything over 1.5-2# lots of bites and good fighting fish but nothing big.
Last winter the HOA surprising allowed me to organize the sinking of Christmas trees and we drive around the neighborhood and picked up 30-40. We had 2-3 weeks of safe ice this year (central IL btw) and got all the trees out and tied up to concrete blocks. This spring I noticed that the fish are already holding in the small area of the Christmas trees.
Now the HOA wants me to devise more permanent structures we can sink from a boat/kayak and not have to wait for ice every other year.
I have found several designs using pvc/pex but $$$. I want to find a low/no cost solution for cover, or a place for the fish to get under during the brightest part of the day. We’re trying to make it a community building event, something where interested families could build a structure and “donate” it. I think a budget of $50 and a design that older elementary kids could manage to complete with parents help.
Have any of you guys undertaken a rejuvenation of your local retaining swamp?
Fished both spots for a couple years from shore then got into a fishing kayak. The lakes are stocked and teaming with small LM bass and hybrid sunfish or maybe Rock Bass, some crappie, and a few bluegill. I’ve seen one large grass carp and found some big carcasses one spring.
It’s a nice place to go, but essentially they’re retaining ponds because we live in a swamp and everyone has a basement.
I think both lakes only get 8-9” deep at most and the bottom is 12” of pudding mud. There are no rocks, trees, stumps, nothing. The HOA pays someone to spray something to kill moss every spring and it works but it also kill all the other aquatic plants. So basically there is zero structure. Also no shade anywhere, the water is basically in full sun all day.
Some of the older guys said after the lakes filled up in the mid 90’s there were regular 5-8 lb bass, but I’ve never caught anything over 1.5-2# lots of bites and good fighting fish but nothing big.
Last winter the HOA surprising allowed me to organize the sinking of Christmas trees and we drive around the neighborhood and picked up 30-40. We had 2-3 weeks of safe ice this year (central IL btw) and got all the trees out and tied up to concrete blocks. This spring I noticed that the fish are already holding in the small area of the Christmas trees.
Now the HOA wants me to devise more permanent structures we can sink from a boat/kayak and not have to wait for ice every other year.
I have found several designs using pvc/pex but $$$. I want to find a low/no cost solution for cover, or a place for the fish to get under during the brightest part of the day. We’re trying to make it a community building event, something where interested families could build a structure and “donate” it. I think a budget of $50 and a design that older elementary kids could manage to complete with parents help.
Have any of you guys undertaken a rejuvenation of your local retaining swamp?
