Every year, I can find less debris than there used to be. So what do I do? I put some artificial habitats in such a way that the fish could feel sheltered. They work immediately, as soon as they hit bottom.
The worst part of it is rolling the thing underwater from a pit to a hill at a depth of 6-9 feet or back to the shore. Other than that, the effect is fantastic. The first “tenants” who come looking for new longings are going to be the smallest fish, which you shouldn’t take, but they will attract their larger siblings.
That sounds great in theory, but how to choose the best habitat? Well, I can give you a few pointers.
Shadow
How much shadow can the habitat offer? That is the first question you should ask yourself – or the vendor. Fish love shadow and they like hiding from the sun. A good shelter should give them that.
Complex Structure
Think of them as you would think of pet fish. Every fish wants a personal castle to explore. Okay, that’s expensive, but you can do something like a smaller version. A sufficiently intertwined fish habitat. After all, fish are not known to be great architects. They won’t even notice something is amiss and something’s fishy about their new castle.
Protection
Most fish want that shelter to protect them from predators. If your fish habitat can’t do that, you won’t find an abundance of fish in it. You need to make sure that the structure won’t allow bigger fish accessing the habitat.
Size
Bigger is better does not work in this case. Bigger habitats with broad openings are meant for bigger fish. That’s great, but there’s more little fish than there is bigger fish. If you want a big habitat to attract lots of fish, make sure it just more extensive, but otherwise, it is the same as smaller habitats.
Material
Most of the artificial fish habitats are made of plastic. But you can’t just use a habitat made of any plastic and call it a day.
Usually, recycled plastic is more than fine to use in your daily life. But not in this situation. The way plastic is recycled makes it less than suitable for planting it underwater, lest you endanger marine life.
You should also remember that plastic does not disintegrate underwater, not quickly, and you will need either to choose where to place it well or remove the habitat when you’re done.
Other materials such as wood, rope, metal are not as stable, and you don’t have to worry about them too much. Biodegrade materials are going to give very soon, metals will hold longer, but they also well be rusted away, unless they are rust resistant. Personally, I don’t think there is a point in using rust-proof materials, they should be able to disintegrate, and I hope you think so, too.
Artificial Habitat Tips
Depth
Putting the artificial debris in the deepest place you can find is not always suitable for fish. It is best to position them near the shore, at a medium depth, preferably near the area where it is found most often but is challenging to catch.
Erosion
A DIY habitat made of wood is going to erode, as they tend to be short-lived. You will have to build new ones, and that is not an easy job, you need to put there lost of branches and driftwood to attract more fish.
You can also buy a ready-made device made of metal that does not erode quite as fast as wood.
Attracting the Fish to the Habitat
An artificial habitat is attractive to fish as it is. However, that doesn’t really matter if the fish never runs into it. Habitats are entirely suitable as a shelter, but they are not edible and have no scent that would draw fish from all over the lake.
What do you do in a situation like that? Why, use barley, of course. It’s better than not using it, and it’s better than using barley without a fish habitat available. On the plus side, you won’t overfeed the fish, because all you need is to draw the fish to your artificial debris, and then most of them are going to stay.
Why waste time for a potentially big game to find your habitat or find your treat and linger around when you can combine them and take control. I recommend using something like quickly and fully water-soluble corn granules.
The trick is that the mentioned corn granules have an odor and disintegrate into “edible” slime, but the fish are not going to be sated at all. That’s going to create an illusion of food being near and thus provoking an urge to seek it, moving around actively. Usually, they will find the habitat and stay there. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve just found a new “reliable” shelter as a result of the search for food.
Misconceptions
It’s Contributing to Pollution!
No, it’s being a conscientious angler. To begin with, you can always remove the habitat when you no longer need it, if that’s what you think is the right thing to do. You will be able to use it somewhere else later that way. But if there’s little to no navigation in the area and you don’t need the fish attractor elsewhere, I recommend that you leave it be. The fish need shelters, and you’ve just provided them one.
If you live somewhere where poaching is a concern, the poachers are going to return empty-handed, since artificial habitats are hard on drift nets. You may have to check the area out for ghost nets from time to time.