Here is what you have been asking for! A substanial addition to any habitat plans, this deeper water structure group, has room for all ages and sizes of fish.

With three each of the Keeper and Safehouse, this resting area provides a total of 318 square feet of surface area.

The right amount of cover to create room for fish to rest and feed in the same location.

These six units will cover an area between 20×10 feet, or a line over 30 feet long.

Experiment with different layouts with each additional refuge you install.

Keeper:

Maximum shade and protection is abundant throughout this eco. friendly product made with reclaimed pvc material. With limbs all standing a full 48″, these 2-1/2″-3-1/2″ wide surfaces grow algae and aquatic life quickly.

Each keeper weighs approx. 28 pounds, and is recommended for depths over 10 feet. This large and somewhat coarse cover, provides habitat for all sizes of fish.

Bass,crappie,panfish alike utilize the shading effects of this new type of artificial fish attractor. Go-green and promote fish habitat restoration! Made in the USA with all American made materials.

Reclaimed pvc limbs provide an eco.-friendly solution to fish habitat loss and degradation.

Safehouse:

These safehouse fish habitat units stand 46″ tall and weigh 16 pounds each. This fish attractor has all the needed shade and coverage to hold all sizes of fish.

Consisting of limbs ranging in width from 2.5″-3.5″ wide and 18″-46″ tall, they open to a full 72″ wide. With a minimum of 44 square feet of surface area, it provides plenty of room for algae and shade to attract fish.

Recommended for depths of 6′-12′. Reclaimed pvc limbs provide an eco.-friendly solution to fish habitat loss and degradation.

Bend to shape by hand to any desired shape and toss in water. Sinks itself. Made in the USA with all American made materials.

Over 44 square feet surface area each.

See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the industry leader and only science based, man made and artificial fish habitat, proven to provide all fish with cover they prefer to prosper.

• Artificial Fish Structures

1. perfect price and size 

   Posted by Unknown on 27th Apr 2011

   thanks for adding this group of structure. i alraedy bought two keepers and they work good.Will be ordering more of these groups sonn.

   ---

LADYSMITH – The day was warm, the water temperatures hovering between 89 and 90 degrees, making it more comfortable for students from three Rusk County high schools who spent the morning up to their necks in water.

Some students in a boat mixed cement to anchor individual spruce trees to the bottom of the Dairyland Flowage while others swam or waded with trees they positioned at the sides of submerged rock piles. The rocks had been dropped through the ice along the shore during the winter.

The position of the rocks had been marked with a GPS. Those coordinates, plus some searching by students, helped locate the piles this summer. The individual trees with cement foundations would be placed between the rock piles to provide additional cover.

The idea is to provide a diversity of habitat to give minnows and small fish a place to live, which in turn will provide food for bigger fish, said Jerry Carow of the Rusk County Wildlife Restoration Association, the nonprofit group coordinating the project.

The work began three years ago when Dairyland Power Cooperative drew down the reservoir to repair a dam. The association and Dairyland Power took the opportunity to haul rocks and trees onto the dry lake bed to create aquatic habitat.

When the power company refilled the lake, they saw no reason to stop creating habitat. They just had to change their methods, Carow said. Because Dairyland Power has a five-year permit from the state Department of Natural Resources to create habitat in the lake, they decided to keep going with that work.

Since the project began three years ago, the power company has brought in about 6,400 cubic yards of rock – the equivalent of a four-mile stretch of rock three feet wide and three feet high, Carow said.

So far the project has involved the installation of about 2,000 trees. Another 500 to 1,000 could be added, Carow said.

The project involves students from Flambeau, Bruce and Ladysmith high schools during summer months. During the rest of the year, prisoners from Flambeau Correctional Center provide the labor.

Fat fish

The habitat work appears to be helping fish in the flowage, said John Thiel, senior environmental biologist with Dairyland Power.

Natural reproduction of walleyes always has been good on the flowage, an impoundment of the Flambeau River, but growth of the fish typically has been slow, he said. Now the walleyes are growing faster.

“We’ve had a 2-inch increase in the average size of walleyes we’ve collected,” Thiel said.

During the next few years, more walleyes should be moving into the legal size range, he said.

Black crappies have become more abundant and also are growing well, Thiel said. Bluegills are not abundant in the flowage but are more common now than they were, as are perch and smallmouth bass.

When the reservoir was created in the early 1950s, the power company removed trees logs and stumps along the shoreline. Officials at the time figured drifting wood might interfere with power generation.

“At the time they didn’t realize they were removing all the good fish habitat,” Thiel said. “What the lake really needs is shallow water fish habitat.”

The reservoir always has been home to big muskies, but the waterway is low on suckers, a favorite food of muskies. One potential problem was a perched road culvert on nearby Crooked Creek that may have been blocking upstream spawning movements of suckers and other fish in the spring. Officials lowered the culvert so fish could get upstream, and they plan to survey the creek later this summer to find evidence of spawning by suckers, Thiel said.

Regulations

Dairyland Power and the wildlife association had wanted to bring in heavy equipment and move some existing gravel on the reservoir’s bottom three years ago when the reservoir was drained, but the DNR nixed that idea because of mercury contamination in the sediment. The mercury came from paper plants upstream.

Thiel thought the project could have been completed without recirculating mercury in the system – Dairyland had done some testing of the sediments – but the power company lost that argument.

That decision caused Dairyland Power to change plans and downsize the reefs they wanted to build, but, with the help of the wildlife association and other community groups, fish habitat in the flowage is much improved, he said.

Summer jobs

This is the fourth summer that Charlie Coughenour, a student at Ladysmith High School, has done conservation work for the Rusk County Wildlife Restoration Association.

“It’s a lot of fun. It gives me something to do in the summer, plus I get paid,” said Coughenour, who will be a senior this fall.

Twenty-four high school students worked this summer on the project, which included fish habitat improvement, repairing erosion sites, building a nature trail and creating fishing access sites.

Students work for five weeks and earn $24 per day, plus one-half of a high school credit. The students are supervised by teachers and four college interns.

Coughenour said he has learned some construction skills in the program and it’s also influenced his career choice. He plans to attend UW-Stevens Point and study environmental science.

Knight can be reached at 715-830-5835, 800-236-7077 or joe.knight@ecpc.com.

Exxon oil spill in Montana’s Yellowstone River puts spotlight back on pipeline safety

• ExxonMobil workers on Tuesday were scrambling to add staff and find ways to work in swift-moving flood waters to soak up more than 40,000 gallons of oil the company spilled into Montana’s pristine Yellowstone River Friday night.