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Lunker Structure (Shoreline Fish Habitat)
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }LUNKER STRUCTURE
INSTALLATION
Lunker Structures should be placed on the outside turns of waterways
to assure current moves water flow through the structures to avoid
sediment build up.
They should be installed at least 6” below normal pool and/or low
point of scour.
They should be installed flat on stable structure stream, creek,
waterway bottom.
Interlocking Articulating Concrete Blocks (ACB's) such as Tri-Lock
should be placed on top of the Lunker Structure after the
installation is secure. ACB's are not always available in small
quantity so grouted rip rap or other secure revetment will be needed
to offset shear stress (water flow velocity & depth). Water
tolerant vegetation with a dense deep root system should follow.
Buffalo Grass has a tenacious root system but many local grass seed
mixtures will work well as long as they form dense vegetation with a
high degree of structural root system integrity.
Lunker Structures can and have been made out of recycled plastic
wood.
Lunker Structures work extremely well. One site in particular that
I visited and fished
(catch & release ) several times was in NW Illinois. Along this
creek there had only been roughage fish for years due to creek bottom
sediment build up because of shoreline erosion. Erosion Control
practices were put in place by ILDNR and Lunker Structures installed
per diagram. The roughage fish left. Smallmouth Bass were stocked.
Three 3 years later ILDNR ran a survey to find 300 smallmouth Bass in
300 weighing 1 ½ – 3 lbs. No one could tell the bass were there
until a small jigs and/or spinnerbait was cast in front of the lunker
structure and then is when the fun started. Sometimes there were 2-3
smallmouth trying to strike the lure at the same time – other times
in some of the continuous string of lunkers there were none or only 1
but the point is the creek bed was brought back to its natural hard
pan bottom, erosion was corrected by conventional practices, lunkers
were installed and shoreline re-vegetation grew with a structural
root system allowed the Smallmouth Bass to populate in a healthy
waterway environment as it should be. My compliments to Don
Roseboom, Water Quality Scientist, ILDNR who provided the
instructional course and on-site demonstration of many such sites.
Many other sites allowed for other desirable game fish such as bass
and trout. Ball park I think Illinois currently has approximately
300 lunker structure sites. Wisconsin (WIDNR invented Lunker
Structures) and other midwest states also have many installation
sites.
FYI: Additional Lunker Structure information can be found by
searching the web.
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