Today was our first rock reef project at Kinzua. This is simply another type of habitat that is currently in use by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Dave Houser and PJ from the PFBC along with Bob Hoskin from the USACE put together this project at Kinzua to show Kinzua Fish & Wildlife Association what would be involved should we decide to start this type of project in the future.
Dave's boat "Bubba" is outfitted perfectly for putting in rock reefs. KF&WA has been searching for a pontoon boat that we could outfit for this purpose.
You have the stone delivered to the loading spot, then a backhoe loads it into the the hopper on the boat. Once loaded, the stone is driven to a pre-determined drop-off point, and the hopper slides forward to the front of the boat. When ready, the catch is released and the hopper tips forward dumping the stone onto the floor of the lake.
We don't have any type of information on how well these work for habitat as this is the first time we've done the these at Kinzua, but if I can find any info, I'll post it here.
On to the pictures.
