Thread: Driving stakes in lake bottom

I have been doing this for about 3 years on Truman Lake in Missouri. I suggest that you drive fairly close to existing cover or make a huge bed as they are not really easy to verify that you are fishing in the cover. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. If you can't find them think how hard it is for others to find them. Not everyone is adept at 360 or SI.

Get ready for a really good upper body/cardio workout. Even driving them in the silted bottom of Truman will raise heart rate.

My driver is a 10' section of 1.5" plastic with a cap on the end. You don't want it sinking when you drop it. Then a 1.5 to 3" adapter and the business end is a 2' section of 3". Drill several 3/8 or 1/2" holes in the 3" section to allow air to escape. I also cut a piece of 1" oak and screwed into the upper end of the 3" where it attaches to the adapter. This gives a solid, and even spot to whack the stakes.

For smaller stakes I also have one with a 2" piece instead of ther 3"

Thanks very much for all the replies. My plans were to make a driver similar to what I've used 1000's of times to drive T posts on our farm, except with a long handle on it. I am going to make it light enough to keep from getting too fatigued, but heavy enough that it won't take but one or two licks to drive the slats. Good idea about it needing to float. I might just tie a rope with a float to it. I can design it so that it will have little bouyancy and also where there will be little water resistance when driving the stakes.

Stake beds work great. If you can build them in deeper water, so much the better.


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Got a pile of 3-4’stakes going to screw them to pallets take off most the pallet boards hope this helps em sink and going to use 2 old fashion concrete blocks per pallet and see how well they stay down also got some Cain to cut too .

Pallets make another great steak bed. Pull slats off and reconnect them in a vertical position then put a weight on the pallet and send it down!

If youuse pallets like that how many would you put in one area?

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2-3 is ok 3-4 works real good. I like to use zip ties when fixing the slats vertical, that way they don't rust out and the thing doesn't fall apart.

Theres a bunch of old pallets around work that are no good to use.ill have to try that.

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I made a video a few years back about driving stake beds. Look on YouTube for Stake Bed 101. There is no sound but script in on the screen. We drove 1000 stakes in about 2 1/2 hrs out of a bass boat. Works great. Need two people, three would be great.