Millwood Crappie Condos / Volunteers

[Backwater Man]

Hello to all crappie fisherman / women. At the end of the year the lake manager of millwood and a few park rangers are going to start a christmas tree / brush drive to build condos in Millwood. I forgot to ask him about the oxbow lakes, but I will do that. The lake will supply a flat barge, we may need a couple more or something similar.

Mainly what we need is help to put out the condos. In Millwood the water is not that deep, except the river and we have a very swift current in Little River. I am going to anchor some bamboo in the river and see if it stays there and place some in the flats away from the main channel.

Exact dates is not available but I need to know who wants to help and I need a point of contact for each person.

I can get all of the bamboo we need, about 1/2 acre of big bamboo and very tall probably 20-30 ft. tall.

Steve does not want plastic in the lake, but I found out that if you grease a bucket the cement will slide out of them and you can reuse the buckets.

All advise will be considered and discussed among the the group.

[Arkie John]

Steve and Mobie are good folks fer sur. I worked with them for nearly two decades when I worked for the Corps.

I'd put 'bare' bamboo in the river, if you must, weighted heavily or it will just disappear the first big rain that comes. The cedar and heavier leafed out boo, I'd reserve for the still water areas.

As much as I worked around the lake, I never got a chance to fish it. I think it's about time. :D

aj

[fishbaskett]

I would be interested in assisting. I have a friend that lives at Yarborough and I am sure he would help as well. I have a fourteen foot Duracraft that I have used a lot over the years to put out structure. We place the structure on it then drag the boat with another and roll the structure out where we want it. One time we did a real big cedar that had been laying on the highway right of way for some time and was very flat sided, it kept wanting to roll off the boat on its own so I bungee straped it with several straps, we towed the boat to our spot to sink the top, I had my weights tied on already, un-did the straps or so I thought, one strap remained attached on the opposite side from where the tree was going to roll off of, when I pushed the weights off the entire boat capsized, the tree sank. Luckily the boat has plenty of styrefoam under the seats so we were able to drag it to shallow water, turn it back over, bail out enough water for it to float above lake level, we then started towing it across the lake, pulled the plug and the water drained on out. All this took place at about 11 pm one night, thank goodness it was summer time and I was prepared for all that happend, but we could have done with out the extra work.

[Backwater Man]

I have a large alumiunim 17 ft. Polar Kraft with a 90 hp Mercury and my boat is about 7ft. wide. I was thinking about buying me a cheap alumiunim boat about 12-14 ft. long that I could pull with bamboo in it.

Bamboo in the lake would need to be in piles are cut very short to stand up under water. Myself I placed a 3-4 condos out, but can not get to them due to the drawdown. I placed them in 6-8 foot of water among the old timber and allowed them to come almost to the top, maybe the bamboo should be cut shorter to be below the water, if so about 3-4 feet high condos would work.

I read about the tall bamboo condos 15-20 feet tall in Greeson--here around Millwood they need to be shorter. The oxbows like Horseshoe and Mcquire right now are about 12-15 feet deep in the old heavy timber areas.

I do not know what you guys think about the solution to the condo,s but I think if we concentrated around the old standing timbers where it is deep and some of this timber is also in the flats or shelf areas away from the main river channel, the creeks, sloughs backwater oxbows than we can have places for summer, fall and spawning times.

I can get plenty of bamboo right next to my property, the owner told me I can have all of it, about 1/2 acre or more and I have a 16 ft. trailer to haul it to the lake. I live on the side of the lake where Okay, Cottonshed, Paraloma and White Cliff areas are located. Wilton boat ramp is about the same distance as White Cliff. The area around Wilton and down river is what I want to explorer while the water is down, the creeks, sloughs and etc. These areas just have to lay them in the water, anchor it down and wait for the water to rise and we can have under water condo,s.

Millwood has plenty of lily pads and things, but brush is very limited and the standing timber is getting old and is nothing more than a pole in the water, put some bamboo around these poles.

Arkie John is familar with Millwood, but many guys refuse to fish the lake due to the dangers, stumps, shallow water and gators. This lake or the river is not for speed boats period, but we do have some bass boats that think they are speed boats and some of them pay the price.

What I was going to say and many will verify the fact that I think Millwood has the best and biggest crappie around. I know a few lakes North of here have crappie, but not Millwood crappie 15-20 inches in size. We do have some smaller but I release them if they are not to my standards.

Fishing this lake it is very advisable to have you a couple of push poles in your boat, I use 1 1/4 pvc about 10 ft. long and cap both ends. It works wonders in getting off of stumps unless you want to get out of the boat and push---but---remember eyes are watching you.

During spawning most of the spawn is in 1 to 3 ft. of water and plenty of stumps.

[fishbaskett]

Crappierookie,
Don't look like you are gettting much action with this thread but you got a great idea. I like to do stuff during the week when there is not as many people around to see ya. I would be willing to take a day off and come build some stuff. I can bring my 14' duracraft and we can drag it with yours or I can bring my 16' Basstracker and pull yours. I can bring 3 set's of stuff to sink, boo, pallets with stickups, trees like willow or persimmon or cedar. I got a shallow water idea the other day from a thread - coffee can (plastic ones) attractors, think it was on the structure building forum - half a dozen them strategically placed in about 3' of water in the spring could be quite good. Got some areas out and around Yarborough that I would like to put some stuff, in the River, in Mudd Lake in some shallow areas with cypress and some deeper areas with cypress.
I am just North of Murfreesboro and would want to dedicate one entire day to a project like that. Got some folks that have 40 acres close to Yarborough that will most likely let me cut a few saplings off their place.PM me if you want to try it some time.

[Backwater Man]

I am crappie fishing. Can I get any more bites on this subject or does a select few have to proceed and do it ourselves.

Anyone interested, send me a PM---Thank You