Myself and Jerry Blake put down alot of brushpiles on three different lakes. For the past several years we have been using bamboo exclusively. Some of the first bamboo crappie condos put down over 3 years ago still look the same as they did when first dropped (minus the leaves, plus some algae, of course).

One of the places we really like to drop them is on the end of points, that way you have deeper water on three side of the condo. Usually, we'll drop one in 15-18' of water and then another in 24-28' of water next to each other on the same point. This way as the crappie want to move up or down in the water column they have something at every depth. These points are also usually near shallow water coves, so they also serve as staging tops for when they run to the skinny water to spawn.