Looking for an easy way to hold rocks together to sink brush.

[Pole Bender]

I have been thinking about this and here is what I come up with, use chicken wire to mold into a basket and put in rocks, forms easy enough and provides a way to tie to wood so I think it will work. I am cheap and get the wood and rocks off the bank so it needs to be simple and easy. I have tried tying rocks on and some always fall off. Anyone have a better way?

[AgriHawg]

I'm afraid the chicken wire will rust apart pretty quick. Maybe some of the orange highway department fencing/barrier instead?

[Quicksilver1958]

Ask your grocer to save "Onion Sacks" for you. These are large mesh sacks that onions and other produce come in.

Throw a few in the boat, pull up to a gravel bank, fill the sacks and tie them to your brush. Been doing this for years, works great..

[NIMROD]

1. Try old Onion sacks or woven plastic feed sacks (fill with rocks).
2. Go around where old buildings are being torn down and sometimes you can get free concrete blocks.
3. Get plastic buckets with lids from loggers/ heavy equipment operators that use lots of hydrolic oil ( be sure to wash clean) or from bakeries that use lots of ingrediants. May need to punch holes to allow water inside.
4. Buy busted bags of concrete at building supply for salvage price, usually 1.00 a bag. Pour tub or form full of rocks and enough concrete to hold together.

[slabbandit]

Hey polebender, I would definately not use chicken wire as it would be a jig eater if you drug across them. This is also the reason that I don't use nylon rope. Have you ever had a hook get in you're anchor rope?
What we found that works for us is to use 5 gal. buckets with lids and stripped down electrical house wiring. Just strip the outer sheath off of normal12/2 and you'll have 2 or 3 separate wires to tie the brush and buckets together. No need to strip the black and white off the 2 inside wires but don't use a braided wire as I like these individual strands to be of solid copper.
We fill the buckets up with rocks and they are plenty heavy! Drill a hole for the wire to enter and exit the bucket near the top and replace the lid before sinking. I prefer 2 buckets per top but one may work if the tree is not to dry or large.

[Pole Bender]

All good suggestions, I did not think about getting hung in chicken wire. I like the onion bag idea but wouldn't you get hund in it too. 5 gal. buckets seem hard to come by in the numbers I would need but if I can get them I would use them. Thanks guys I will keep think on it and see what I can get easy.

[AgriHawg]

5 gal. buckets are easy to get in large numbers, if you can find a bakery/deli/cafeteria or a painter. They throw away hundreds of them a year, if not thousands. I went to a garage sale once at a painters house and he had hundreds stacked around his house for sale. Also, sheetrockers would have buckets too.

[jaxsprat]

5 gal buckets -go to your large grocery stores, chain stores that sell lots of cakes, frosting cremes come in them & they just throw them away, my store goes thru about at least 10 buckets 5 gal plus about 25 3 gal buckets every week doing sheet cakes. Endless supply......

[bugman]

I prefer blocks but if i'm out i'll look around on the bank until i find a rock that has some sort of a notch in it so the nylon tape (stuff they pull fiber optics with) can be cinched down and wont slip off,i don't know what your lakes offer in the way of rocks but there's plenty to choose from around here.

[CRAPPIEHUNTER68]

I now use the big concrete Blocks because they are cheap and so easy to tie on but before I used rip-rap rocks and I used the plastic netting with the 1 inch holes that you can get from Lowes or Wal-mart. I really never lost jigs to the netting because I trimmed it very close and I figure the jigs would shake off the plastic.