Christmas tree question...

Do you have to take the needles off? If so, why? I never have. Hate to know them 29 trees I put out Christmas 04 would have produced better, but then again it did what I wanted it to do.

sometimes they spray the trees with chemicals to make the stay green and to keep them moist to prevent a fire, by waiting till the turn brown and burning the needels off it gets rid of the chemicals that can leach out .

I guess it will affect the fish production then. Didn't know. No one ever told me. Over the years I've helped put out hundreds. I can see where it would be a problem trying to keep all those trees till they turned brown. Wasn't sure if the reason was the type of tree or not. We always use evergreens, I think they last longer. I'm going to try my hand at some of these other methods in the near future.

i dont know if it has any harmful effect on the fish but from what understand about it crappie dont like it, but other fish dont seem to care

Hi,

I went to a fishing seminar...One gentlemen asked the guy {fishing guide} giving the seminar this question...Are xmas trees good for cover?....He said that the xmas tree absorbs up oxygen or something like that...Until they die or they go brown....So, it does take longer before the crappie will associate with the xmas trees...I am not sure if that all makes sense or not?...But, this is what the fishing guide guy said..If you can get bamboo?...Go with that..

Jeremy
Bye

The closest I ever checked my trees was 5, then 11 days and they were about 3 month old Xmas trees- needles 50/50 green/brown. I had no fish at 5 days, some (I think like 7-8 fishing it hard) at 11 days and then a week or 10 days after that I went back and it exploded. I sunk a little hardwood with it but mostly Xmas trees, and a double thickness burlap sack with 25 lbs of cottonseed meal. They literally aggressively bit a bare gold hook. It was right at post-spawn and I'm sure that helped. Good luck.
Jeff