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I've been building and sinking these since last August, usually in pairs or fours. They don't seem to produce as many fish as my wood beds, but are also harder to find with a locator after they've been in the water several months. Hope they improve with age. Tired of having to take a number to fish some of my better wood beds.
Steve
Looks like they should work well. Sand that plastic some to rough it up some before placing. That will help with algie growth.
The alge grow is what makes them hard to find. Works the same as a Stealth Fighter works. You will be able to find them until they are covered by alge. The round tube doesn't give a good surface to reflect the sonar, then when it is covered with alge it helps absorb the sonar. Makes them almost impossible to see. I have tied a couple of Milk Jugs on my PVC condo's, amd let them float off a limb. Makes it look like a small pod of bait fish. Others don't pay attention, but gives you something to locate with your GPS/Sonar.
Like you, I have not been able to attract many fish to the PVC Condo's. I have the same problems that you discribed. My natural brush piles produce MANY more fish than the PVC. I wrote a detailed Post about my findings.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/crapp...vc-condos.html
keith
Keith, I have been following your post and they confirm a lot of the stuff I've noticed the past few years of experimenting. Wood & brush draw more fish and fishermen. I'm still in the workforce, so my fishing time is limited. As more people find my beds the more the number of fish drop anyway. Since some fishermen are anything but shy about checking out a spot where they see you catching fish. I've had them circle me while lining up landmarks or pull up and chat friendly like while they mark the bed on GPS. So even if my pvc beds don't produce as well, I think the stealth quality gives me a better opportunity at finding fish.
All that said, I still put out two big oak beds over the winter. Old habits are hard to break.
I hear ya. We are having the exact same problems. I have not given up on the PVC, but the facts are not lying. That's why I suggested the 2 liter bottle tied to the Plastic Tube. It does get us a exact location of where the PVC is, and looks like a pod of bait fish. So, that is one thing we do to help out a little. I've also got ALL of my bouy's painted flat brown. They are hard to see when your close to them. We are putting out more Brush Pile than we have been. we really started on the Bamboo and PVC for the exact reason of being harder to find with Side Scan. Sonar & Down Scan are Tale/Tale ways of seeing the Bamboo, but Side Scan is much harder. Not sure why, and it can be seen, but tou can't blink or not be reading close on your scan.
We have not given up on the PVC, but it has proven to be a test. a guy told me to try little DEEPER WATER with them, so we are going to put 3 locations, with 3 Horizontal Condo's each place, in 20' of water. Not sure what difference this makes, but at this point, I will to try anything to get them to work. We get to fish both days of the weekend, if we choose, so time on the water is not a issue. Kids are grown and moved out, be married for 25 years, and still have plenty of time for the wife, PLUS she likes fishing and hunting. So during the week I build the Condo's (retired) and on weekends we put then out. Over whelm the fisherman by shear numbers on the Natural Brush Piles.
Good Luck, and post up if you find the secret to PVC. I'll still be searching for the trick.
keith
I made some taller beds this winter and placed them in deeper water for Summer & Winter fish. Haven't tried them yet since the fish are in their post spawn pattern right now. I have placed some pvc around a few of my oak & cedar beds, I've noticed I catch more black crappie on the wood and white crappie on the pvc. I assume it is becauce the pvc beds are more open and the white crappie are a little more open water fish.
steve
There IS an advantage to dropping large numbers of attractors, especially on public waters. They CAN`T find (or fish) them all at once...am fortuneate am part of a like minded group, "the Friends of CJ Brown Reservoir"; we are into our 5th yr of conspiracy and wee hour skull drudgery...
That algea will help them fish stay