Winter crappie

Me and a buddy are starting to make some brush buckets now. The two ponds are about a half acre the other one is an acre or a little more. Both have deep spots. For winter crappie does the bamboo bucket style work? We have access to 3 inch diameter trees that are pretty straight. Would putting these in buckets with an x going through the bottom for stability work? If so how many buckets in a spot? Would you make multiple spots or 1 big spot and hope the crappie congregate there in cooler winter months?

I would make atleast 3 spots . The thing about how many to a spot depends how big they are . But I like 3 to 6 buckets to each spot

We were going to make 6 in a circular design and drop a cedar in the middle. If the water where we drop is 15 feet should the brush be 12 feet tall? I've never fished for crappue in the winter but I've read typically they go deep. So do I try to cover the majority of the water column? Then expect them to be in that 8 to 15 foot range?

Most winter crappie will be deep as they can go comfortably. So long as the ponds are private GO for it but ENSURE that you use enough weight and that the tree is STABLE...

When you say stable what do you mean? Keep it upright?

More so use enough weight to KEEP it where and how you want it to be. BTW, if you place it upright try this: at every 3` cut back the ends of the branches to create an indentation and to open up the tree except for the top 6 `... you won`t believe how many crappie and other fish will take up residence in it !

We will definitely try that. I'll take pictures of the ones we make. This weekend will be a good weekend to make some.