Building Brush Piles

Asking you old timers to share your vast brush pile experience with me. Would you be so kind as to list the Do's & the Don'ts.

Looking to drop some brush piles in a small lake near me. I have been successful using willow limbs while fishing the Toledo Bend area, but I have since relocated and I don't have access to the few willows I have seen near me. Plenty bamboo, evergreens and sweet gum for the taking.

Leaning towards the sweet gum........someone please help me out here.

John 21.6: And Jesus said to them, "Throw out your nets on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find some". So they did and they did.....find some.

What about stake beds? Or is it too deep?

I'd consider what the state's F&W guys are using (& why). Here in KY they put out piles of evergreen trees (but have to refresh them every few years), stake beds (that also don't seem to last more than a few years), pallet stacks (large undertaking for a single person), and PVC "trees" & "reefs" (that'll be here for many, many decades).

Sweet Gum being a hardwood would make it the better choice of the three mentioned. Bamboo also has it's merits, as it's less "snaggy" than the hardwood, and way less than the evergreens. :twocents

Just be sure you're allowed to place cover in the lake, and it's not in a place or depth where it could be a navigation hazard or in a often used swimming area. If the lake has a drawdown period, place the cover in a depth where it will not be exposed above the surface during that drawdown period (to slow the deterioration period). If the lake produces a thermocline, place the cover where it will still rise above the normal thermocline depth (to make it still fishable during those times).

Red Cedar thinned out works great. Any Hardwood will work. If you can get stakes drove in or concreted in buckets are some of the best .

Thanks for your input guys. Think I'm gonna try the red cedar and sweet gum for now and see which one works better. The lake is close by, and I can always change tactics.

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Originally Posted by Crosbytiger

Thanks for your input guys. Think I'm gonna try the red cedar and sweet gum for now and see which one works better. The lake is close by, and I can always change tactics.

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Try putting the biggest diameter Cedars you can safely sink . Bigger ones with lots of red heartwood lasts many years . Try burning off needles , trim small limbs or dry and drag behind a truck if you have a safe place to do it. If you don't thin them it takes long time after being sunk. Fish need room to access the tree between limbs . Makes fishing them easier too.

During winter draw down I found an old condo of 20 Christmas trees. The person that placed them dated the cinder blocks, 6 years old. The trunk and short thick limbs were all that was left. I added 15 Christmas trees and oak stakes to the condo.
A friend has worked the same 8 tree trunks in the lake bed for the last 20 years. Adds to the ring around it with Christmas trees and stake buckets.
We would find a mill set up in the woods on someone's farm. Get a truckload of slabs for free. Not very much red wood on a cedar slab. Set up the table saw and remove as much white wood as we could for stakes. Now the mills want to charge you for the scrap wood.

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Originally Posted by canebreaker

During winter draw down I found an old condo of 20 Christmas trees. The person that placed them dated the cinder blocks, 6 years old. The trunk and short thick limbs were all that was left. I added 15 Christmas trees and oak stakes to the condo.
A friend has worked the same 8 tree trunks in the lake bed for the last 20 years. Adds to the ring around it with Christmas trees and stake buckets.
We would find a mill set up in the woods on someone's farm. Get a truckload of slabs for free. Not very much red wood on a cedar slab. Set up the table saw and remove as much white wood as we could for stakes. Now the mills want to charge you for the scrap wood.

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I used to get all scraps I could haul and shared my catch . Now with business' changing it is hard to find free scrap wood. Not too long back they burned alot of it. I know stakebeds that were made of hardwood that are still solid after 30 to 40 years . We quit Bamboo , Christmas Trees and small brush for things heavier that lasts decades.