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How would it be to use a piece of sewer pipe with the holes drilled bigger and crossdrilled holes as well to hold smaller pieces then capped and filled with concrete in the big pipe and grout in the smaller pipe? wouldnt it show the structure on the fish finder then? I was gonna try this this weekend but need opinions.
Ive got these items already from honey dews ive done so no extra cost on the grout for the 1" and I can duct tape the ends so no 1" caps. then drill and if I drill close to the base it should hold itself up. Just a thought.
I have wondered about placing a few aluminum coke cans on a pvc condo or some type of metal flashing that would really show up on a fish finder. I dont know if this would work but its an idea I have toyed with.
Someone On Here Said They Put A Piece Of Board In Theirs And It Showed On The Sounder---i,ve Heard Other People Say They Can Tweak Their Sounder High Enough To Read The Pvc
Well Im gonna try it out unless someone posts it wont work. So i'll keep you guys posted. Ill be putting them together tonight so maybe ill put them in Sunday and report back on the result.
put copper wire in it
Tom (Cane Pole) posted about sticking some 1x1's inside the branches of one of his PVC tree. I use 1" OD PVC pipe for the branches of my PVC trees. I use the 10ft long by 4" od pvc pipe for the trucks.
I found that if I can get my PVC trees to stand UPRIGHT on the bottom that I can see them ok with my Humminbird LCR 8000. A lot depends on how deep they are in the water and how close they are to the surface of the lake. Mine are only about 5 to 10 feet under the surface so the sound waves can hit them and even weak returns will make it back up to my transducer. But my transducer is mounted on the bottom of my trolling motor and already under the surface by 1.5ft. Sound waves propagate like light waves and the loose energy with the Square of the increased distance. So you move two feet away and you lose 2 squared the energy. You move 4 feet away and you lose 4 squared the energy. It's a log function so the closer you are to the structure the easier it is to see on the depth finders screen.
One thing to remember. The reason for using PVC is that the jigs are not likely to get hung up on it. The hooks won't catch on the pvc pipe. If you put something on the pipe where the hook can get caught in it then you loose this good property of using PVC Pipes for crappie trees.
Best thing I can tell anyone wanting to use PVC pipe for crappie trees (condos) is to mark the spot good with GPS and write down the coordinates on paper too. I would further find some shoreline points and triangulate the spot using things on the shoreline to get two lines that cross at the spot of the PVC tree.
One more thing. The more power the sound wave the more likely they will show the PVC tree. Turn off the auto feature of your depth finder and turn up the power or gain and use the unit in the manual mode.
I found that by putting a small 1" length of fun noodle in the top of my 4" and 3" pipe that the top stays up. That keeps the branches more parallel to the lake surface and make them easier to see on the depth finder.
It helps to put the closer to a shoreline where you can find them easier.
I am now using 5 PVC trees all within a small area of the lake I fish most. And last fall they started producing more fish than ever.
I started out with just two pvc trees placed in 15 to 20ft of water on a gentle sloping area. I separated those two trees by 30 feet and I think that they both fell over sideways on the lake bottom. The branches get squashed when that happens. I added three more PVC trees to this area to fill in the gaps and expand the setup. Two of these were these ones that Chief sent to me to test out. And I made another PVC 10ft tree with 10ft branches. One the last three trees I added the fun noodles to the tops and capped the tops with a pipe cap. I can see these new trees much better than the two older trees. All are made of the same materials basically. But the ones that stand up off the bottom are easier to see on the depth finder.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frank lawhead
I have a Lowrance 332C and the PVC sets show up better on it than christmas trees or and thing else. The night we dopped them in we watched them fall to the bottom on the graph.
Here is an idea, get a GPS. It might work never know. My Magellan Meridian gold is accurate within two to three meters gets you close I would think. Then maybe you can fine tune your fish finder and get right on top of them. But if not at least you are close enough to find and fish around them. Just a thought.
P.S. Sorry was not trying to be a smart A$$ just wanted to give my idea.
I have 24 PVC beds out now and 17 more that will be in in a few days. I have an X-75 Lowrance. When I dropped them I would place a bouy where I wanted them and then place them all around the bouy. Once they were set I would come back in looking for them all the while the bouy is still in the middle of them. I first set my handheld GPS and also the one in my dash and store the way points. Now from what my graph shows it does not look like a regular brush pile but broken up signals. But it still shows up. If you know what to look for . I also write down my coordinates like Moose said. Now heres what I don't understand-- I have a Garmen 12 handheld and a Lowrance Global Map 2000 indash. The coordinates are differant on the same marked waypoint? I write both down and differentiate which one I took the reading with. I don't want to take a chance of losing the beds!Good luck!
At best the GPS units are accurate to within PLUS OR MINUS 3 meters only 95% of the time. You may have found the 5% of the time when the accuracy was way off.
Another source of huge errors between two different GPS unit is the DATUMS. If one gps is using a 84 datum and the other is using the 27 datum then the readings can be off by hundreds of feet. Make sure that both units are using the same datum. You can find out in the manual how to set the datums for each gps unit.
Also the readouts can be in Hours, Min, Sec or in Decimal Hours. There is a difference between these two types of readouts. You can generally change the readout type in the setup page on your gps. Again see the manual to find out how to do this.
Each unit should still get you back to the same spot even if the readings on the display are different. Each will still get you back to the waypoint and within 3 meters of the spot 95% of the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TAZ
We have made PVC beds and have had good success. The darker the PVC the faster algae will form. We put out 35 last year and could find them all with a fish finder and landmarks.
This year we are using Bradford Pear trees. Some have been out for a month and a half, and they ae covered with growth. The jury is still out on how long the wood holds up.
TAZ,
I have the Garmin 12 also and use it icefishing and hunting all the time but I've noticed that it does get me in the general area but I have to do the leg work to find my spots I THOUGHT I marked. Do you also have this problem? I can see being off 5 -10 feet but it seems like I'm always not even close on the GoTo mode.
Bucket mouth where were you when i was buying pvc lol . I'll definately go black next time . Thanks for the info guys
Imnich- Here is how I do it. I use the GOTO to get me within .01 of the target. Then I switch to the front page and watch the numbers change until I'm very close to what is in the waypoint list. I do this using my trolling motor and I'm constantly watching the LCR too. So far I.ve been able to find my beds with no problem. When I was using the GOTO all the way in I found myself running over my target alot so now I try to come in very slow without going over it. I realize this probably is not the best way but it has been working for me.
I dropped a couple during the summer and when I frist dropped them I couldnt see them at all. But after a few weeks and some alge build up There was no doubt where it was. I used a 10ft section of 4" and several 1" branches I capped off the top 6 or so branches and wieghted it down with 2 blocks. I used construction adhisive to keep the branches in place so they diddnt slide around in the 4". worked great!! the second time I went back I found it without a problem and to my surprise when I looked overboard I could even see it about 4 feet down. The bad thing is I havent fished it. I am more into Striper fishing.
I put out pvc laps the last few years and was also worried about the ease in finding my expensive laps in deep water. What I did was to cap off the end of some of the pipes so that they would hold a large air pocket to make them more visible on my fish finder. Also, this helped keep the lap more upright and spread the pvc branches. Good luck!
I personally like them being hard to see. The lake 's are getting more crowded all the time and if I can keep a few spots to myself well---. Thats why we put them out in the winter! I have two lake maps also. One is mine and the other is the one I use if someone wants to see where to fish. I write all over mine with GPS points and also I will use a laser if I'm close enough to land where I can get a good mark .
by laser i assume you are talking about a rangefinder....Quote:
Originally Posted by TAZ
Yes, I have a Nikon that is accurate to 400yds plus or minus 18". I 've found that it works great! I will get two readings usually at 90degrees to the beds . I'll usually add 10 yds to one of the measurements so I can come in and anchor and be within casting of the bed without spooking it.It's great in small bays .