Artificial or natural habitat... which holds bigger crappie?

Let's get some real numbers going here to see if we can come up with data we all can use in our structure/habitat placement projects. We know the pros and cons of both types of products. We are looking for slabs that come back to certain types of cover each year. We have a spot with all artificial fishiding and one large x-mas tree placed in the center. The slabs hold in the more dense artificial cover and feed on the smaller fish/minnows that use the tree. We catch them on the camera coming across the open area to feed around the tree. Our experience has been to use more than one kind of crib structure together. What has worked best for the rest of you?

Peepaw, would tend to agree the artificals will hold bigger crappies IF there is abundant food nearby; the 2 types actually should "compliment" each other. Either by itself will hold fish, but not for long; #1 thing those slabs are after is FOOD! Where there`s FOOD and COVER together should logically have fish in the area...Of course, the fish HAVE (repeatedly) shown me how much I know...#$%& fish! Good idea...

Forgive the thought, but wonder if there is a way to add some denser cover directly to the unit? Hm....

For slabs wooden pallet stakebeds are best here.

I usually set/drive 5 or 6 posts, and drop a few pvc "trees" in the mix. Then, I set 1 or 2 cedars about 20-30' away. The mornings I fish the cedars with minnows, and in the afternoon, I vertical jig the posts and pvc.

I really like the idea of driving in posts. Thanks!

Will say that my first attempt was 2 pallets in an inverted "T" with some brush stuffed into it, it DID seem to work well, but mostly for everyone else; seems almost everytime went to fish it there was 1 or 2 boats on top of it!

Well I like natural cover better,i.e. wooden stake beds driven in the bottom. Where you put them is the main thing. That being said , I have dropped a few plastic bucket beds myself but I just keep thinking those things gonna be there forever,plastic part anyways. In fact I have 8 buckets ready to go now but after these I am drivin wood exclusively. Plastic just reminds me of litterin,but thats just me. Anyway I'll hush now.

I've sank a lot of stuff but never had the results that I got with my first settings of Bamboo unblieveable

Almost everything up in these parts is totally natural. I only know of two places where there are manmade fish structures. Both of them are the pvc porcupine type and they both hold fish. Funny thing is that one of them continually holds slab crappies in the 12-15 inch range and the other spot holds lots of dinks. I am thinking the one that holds the slabs is just better located. The one with all the dinks is in about 5 feet of water in a canal, several hundred yards from the main lake, or any water that is over 6 feet. The one with the slabs is is in 9 feet of water and on an inside corner of a near shore drop and is less than 5o yards from a 23 foot hole. I think in that particular situation, the spot that holds the slabs would naturally do so just because of its' natural location.

All good info. so far. Couldn't agree more about the structure placement being a huge part. We all understand cover is needed for fry and baitfish and for larger fish to hunt. The trick is to make sure there is enough fine shallow cover near spawning areas for fry to hide/grow.(1'-4') Then get some placed mid-depth or maybe 4'-10'. Lastly,some deeper more coarse cover for larger predators to frequent. Remember they use all depths at different times of the year. We catch slabs in the shallow cover feeding on minnows during the spawn. August, you better be deep or your missing the biggest fish. So far, it sounds like the fish are using both artificial and natural materials equally well.

Agree, Peepaw. The natural and artifical cover SEEm to work best when they are atleast near each other, and yes, the courser (bigger) cover deeper. An IDEAL situation to attract (and hold) larger predators....