My first attempt at building bamboo brush piles.

Today me and another buddy built 11 Brush piles. I have ones that will go in 8' of water and ones that will be going in 35' of water.

Hopefully "Build it and they will come". :) This is the first time I have used bamboo, and i'm looking forward to seeing how they produce.

I will be dropping them on Toledo Bend. Hopefully I drop them in the right places. :) I plan on dropping them in areas we have caught them good at, just off the creek channels.

Thanks to all of the great information I received from everyone on here.

You may see (2) different colors of cane. The ones that look dead are actually alive its just a different type of cane which are green, but have a then layer on light brown leaves. The tallest one is just over 23' which I will drop in about 30-35' of water. Most others are about 12-15' with one being about 6'. I ran out of the all green cane.

I plan on going back March & April. I will be to sure to post how they do.

WOO CRAPPIEEEE

Looks good! I think that you'll be surprized how quick the fish will get on them.Thumbs Up

Everything looked good until i read your t-shirt.... Go Titans!! :)

Looks Good!

Makes great house decor too... i like that idea for setting your own fishing locations. thanks for the idea.

WTG! Should be the deal.

There were 2 things that I figured out that would have made it easier to build from the get go....

1. Fill the bucket with concrete almost to the top, then put cane in. I only was filling it about 1/2 way, put cane in, then add remaining. Towards the end when I would fill the entire bucket, it tremendously helped with the placement of the cane. Especialy the cane that was 25' tall standing vertical.

2. I used duct tape and made a grid like pattern on top of the bucket after I filled it with concrete. This helped me position the cane easier. It helped me more when I was only using about 1/2 to 3/4 concrete. Even after I started filling the buckets to the top, the duct tape grid helped.

Always learning something....

It`s a learning curve, sir; just like riding a bike. the more you do it, the better you get. Nice looking though, good spread, excellent over hang effect, not TOO thick in the middle. And if you`re putting them where you`ve already caught crappies, will imagine they will get filled up in about 10 minutes...take a pole along to find out. A suggestion, if there`s any variation of depth where these are going, go smallest to biggest shallow to deepest. Let us know how they turn out...

Try using about 1/2 bucket of soil, rock or sand in the bottom to save on concrete.

Nimrod,

Great idea about filling it with rock or sand before concrete. Looks like I won't be able to drop them this weekend. What started off 30% chance of rain is now 70% :(

I hope they don't die too much and lose leaves over next 2 weeks.

If ite the right kind of cane it will keep the leaves a long time after cut.

My buckets about 1/3 full of rocks and then go for concrete.
Does anybody know how long the cane will last, i 've always used
plastic and just wondered about the cane, my daughter raises
it and i can always get her cutting at the end of the year.

Thanks
john b.

Well this weekend I was not able to go up to the lake to drop the brush piles I built last Sunday. Weather channel was calling for 80% rain, with tornado activity. I drove down to where I built the brush piles and the storm had knocked most all of them over. Also, the cane's leaves all were brown or dead and were falling off when I slightly pulled on them. :(

The cane was still solid of course, along with most of the twigs that branch off, but the leaves were all dead and coming off. 10 day forecast looks really good so I plan on going next weekend. I'm sure by then (which will be 2 weeks since cut) all leaves will be dead. I do plan on cutting fresh cane and putting some fresh green ones in the middle of the bucket where I can. Atleast minnows can get @ the green leaves and the BIG crappie can swim @ the solid pieces of cane.

Atleast thats the plan. :) I wish I would have been able to drop them while leaves were green and still in tact, but nature didn't allow it. Hope it works. Yalls thoughts?

Brian

Sank some hard wood limbs last summer with leaves on, a "Friend' and myself fished the same set in the early fall; caught several 12"- 14" crappies, as we were leaving hooked 1 of the "BB"s (brush blocks) with the anchor and had to bring it up to free it. The leaves that remained were covered with snails, algae, and slime, most were gone. What REALLY surprised us was the number of very small crayfish inside the block and tied branch ends! Musta been 2 dozen of them, from itty bitty to 1"- 1 1/2" long. Being omnivores (will eat ANYTHING ) they too were probabily eating the leaves, along with the snails...

They look great!!! Any idea where I can get cane like that around cen. IL??? I think those would work a whole lot better than a PVC Condo!

We started using mortar mix because it is easier to jab the boo into

Well guys this past weekend I made the 3.5 hour ride up to the lake. (Toledo Bend) in East Texas. We loaded the trailer with 12 buckets of cane and we cut some more cane and placed it in the back up the pickup truck for the pieces of cane the break before we drop them. On Saturday while bass fishing we were staking out a lot of places. I decided to drop (2) buckets of cane at each spot. We also were going to find a tree that had fallen over along the bank and drop a few of those.

The lake is currently 7.5' low due to repairs they had to make on the damn. That being said, I wanted most of my brush piles in 17-23' of water on a normal pool, with 1 being deeper than that for the super hot months or cold winter.

I dropped them in spots as shallow as 10' and as deep as 27'. Normal pool would be 17' and 34'. Most others were in 12-16'. I did it with myself along with 2 other buddies. We first started off putting just 2 buckets of cane in the boat and taking them out, but then decided we can carry 4-5 buckets.

As you see we did drop these at night. Being Spring break time there were just tooo many fisherman @. I didn't take pictures of my depthfinder (I was so focused on dropping them and dodging stumps) Next time I go up there I will take pictures.

I am new to the GPS/Depthfinder and once I dropped my first bucket of cane in about 16' of water it was not showing up on my sonar. I was like what is going on...... after going through my settings on the Sonar I realized it was set on 200 Frequency. Once I set it on 50 Frequency BAM!!!! The brush pile appeared. I have not had a chance to read the manual, but I assume the 50 Frequency setting is much more detailed and picks up a smaller radius???

Anyhow, here are a few pictures. I'm going back in a few weeks and will take pictures of the Sonar and hopefully show lots of crappie pics!

BrianAttachment 57114Attachment 57115Attachment 57116Attachment 57117Attachment 57118Attachment 57119

I'm dying to get back to the lake and try these out.... Been 3 weeks since I dropped them. I have a total of 7 spots anywhere from 12-26' Toledo Bend in about 7.5' low so ones that are in 12'16' of water were about 10' tall.

Do most of yall always seem to catch atleast a few on the bamboo even in your not-so good spots? Or do some just never hold crappie? I have put 2 brush piles in spots I have caught them before. I dropped a total of 7 bamboo piles with 2 at each spot.

Been almost a year since I dropped them. I was only able to fish (1) pile. Caught some nice crappie.Lake dropped another 5 ft' the end of last year so I'm not sure how my shallower piles held up. I plan on going in a few weeks. I'll see how they do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whitemike

Been almost a year since I dropped them. I was only able to fish (1) pile. Caught some nice crappie.Lake dropped another 5 ft' the end of last year so I'm not sure how my shallower piles held up. I plan on going in a few weeks. I'll see how they do.

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The shallower pile should be fine. At worst, they got to showing a little bit, and a few other fisherman MARKED them while they wee visible. But that's no biggy. I do the same thing when our home lake drops to new lows. I spent a whole weekend during Dec. crusing the lake marking Piles and Lake Hazzards. Of course we spent Nov, Dec, Jan, & Feb putting out New Piles. We have about 30 new locations in various depths ready for the New Year.

You pile looks great. I believe you could get away with a 1/2 bucket of cement. I think that should pull the size of pile you are making down. Maybe a full bucket on the deep water/taller buckets. That would allow you to make more bucket. Another thing we try to do is keep 6-8 buckets poured and ready to go, even if you won't be back down to the lake house for some time. This way, and as we do, every trip you take out in the boat, throw a couple of buckets on the boat and drop them in the water. Doesn't hurt if someone see's you, as much as it helps getting a few more buckets in the water. If you are going to pre-make the buckets, and have them standing by. Take a 1/2" drill bit, and dill 4-5 holes around the inside of the bucket, just above the cement level. This way when you are gone, if it rains the bucket doesn't hold 3"-4" of water in the top of the bucket.

You Boo Piles look great, should be catching fish when you fish them.


keith

A few of us put out boo bucket lid piles last weekend and I caught fish off them yesterday. We take plastic 5 gal bucket lids and cut hole with a hole saw. Push bamboo through about 1/3 from butt end. Zip tie or wire butts together to spread top. Then tie weights and sink. Quick and easy.

looks really good i think the fish will be there quick and thick

Dude, you got a forest of cover, great job get em' in!!