Baiting up Condos

Over the past couple of weeks I have been keeping close tabs on this thread. I have built numerous condos in the past, yet have picked up some great ideas thanks to you guys sharing your "tricks of the trade". I appreciate it!! I will be posting some pictures of the recent structures I have made but it's been my experience in the past that fish tend to relate to the structure quicker if it resembles their natural habitat. I build 90% of my structures out of either cypress or cedar limbs. However the reason for my post is I want to poll this audience and ask about baiting up your condos once they have been sunk. I typically attach a can of dog food to my structure during the initial sinking, yet I haven't come back and baited them up in the following years. Does it help and if so any insights on which methods work best? Thanks!!

you can bait them with cotten seed cake. its a block you can put it in a mesh sake with a brick and drop it right on top of your condos

I've seen cotton seed cakes at Academy Sports. They're pretty dense and look like they should last a little while. We started using dry dog food in a sack hanging off the dock, and it seems to bring some fish around. We also put some down in one of our pvc condos, but haven't fished it yet.

What I like to do when I put out a condo is attach a onion sack full of alfalfa hay. It seems to bring in the bait fish very well and hence the crappie will folllow. Every spring I rebait the condos w/ the alfalfa and have had great results. Hope this helps you out.

Thanks for the feedback guys....I'll give these suggestions a try....As promised I wanted to post a couple of picture of the structures I have made. They're very cost effective and work really well for me....I typically put out 4 or 5 structures per area....After I identify the location I want to place the structures I'll throw out a marker and place the structures in a circle surrounding the marker. I usually will attach a can of dog food to at least two of the structures in each bed.

In the pictures you'll see I have place a "stabilizing" stick on each side of the structure to keep it for turning over when dropped into the water...This seems to work well...I have built the structures as large as 9 feet tall and six feet wide, but they become hard to handle when there are that big, so I started scaling down the size and just placing more in a given location...Hope this helps!!

You might try building them the same way but using pvc pipe.
they would last forever and only have to be put out once.

Chef

those look a little hangy for my likes...BUT very nice. Try PVC. Alot less hang up BUT you have some GREAT surface area there. Mix and match. Keep up the good work...I will say after looking at them again the would be pretty darn good for the spawn!!!

here are some of the ones i do in pvc...got some trees too...but i think i like these better

I agree at first the structures can be "hangy" but it doesn't take long to get a feel for what's a fish vs. what's a limb....90% of the time I fish using a 10' Silstar rod dangling a jig vertically over structure....When I happen to get hung I can let about 3 inches of slack in my line and shake the jig allowing the weight to pull itself free....I know a lot of structures are built out of PVC and they are a proven method for holding fish, but have any of you guys noticed whether fish tend to relate better to wood vs. PVC or any other material?

I know the pvc take much longer to hold fish, but it will be there forever. I have had real good result out of the boo.

Full Limit: What did you use as a mold for your structure? Couldn't have been a bucket with all those limbs sticking out everywhere. Bucket with holes?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jfraley

What did you use as a mold for your structure?

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Milk Jug maybe? That's what it looks like anyway.

where can I get some cottonseed cake? no one up here knows what I'm talking about thanks jc

find a co-op...they'll have it

Yep...These condos where made as "inexpensive" as possible..:)...I used milk jugs as the base and poked holes on each side place a "stabilizing" stick to widen the base and ensure that it setup correctly once dropped in the water....

I'll have to try the baiting deal