Bamboo results

After reading creamlevelkennels review on various structures, it got me to thinking.....how well does bamboo work for everybody. I've got access to tons of it, made a few, but my gps went out on me and I stopped fishing the areas I put them in. Obviously wood is best, but bamboo is easy. What's everyone's real world results of boo. I'm talking bucket style structures because that's what I make. Reading CLK's review had me rethinking what I'm doing. I'm ashamed to say I haven't fished the ones I put in. Going tomorrow to see if I can relocate them and mark em with my new unit.

Cover success is relative: Put in your homework and understand what it is you're trying to accomplish and it will produce for you.

Cover, if it's gonna be successful, it's gotta be placed in an area that would naturally attract fish in the first place. I may be misquoting this saying but there is a saying that states "On any body of water, 20% of the water, holds 80% of the fish." Or something like that... Ha !! Point is, depending on the time of year, it don't matter what type of cover you have, it may not hold fish. The "best" cover type, placed in a "bad" area won't ever produce. Where as a "bad" piece of cover placed in a "good" area will produce results. With that being said, the general concensus on this topic (if you labor for hours reading through all the old posts, which I have read most of them) is that boo buckets, hardwood drops, pallet and stake beds, pvc structures, etc., all prove to be successful. Essentially, with dropping any structure, you're hoping to accomplish 2 things: 1.) Provide shelter for smaller baitfish. 2.) Provide game fish a stopping/hang out point along their natural migration patterns from deeper to shallow water or vice versa.

To establish cover drops that "you" will have success from, 1.) This is probably the most important factor on a "personal" level: Determine what time of the year that "you" enjoy to fish the most. 2.) Familiarize yourself with the body of water you're gonna be dropping in. 3.) Familiarize yourself with traditional fish behavior. Then, 4.) Position your structure in an area that will most benefit the fish in the time of year that "you" prefer to fish. I.E., If "you" hate to, or don't fish in the heat of summer or really cold winter.... Don't waste your time dropping cover in the deep water pockets, etc., because when "you" show up to fish those spots come spring spawn time, those spots won't likely be holding many, if any fish.

So, in short, yes bamboo works, and so do lots of other things. Use the things "you" like to use, in the methods "you" like doing, and cater what you do, to "you".... The fish and other fishermen will benefit as well, but if you're not successful with it and you're not enjoying doing it, you won't continue to do it and that doesn't benfit anybody or the fishes !!

Hope this helps !! Good luck and post pics of your build before you drop, and with the DI/SI after you drop, and lastly post pics with the results (fishies) in the future !!

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Originally Posted by arrookie

Cover success is relative: Put in your homework and understand what it is you're trying to accomplish and it will produce for you.

Cover, if it's gonna be successful, it's gotta be placed in an area that would naturally attract fish in the first place. I may be misquoting this saying but there is a saying that states "On any body of water, 20% of the water, holds 80% of the fish." Or something like that... Ha !! Point is, depending on the time of year, it don't matter what type of cover you have, it may not hold fish. The "best" cover type, placed in a "bad" area won't ever produce. Where as a "bad" piece of cover placed in a "good" area will produce results. With that being said, the general concensus on this topic (if you labor for hours reading through all the old posts, which I have read most of them) is that boo buckets, hardwood drops, pallet and stake beds, pvc structures, etc., all prove to be successful. Essentially, with dropping any structure, you're hoping to accomplish 2 things: 1.) Provide shelter for smaller baitfish. 2.) Provide game fish a stopping/hang out point along their natural migration patterns from deeper to shallow water or vice versa.

To establish cover drops that "you" will have success from, 1.) This is probably the most important factor on a "personal" level: Determine what time of the year that "you" enjoy to fish the most. 2.) Familiarize yourself with the body of water you're gonna be dropping in. 3.) Familiarize yourself with traditional fish behavior. Then, 4.) Position your structure in an area that will most benefit the fish in the time of year that "you" prefer to fish. I.E., If "you" hate to, or don't fish in the heat of summer or really cold winter.... Don't waste your time dropping cover in the deep water pockets, etc., because when "you" show up to fish those spots come spring spawn time, those spots won't likely be holding many, if any fish.

So, in short, yes bamboo works, and so do lots of other things. Use the things "you" like to use, in the methods "you" like doing, and cater what you do, to "you".... The fish and other fishermen will benefit as well, but if you're not successful with it and you're not enjoying doing it, you won't continue to do it and that doesn't benfit anybody or the fishes !!

Hope this helps !! Good luck and post pics of your build before you drop, and with the DI/SI after you drop, and lastly post pics with the results (fishies) in the future !!

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I totally agree.


When we do habitat drops...We try to drop as many different kinds of cover as possible....Bamboo pvc buckets, bamboo concrerte wire condos, brushpiles {if allowed}, wood stake beds, and wood pvc trees...But, location is the key....

Take a day or two to scan the lake for potential spots....This is what we do....No need to put all your hard work in building and hauling to the lake....Just to throw it just where ever.......

Jeremy

I 2ed that.

Being the guy being quoted here, my results have not changed. But this past year, I have put Boo Buckets in a different lake, that has little timber or natural cover of any kind, besides Boat Docks which make Dock Shooting great at this lake.

At this lake, we have had much better success wit our boo buckets. The other lake we put 25-30 locations with 3-4 boo buckets per location. This lake was thick with cover, Timber, laydowns, brush, etc. At best, we were catching VERY FEW crappie on ANY of these structures. I believe it was because their was so much natural cover, they had plenty of places to be, and Boo being UN-NATURAL to the lake, they just didn't hang or get drawn to the Boo Buckets.

On this lake, we have gone to looking for fish in the location they already are. No More Built Structure in the lake. More time seaarching for where they are, which has increased our numbers of crappie at this lake.

So, my personal belief is that if you have a lake with a lot of structure in the water, naturally. You will be better served by looking for the crappie in the natural cover that is there, instead of trying to draw them to cover that is not natural to the lake. BUT, we have had great success using our Boo Buckets in lakes with little or no cover.

We are still researching what works where, and why we think that it works or doesn't work. There is A LOT of work that goes into building Brush Piles, so it has to have a WORTH IT factor. On one lake we didn't need to spend the time to put out 25 locations of 3-4 buckets per location. We would have been better served to spent the Time on the water, looking for structures already there, instead of all the time putting out Boo Buckets.

And the lakes without much structure is working REAL well with Bamboo, and has been well worth our effort. Just our finding.



keith

I know its location location location....but all else equal is what I mean. I don't just drop anywhere lol.



Thanks for the reminders though. Always good to reinforce the basics.

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Originally Posted by TreednNC

I know its location location location....but all else equal is what I mean. I don't just drop anywhere lol.



Thanks for the reminders though. Always good to reinforce the basics.

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Hi,


I apologize for assuming you didn't drop your cover in good areas...I didn't mean ti to come across that way....Try different types of cover and see what works...But, I agree with clk.....If your lake has of plenty of laydowns, standing timber etc.....Bamboo probably won't be as effective......

Jeremy

A more direct and accurate answer to your question: I have planted and fished nearly anything that a person could imagine including lots of boo pots, which are my favorite due to cost and ease of making/handling/dropping, and along with stake beds are generally my most productive cover types. But I am a reaper of opportunity and I build with materials that I acquire with ease and little or no cost to me. Right now for instance I have 15 Christmas trees that I picked up out of my neighbors yard as they were disposing of them. I don't personally like Christmas trees, but they were free and provide cover, but I will be selective where I put them. One of the hottest cover structures I fished last spring I did not put out and would have never put out, but as mentioned before bad structure/right place and time = fish. It was an old washer and dryer set that someone had drug out into the lake when the water was drawn down at winter pool. Once lake filled to spring level it was in 3-4ft of water on a spawning flat and the fish were stacked on em like laundry piles.

So, there's that.... I like boo, drop boo, fish boo, and catch off boo. That's about as real world as I can offer. Good luck !!

QUOTE=arrookie;2146639]A more direct and accurate answer to your question: I have planted and fished nearly anything that a person could imagine including lots of boo pots, which are my favorite due to cost and ease of making/handling/dropping, and along with stake beds are generally my most productive cover types. But I am a reaper of opportunity and I build with materials that I acquire with ease and little or no cost to me. Right now for instance I have 15 Christmas trees that I picked up out of my neighbors yard as they were disposing of them. I don't personally like Christmas trees, but they were free and provide cover, but I will be selective where I put them. One of the hottest cover structures I fished last spring I did not put out and would have never put out, but as mentioned before bad structure/right place and time = fish. It was an old washer and dryer set that someone had drug out into the lake when the water was drawn down at winter pool. Once lake filled to spring level it was in 3-4ft of water on a spawning flat and the fish were stacked on em like laundry piles.

So, there's that.... I like boo, drop boo, fish boo, and catch off boo. That's about as real world as I can offer. Good luck !![/QUOTE]


Agree 100% .... when we started, and still to this day, we use material that are free to us. My brother and I live on 150 acres that has 3 different Boo Plots, more hard trees than you can keep trimmed, an abundance of Cedars that we try to keep cut and cleared, but goes faster than we can deal with. Then this past year I run into a deal, and got 2 trailer loads of 3/4" PVC.

So being lucky enough to have just about ANY type of structure we want, free of charge. We decided to run a Testing & Research Project on Bamboo, Hard Wood Limbs, Cedar Trees, Pine Trees, and PVC for our own use, and trying to figure out if ANYTHING was better than the other, and maybe WHY. Putting out what every you have access to, is usually better than not doing anything, but having access to just about anything but Willow, if we could figure out this question, we have the means to use the best material of the things that I have listed. I have found a source for FREE Buckets, and worked out a deal with a couple of Hardware Stores that sell us their busted/Torn bags of Sak-Crete for $1.00 per bag. So we can build just about ANY type of structure, for NO COST. Now we have NO limitations on what we can try, or the results of the testing. we would just like to find the best material to put out, and maximize our effort. So the Testing & Research is still going on, but have figure out some things that helps us make our choices. that was referred to by the beginner of this thread.

A GIVEN: All Structure Building & Sinking is ALL about the location it is sunk. If you put the best material down, in the place where there is no traffic of crappie, the you are going to draw very few fish.
We like PVC, due to it becomes invisible within a couple of months of being put in the water. We build our Structure to lay Horizontal (4' Limbs X 5' Trunk) on the bottom. We also put out 3-5 sections of the PVC at each location. Giving us 15'-25' of fishing structure. We have found that this works best in a Lake with LITTLE to NO cover in the lake. We really like it due to others can't find it, and no one fished these structures. We must get a GOOD GPS Mark on the structure when we sink it, because finding it in a couple months will be impossible. So we really like these, but only work on certain types of lakes. By works I mean being able to catch 7-10 + fish on a location.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...tures/PVC1.png

Boo Buckets are a lot the same way. They are had to find once in the water, unless made real dense with Boo, then we have had trouble fishing IN the structure, Plus getting a fish out of a dense structure of Boo is a whole different problem. So we have reduced the amount of Boo in a bucket to 5-6 pieces, with the limbs left on. Crappie do not require a lot of structure to HOLD onto. We also put 3-4 Boo Buckets down at each location, giving us 18'-20' of fishing structure. These Structures are very hard to find after a couple of months in the water. Once they get waterlogged, and air bubble do not exist, and algae starts to form, they get tough to see, even with my HDS-10 SI. DI or sonar, if you can drive right over the top can be seen with NO PROBLEM. But for guys that are easing around with SI, looking for spots. You need to know exactly what you are looking for, and paying close attention or they will not be seen. These will work in lake with LITTLE to NO structure, and Lake with Moderate Structure.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m.../BooBucket.png

Then of course your Cedar, Pine, Hard Wood, any kind of Natural structure will work in any of these lakes.

Lakes that are HEAVY Cover Lakes, we have found it does not justify our time to build structure for these lake. The Structure will work, but there is so much cover that already exist, that it does not justify our time & effort. So in these types of lakes, we spend our time scouting & scanning for places that the fish have already chosen to be. We go find them, instead of trying to draw them to a structure we have placed.

We have been testing and researching for 3 years, and have 4 lakes in our area of which we have tested in 3 so far. The 3 lakes cover the full spectrum. No Cover, but Boat Houses, Moderate Cover with a few places of brush and timber in the water, and Heavy cover with Boat Lanes, and timber standing everywhere (Lake Fork), in Texas. We are sure not and authority in this, but just saying what we have found in our area. We have increased our catching of crappie a lot over the past 2 years. So basically just sharing what we believe to be true in our area. We have kept Data of each lake, type of cover, numbers of fish caught on each type of brush pile, compiling information and looking for common factors, and it has started to pay off. Not sure it is the same in all parts of the country, but the factors we have decided are issues, are common through out the country.

May not be the same in your area, but at least food for thought. we're not trying to change any opinions, just stating what we think to be true, and might help you put out better Brush Piles. But play attention to the different type of Piles you sink, to see if one out produces the other. You will also get a pattern to what is the best type of Brush Pile to be sinking on your lake.

Hope this helps or gives you a place to figure out a few things on your lake.


keith

Great posts and info guys! You can tell that there is ALOT of experience and knowledge that is being shared...the only other thing that I can add is that water quality effects/affects cover and how fish use it.
We have a Fertile/stained lake and we have found that smaller cover, shrubs, lay downs, or small PVC holds small fish, minnows, and fry...BIG bulky, BIG trunked, Big limbs, or combos of big cover hold the BIG Fish!

I've got access to lots of boo.....buckets are free, cement $0.50 a bag, busted, free sand and a mortar mixer at my dads house, as he is a brick mason. The cement goes further than quickcrete obviously.


I'll make some more boo buckets. I've got all I need. I found an AWESOME beech limb....or uhhh half a tree that split off today, laying on the bank, waiting to be drug out in the wate. Should look good in 45fow in a cut in a long point out from where it was.

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Originally Posted by TreednNC

I've got access to lots of boo.....buckets are free, cement $0.50 a bag, busted, free sand and a mortar mixer at my dads house, as he is a brick mason. The cement goes further than quickcrete obviously.


I'll make some more boo buckets. I've got all I need. I found an AWESOME beech limb....or uhhh half a tree that split off today, laying on the bank, waiting to be drug out in the wate. Should look good in 45fow in a cut in a long point out from where it was.

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Sounds good.....

I am trying to do habitat drops on every local lake in my area....That will allow me....There is no better feeling than catching crappie off what you have dropped in.....It's hard to work do these habitat projects.....But, its well worth it....This may sound silly...But, I enjoy doing the habitat drops as much as I do catching the fish.....

Jeremy

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Originally Posted by jcd

Sounds good.....

I am trying to do habitat drops on every local lake in my area....That will allow me....There is no better feeling than catching crappie off what you have dropped in.....It's hard to work do these habitat projects.....But, its well worth it....This may sound silly...But, I enjoy doing the habitat drops as much as I do catching the fish.....

Jeremy

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I know what you mean. I went back and looked for the boo I put out a few years ago, that was on my old GPS that crashed, no luck. Thats OK though.

This beech limb I saw yesterday is still haunting me though. I HAVE to get back out there to get it lol. You could cut firewood off of it. It's more like a beach tree split in half than a limb. The bottom of it is probably 10-12". Gonna take a couple blocks of dock foam and float it out to where I want it. Nice big thick limbs. The stuff dreams are made of lol.