best way to hang christmas trees from a dock?

hey gang.

Long time no chat! I hope all is well with everyone!

Quick questions.

I'm planning on hanging a couple of christmas trees from my dock in about 7 ft of water. How deep should I hang them? Should I weigh them down and if so how much? A cinder block would probably suffice huh? Lastly, I can just use some nice nylon rope right?

BTW, about 20 yards from my dock it's 15 feet deep or maybe a hair deeper. I'm going to try to get a couple of Cedars to sink out there next spring sometime.

Thanks.

Bruce

Bruce, sounds like a good plan, hope you catch a ton! Why not get some hardwood instead of the Christmas trees, tho? They would last much longer and you can stop by any ditch in town and cut a small tree down.

That's a great point Vic. Now to find the hardwood. Actually......now that I think about it. I have a woods right next to my place in KC. No one would miss a tree. Now the trick will be to borrow a saw.

X-2 on the hardwood. Cedar and x-mas tree will only last acouple years at most and hardwood will be there much longer. I have some weighted down with cinder blocks and I have some standing upright in 5 gallon buckets with rebar ran through the bottom in an x pattern so they don't fall over. As for suspending then from the dock use galvanized wire or coax cable work well.

Thanks Hogster!

Go with the hardwoods as suggested about or plastic pipe(gas or water). yes xmas trees loose all needles in 12 to 16 months on average and branches starting breaking off within 2 years.

hang em with the limbs pointing up,

X2 I'm with beagle on that as well. And make sure the cables are really visible from the outside of the dock so us guys in the boat know which dock to fish. :biggrin

limbs pointing UP. Interesting. This helps avoid snags I take it.

Also, I was on the Fish Habitat team at Smithville and we really liked Cedars. Hardwoods are of course great as well. Naturally Christmas trees are pretty flimsy.

We use cedars a lot. They last at least 10 years. Cut the tree as close to the time you want to sink it as possible. Cut trees dry out quickly and the longer they dry the more weight it takes to sink them.

Thanks Eric! I was with you on many, many of those missions!!! That's why I'm solid with Cedars!

I've used as little as 10# on to pull the bottoms down on 10ft cedars on a dock. ditto to beagle on the limbs up. I tie the weight to the bottom of the trunk and then run fencing wire up the edge of the truck wrapping around the trunk at a few of the big branch junctions. and then up above the tree. I use wire so the jig doesn't hang up. Nylon rope will get jigs caught in them for sure.

Hmmm. Fencing wire. I'm not sure I'm following exactly how you do this. But I guess the general idea is to make sure the wire is secured around a couple of the more substantial branches before it's wired UP to the dock.

Bruce, instead of 'fencing' wire, think clothesline wire....soft enough to bend....no barbs....and only a single strand. You basically will run a straight piece of wire from dock to the bottom of the lake, but you will wrap the tree into it so it remains vertical and doesn't try to flop one direction or another.

Aha. I get it now Vic. Thanks. And that same wire, will be attached to the cinder block. Right?

Yep!! Now you got it

Thx Vic! I think the two of us have the rep as least likely to limit. Sad but true on my part. Thanks for the help. Hope to see you at the next CDC meeting up north, whenever that may be.

fencing wire, IE electric fence, you can drill small holes in tree trunk, insert wire, throw a couple half hitches going up. then place a couple cans of dog food on seperate wire, (to remove later) and wa la

dog food?

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Originally Posted by embo_9

dog food?

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Chum to draw minnows into the tree.

... cp :kewl

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Originally Posted by embo_9

Thx Vic! I think the two of us have the rep as least likely to limit. Sad but true on my part. Thanks for the help. Hope to see you at the next CDC meeting up north, whenever that may be.

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One of these days we'll live down those reps, Bruce.....and just a tiny bit of advice to add to the "chum" line.......don't just wrap a can of dog food with wire and hang it....if you do that you have to use an ice pick or screwdriver and punch a few holes in the can.....just sayin'

opps vick I for got to say take an old church key and make several openings in the can.

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Originally Posted by beagle man

opps vick I for got to say take an old church key and make several openings in the can.

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Hey all.

Hope you are still well. I'm going to hang the tree from the dock today!! Yeah! Talk about a delay in the program!!!

Glad I revisited this thread. I remembered everything BUT the electric fence wire and had purchased some nylon rope. I'll head back to the hardware store and pick up some wire this AM.

One last question. As the dock floats with water conditions and reacts to waves, whether they be from wake or wind, should I drop the tree all the way to the bottom of the lake or suspend it slightly up from the lake bottom? My assumption is I should go all the way to the bottom, but during low water or heavy wake, the tree will be slack or bob. Thoughts?

Thanks again!

JMO, but I think I would just sink the trees, rather than suspend them. Your depth is only 7', so limbs would still come to within a foot or two of the surface. That way your cover isn't bobbing around too much.

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Originally Posted by vic n

JMO, but I think I would just sink the trees, rather than suspend them. Your depth is only 7', so limbs would still come to within a foot or two of the surface. That way your cover isn't bobbing around too much.

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Thanks Vic. I just cut down a nice cedar from the ditch a few minutes ago. I'll get her in the water asap. I think I'm going to use coaxial cable as I have a ton of it and it's just going to get thrown away anyway..... Got the dog food. Got cinder blocks. Thinking I can use only one on this one. But might err on the side of smart with two. They are cheap.

If you want your cedars standing then center them in an old tire. Run rebar in a + pattern by drilling holes in the trunk. Set tire on some plastic and fill with concrete. You can roll the tire right out on the dock and shove it off. you can do a wrap and hold both ends of a rope for exact placement. When set to your liking let go of one end of rope and pull in. Used to suspend brush with wire, but wave action eventually flexes and breaks the wire.

Hmmmm. Good suggestion DADAKOTA

Well I did in fact get the tree in the lake a couple weeks ago. It's holding fish like crazy!!! I took DADAKOTA's advice and sunk the tire and tree, with 4 cans of dog food attached. It's awesome!! Thanks so much for all your help everyone. Going to put in another sometime this summer or fall.

Couple of notes. Don't do it on a windy day as it's very difficult to keep the tree from falling over in the wind even with multiple helpers. BTW, it took 4 bags of quikcrete to fill the tire to about 85%. So you'll probably need 5 bags. Be sure to get one of those attachments for your drill to stir the concrete to avoid lots of shoulder and arm exercise. And lastly, build the tree and tire as close as you can to where you are sinking it. Ours was a bit troublesome to get on the dock after the concrete hardened. The gangways weren't big enough really to let us roll it.

Oops. One more thing. We used a piece of plywood under the tire to hold in the concrete while we were mixing, pouring and curing. Took about 24 hours to be solid enough to dump in the lake. Roughly.

Woohoo!!!

Hey, Bruce you forgot to include the coords!!

I fish cedars in Stockton that were alive and growing there when the lake started filling in 1969.

pvc contraptions sanded down hung with glavanized cable will last close to forever and wont hang up jigs....from what I hear never done it myself. Hearsay testimony is not allowed in court. And I'm not personally big on adding things to the lake that can't naturally erode unless it can be removed such as hanging an attractor from a dock.

Come on up to Lake Thunderhead Vic. I also put in 3 other brush piles off my dock, about either with a cedar and multiple Christmas trees. This lake is quite devoid of cover. Most of the action is on the few and far between brush piles.

Talk to like-minded neighbors up there. Just a few guys with a little time can do a lot of good putting in brush.

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Originally Posted by vic n

Talk to like-minded neighbors up there. Just a few guys with a little time can do a lot of good putting in brush.

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As soon as I get myself weaseled in to the old boys club up here, you can bet I'll try!! The fisherman have two or three contests a year and stock fish as well. So it's just a matter of getting up real damn early a few times and showing up at these events. My time in the habitat group at Smithville has me convinced it's worthwhile.