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I've been reading about the condos but haven't made any yet. My question:
When you drop them, do you have to lower them with a rope to keep them from falling over, or is the weight of the bucket or concrete block enough to insure they remain upright once they hit the bottom. Or does it even matter what position they land in?
I think it all depends on where you put them and how deep. If it's 10' or less and on a flat bottom you could probably just get them started down in good shape and turn 'em loose. Most everything I've sunk is in deeper water (18' to 25') and I lower them with a rope. For me there's too much time, effort and money involved not to make absolutely certain the condos are sitting like you want them. Happy sinking.
Mark
The last ones I put out made with 5 gal. buckets to make sure they stayed upright I drilled 4 holes around the bottom edge and placed peices of round stakes about 14-18" long to form a cross. It worked very well I have always wondered if some of the early ones that were dropped didnt fall over running over them with a depth finder it just didnt look right.
Good idea, Greenwing. Thanks!
I always drill a hole in the top of the bucket on both sides that way you can run a rope though both sides an lower the condo down an then pull the rope up. my condos always stand up .good luck
The TWRA puts a 20 ounce or 2 liter bottle in the tops of the trees they sink around here. The bottles definately work from what I've seen.
One thing you can try I have done is to use a rope to lower it but hold both ends of the rope so when you get it were you want it you dont just have to leave 20 foot of rope tied to the condo.
In additon I have never found the bucket stlye condo not to sink like a parachute. That is ones that have the full tops and not a stake bucket style condo.
A lot of great ideas -- I do appreciate the feedback! Thanks guys! :)
I make mine with pvc in buckets and just throw em out. I've thown them out sideways before an they immediatly straiten out and go down fast. I think the harder they hit the bottom the better they will seat. Because the pvc is hard to detect until algae starts to grow, it probably won't get upset by another angler before it gets silted in on the bottom good. CF
i built mine with concrete blocks and made the pvc about 4' long......all of mine are standing up i just tossed them overboard and then jumped in with scuba gear to make sure i did not have any on there sides
Quote:
Originally Posted by rollo331
That is just too cool:D
I wonder how some "mini-condos" would do--you would make them with 1 gal. ice cream containers and fewer-shorter bamboo pieces. I have a hard time coming up with 5 gal buckets but can easily get a number of ice cream containers. Besides, my location is in a pretty shallow--8-12 ft.-- area. Has anyone tried this?
Hey maggiemaster,
I have been thinking about the same thing. The ones I use now are 40 lbs. plus. It takes two people to put them out because of the weight. One to drive the boat and one to drop the condos. I am now looking at one gallon buckets that I can get from work. I expect them to weigh about 15 lbs. This way I can drive the boat and drop condos at the same time. This should increase the numbers of condos I can install every year. Try the mini condos and keep us informed on how they work.
I have used those type buckets and they work fine. You only need a few. Cut the bucket down a little to make it a bit shorter. Then cut two slits one across from the other down to the bottom on each side. Now duck tape the two slits. Spray pam or crisco oil in the bucket. Put 15 to 20 pound of concrete and whatever your useing for brush. Let set for 2 days and your ready to go. I use pvc pipe and usually don't put more than 4 to 6 short pieces of 3 to 4' pipe in one mini bucket. I can carry about 20 of these in my bass boat where as I can only handle about 8 regular size buckets. You can really fix up a spot fast with 20. CFQuote:
Originally Posted by MaggiesMaster
How about starting a new thread on mini condos with some pics? I can't envision what you mean by cutting slots and then duct taping them back up, but your idea sounds cool.
I think he is talking about being able to pull the bucket off of the cement after it has set.Quote:
Originally Posted by TN_Explorer
Yep, Thats what I'm talking about. Sorry to not go into enough detail. Start down each side like your gonna cut the bucket in half vertically. Just don't cut the bottom. Duck tape the sides and spray with pam. You may want to wrap tape around bucket 1 time for support. Pam helps to keep concrete from sticking to bucket. After you concrete has set up in the bucket for a couple of days, cut the tape and pull on the 2 sides. The bottom of the bucket will buckle and your condo will pop loose. Now you can tape up the bucket again and start all over. This will keep you from having to save buckets. I keep about 4 big buckets and 10 little buckets for production. I've used these buckets for over 2 years and have not had to hunt down anymore. CF
greenwing , are you serious? Look around while you are down there and see if you can find some crappie!
I use milk jugs with the top cut off sometimes but I think they are more prone to roll over and they wash out easy. Not to mention someone hangs one and they pull them wherever they want.
I've used mop buckets, plastic rectangular storage bins from Home Depot and rectangular dish pans from Walmart(the small size). I just throw the condo's over and let 'em sink. The cement being very dense always rights the condo as it sinks. The rectanglar pans provide a nice stable base and would be just about impossible to tilt over unless the slope of the underwater floor was very steep or they hit a stump. The problem with the rectangluar wash pan is that you have to mix the concrete fairly thick to keep the pvc from falling over because the depth of the concrete isn't very deep and the pans sides are shallow and sloping giving only marginal support while the concrete hardens. The orange bin in the photo from Home Depot was better for side support.Attachment 8475
Here is a smaller one I made with bamboo, and the small dish pans. I have not actually dropped these actual ones, but I dropped some just like em, and they worked great, and sat flat on the bottom. We will see this spring if they stayed where I put them.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2...3/S4020326.jpg
Looks good ole buddy...i'll be a nice guy and help you hunt em down;)
Hey Bugman, there are 4 of them in that spot we talked about the other night.
You will have some fun there this spring...hopefully another day like the one you told me about,i just want one day like that before i kick the bucket...wow.If you need me to bring any pvc down with me let me know i have alot of the bigger stuff,i'll help you build and drop some while i'm there if you want.
I have a lot of 3-4 inch stuff, looking to get lucky on a pile of 3/4 and 1 inch stuff that I have seen. I'll let you know if we need it before you come. Thanks man
Would these stay put on a flood control lake where the water level is always changing?
I'm not sure, I just put them out last year..Quote:
Originally Posted by jhaiken
I think you need to build one that looks like a spider with bamboo shooting out from the top and bottom of the buckets. That way even if they turn over, they'd be okay.