cedar planks

Hey guys,
I've been reading g and reading all the threads about structure. Gives me a lot of great ideas. I was leaning towards ting the cane/bamboo in my family's lake but I don't really have great access to cane. I came across a bunch of 3/4 inch cedar siding type boards. The owner is going to throw them away.

My question is will these last a while? Should I rip the boards. Right now they are 6-8 inches in width. Or would it be better to leave them that size. How much weight will be needed to sink these? I'll either put them in buckets of concrete or the 18 quart wash tub method.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks

I would say if you have enough of them leave them as big as possible so they will last longer. You told how thick and how wide but did not say how long they are. If they are long enough and have enough of them you can also use a slab driver and drive them in the ground of the lake to make a stake type bed also. Picture of slab driver and here is the youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScovIBC64t8

[IMG]http://www.***************/sites/default/files/img_thumbnails/1028_1239.jpeg[/IMG]

They are probably 12 foot or better. The lake is prob 5 acres plus. It's 12 foot deep or better almost from the bank out. It was caused by a flood. The levee broke and just dug a deep hole. 2 clusters of trees are about all the cover that's there. There's an over abundance of gar and catfish so I need to start helping the crappie out. How many boards per bucket would you do?

Zisaiahb; check the post on here "how many". Started by Blueball He had some good looking 5 gal. buckets with about 8 pieces in each bucket. They looked like they had about half a bucket of concrete in them or a little more. I would think they all would need at least that much concrete. They are plenty of pictures on these other posts to get ideas from also. I my self went back to the first posts and started looking at the ones that had pictures pinned and looked at all them I got all kinds of ideas's. You need to drag a few brush tops and throw in the water at the edges also, it being a pond that size they will stay shallow to help the small fry. They are a lot of knowable people here that will help just ask the questions. I hope this helped you. Here is some posts:

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/crapp...0805-how-many/

and here is a post that I made and I got all kinds of responses from people:

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/crapp...ie-attractors/

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/crapp...rlds-wood-pvc/

I read your thread. I've read so many over the last few days. I'm starting my project with these stick buckets or whatever you want to call them. Then when I get a chance I'll move on to shallow water habitat. Thanks for all your help. It's appreciated. I'll be doing this myself and all the advice is listened to.

There are several ways to use the boards. Driven stake beds , pallet stake beds , or bucket stake beds . Height of boards (length) depends on how you plan to use them and depth of water.

Nim
I'm thinking I'll do the bucket stake beds. I'll probably do some sort of cinder block and cane or tree top thing in the few shallows I have.

I guess my next question is location. Since I basically have a lake with very little bottom change should I just go and start putting bunches of these in different places? And just create as many different spots as possible? Or would I be better off making fewer large areas? I'm going to be able to make quite a few. I'm trying to figure out how to post a pic of the lake. Any help

I think I figured out how to add a pic.

Zisaiahb; Now that everyone can see what you have we can help a lot more. Here is my 2 cents worth. For me I see that you have 2 real good points that run in to the lake. That is were most of the time it is best to start there with your bamboo and tree shallow water cover and go out from it as far as possible using your taller cedar buckets in the deeper water creating a line from the point out deeper. The more you place in one area the more the fish will conjugate together. The more scattered you place the habitat the more chances for random places for larger fish to hide. The shallow habitat will help hold and hide the small fish and minnows,crayfish,ect. With the lake being 12' deep I would only make the stake buckets about 4'-6' tall. The more the better as far as how many to place in the lake. Now I will assume you are going to be using a boat to drop the deeper habitat. If you can take a friend with you and wear your PFD. I had never though of this until some told me here on this site. That a concrete block and a tree will take you to the bottom before you know it. You and your family have a nice lake. Be safe and good luck fishing:fish

It'll be me and one other person. If I'm lucky 2. I'll take all precaution while doing this. That sounds like a good idea going off the point. At the deep end from the point should I place more? Kind of like running the point down. Put 2 here. 2 here and then 4-5?

You got it.:ThumbsUp Like the old saying "build it and they will come".

It'll be me and one other person. If I'm lucky 2. I'll take all precaution while doing this. That sounds like a good idea going off the point. At the deep end from the point should I place more? Kind of like running the point down. Put 2 here. 2 here and then 4-5?

I'm hoping that's the case. There are a lot of gar and big cats in there. I've pulled some big crappie out too. I'm just trying to do what I can to make it as good as possible. Give the crappie a chance against the predators

I'm hoping that's the case. There are a lot of gar and big cats in there. I've pulled some big crappie out too. I'm just trying to do what I can to make it as good as possible. Give the crappie a chance against the predators

Thanks for all the advice again. I'll take all of it I can get and any other tips.

Definitely agree with starting from the point and working deeper; it helps create a natural `choke point` that will funnel fish right by itself. If may `suggest` consider a mixture of attractors set in rows such as cedar or osage orange limb "BB"s shallow in 3- 6 fow with the cedar boards next; cut 1 end of the board at a 30 degree angle to make it easier to drive it DEEPLY into the bottom. Would guess for every 4` of length underwater you`re going to want at least 10" in the bottom mostly because these wide long but relatively narrow and naturally BUOYANT boards will be exposed sometimes to windy conditions with resulting wave action. When driving them consider where the prevailant direction of stormy weather and orientate the boards thin end on into it, NOT broadside to it, ok ? And would keep the boards only 2/3rds of depth of where you`re placing them PLUS 10" for every 4` of length; ie, in 12 fow make them 9` 8" long (12` divided by 3= 4`X 2= 8`+ 10" and 10" = 9`8" long with approx 20" driven into the bottom). Finish the rows off with a couple PVC attractors on the deepest end. This will limit what effect wind and wave action have on them AND allow your boat 4` of clearance over them. If driving them is difficult build a board holder and use a baby sledge hammer. Lastly it might do better to put them in clumps of 15- 20 that are in a row. Better yet, screw 3 together at 1 end creating a `fan`, insert at least 2 in each hole of a cement block and using VHD weed eater line tie it to each outer board with a snug loop knot, go down thru the hole of the block, up the side and TIGHTLY tie back off to the loop knot of both sides of each `fan` of cedar boards. This puts 12 cedar boards in each block. Or using Quik-Crete pour a cement block hole full and insert 4-6` mulberry limbs which are `sweet` being fruit trees and allow to set up and dry. Add water...DO please let us know what you chose to use and how it`s working, sir...

I'm picking up the boards tomorrow and I'm gonna see how many boards I have. I'll go from there. I'm still gonna try and get some can and do a few with cane. What's the reason for the Pvc at the end. If I have plenty of wood will it work better? Or is there a reason for the pvc? should the end structure be but different than a boo bucket? Should I make a big spike ball of pvc?

The reason to use the PVC is that it will more or less still be there when most of us are dead and gone. It doesn't break down and deteriorate in water like wood does. The wood will last like from 2-8 years give or take a few due to whether or not it is a hard wood like osage orange or a soft wood like spruce as the harder more condense wood will last longer. Also the reason the PVC is placed deeper is because most of the time we don't have as much of it and it is less likely to move from were it is placed. Everyone here is going to give you different ideas as to how they would do it but you are going to decide how to do it in the end. May I suggest to do as much as you can when you can and decide how much you are going to spend to do it as concrete and PVC will cost you . That is unless you have a plumber, a block mason and a concrete factory that you may can talk into giving old or used stuff to you. This should also be a every year thing also to replace the shallow water habitat as it will deteriorate faster. So here we are take what you have on hand and drop it now and then you can start working on the other stuff. Remember everything that you can do is a plus for the fish. And I can bet there are going to be several other people here that knows way more about this as they have dropped more habitat than I have ever though about dropping. And like Mr.Lowellhturner and others said let us know what you decided to do and how it turned out. So I am going to set back and read here and learn also.

Scrat has a good post...the only thing I will add is my normal!
You can build a self sufficient and resupplying "Honey-Hole", and improve the entire area at the same time, by building from the food chain up.
Build your Crappie attracting cover to fish off of...but also build cover for their food, their fry, and small Crappie.

You do this by putting limbs, brush, 'boo, or buckets with short lumber that is stacked tightly, IN SHALLOW WATER...this provides the start of the basic food chain...it will attract micro-organisms, algae, etc, that will feed off the wood.
This attracts minnows, fry, baitfish, craws, insects, etc....this will feed your fish!
Farther out add Vertical dense cover for small Crappie that will migrate to the Big Cover as they grow....this not only helps the fishery, but re-supplies your cover as you remove fish from it...this is the healthy way to "Take" and "Give Back"!

If you use all wood, you will be fine....if you use all PVC, you will be fine...you can use PVC deep or shallow, and you will be fine...the only difference is that wood, at some point, will need to be replaced, PVC will not...once you sand the PVC (DEEPLY, think 60 grit sandpaper) and get algae growing it does a good job also.
If you have time and plenty of cover, you can put PVC and wood in bunches together, and this gives you the best of both....you can even put wood and PVC in the same bucket, to stretch out the one you have limited supplies of.

The Main Point is...that you really can't go wrong, no matter what you decide...just balance things out...shallow, medium, deep!

Good Fishing!

Scrat is right that `soft` woods do deteriorate faster in warmer Southern waters BUT there are varying `factors` such as the thickness, type, green (fresh cut) vs dried, depth, water Ph, and overall fertility (almost any wood rots faster in a swamp than when placed in a just dug gravel pit), bottom type and several other factors. Some cedars have 1/2 the original trunk still there in 10 years, mulberry, osage, ect. But having that THICK cover for minnows and juvenile fish shallow can be critical for juvenile game and pan fish too. The PVC is the longest lasting, least `dense`(more open) AND is much deeper on the other hand where it tends to attract BIG predators...and also keep in mind that some predators seem to favor certain types of sets (lines or groups set all at 1 depth vs our preferred shallow to deep (a varied depth will almost always ensure SOMETHING will be on at least the deep end of it at least part of the time ); or that seems to be the case except on every 3rd Tuesday...unless one would do detailed study over a very wide variety of waters, in various depths, with different cover types, AND then be able to do daily observations there is much we probably may never know the `full` impact that adding cover actually has. We are like men trying to study icebergs from above the water when 7/8th of the thing is underwater and out of our vision. BUT, more important, we KNOW from sonar, reading, SNAGGING, ect that they WORK at least somewhat...add to the knowledge base here, sir...