Do You think this will work?

Made the saw horse looking thing out of cedar fence boards. So should last awhile. I can lay it all down in the truck and boat and when I get to where I want to sink it all I have to do is slide the blocks on the legs and then put the pipe through the leg. I try not to fool with quikrete if you can notice. I'm gonna sink all this together. I'm gonna make one more saw horse thing tomorrow and try to put them in a L shape on the bottom. Maybe some crappie will gather. Sank some similar stuff to this last December and I'm gonna fish it for the first time Friday.

http://i66.tinypic.com/242fwk8.jpg

Most stuff will work if sunk in the right spot .

You'll want to stabilize the base to keep these from falling over. Someone will get snagged on this and pull it over, for sure

GBS

Please Do Not take this wrong...I'm just trying to help you!:)

The small tubing is a waste of your time....the time spent drilling holes for them is just wasted unless you make them dense...I mean dense like a Christmas tree, etc.
Your time will be better spent to add more BIG limbs, PVC, or boards. Big Crappie use big cover for ambush areas (dark areas) and for shade from sun and heat....the more shade you can offer the more Big fish that will use it.
If you want to use up the tubing, just make your vertical cover dense, so fish can get in it for protection....that's all that cover is...protection and a place to feel safe, or a food station for hunting or for baitfish attraction.
Another key is to drop as much of your cover together as possible, you want ALOT of cover to hold ALOT of fish....you have to give them a place that can hold a lot of fish in a school or Alot of Big Predatory Slabs.

Alot of the cover pictured was dropped in groups of 10 to 20....with laydowns shallow and bigger cover deep....but always in dense groups.
Notice the Crappie camo....this is preferred cover for small to medium fish....they still need protection from predators.

Place in rows shallow to deep and put the BIG stuff on the deep end. And doing naturals shallower then switching to PVC deeper is about THE set up we found. the resulting bio-diversity (range of present species in the overall food chain especially on the lower broader end is just unmatchable. Broader food base and more biologically diverse = MORE fish !

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/image_13.jpgone im building now I have been doing them like this for years, had good eesults

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Originally Posted by Andrews

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/image_13.jpgone im building now I have been doing them like this for years, had good eesults

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Yep...plenty of places for them to hide and feel secure in!
You still have enough room in those big ol' buckets to double up and hold some shrubbery....then you have the best of both worlds!:):):)lol

I think I'm going to add some cypress and pecan limbs in there. I cut 55 gallon drums in half and put all kinds of stuff in them.

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Originally Posted by Andrews

I think I'm going to add some cypress and pecan limbs in there. I cut 55 gallon drums in half and put all kinds of stuff in them.

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If it gets too heavy you can just sink the wood in the same area beside the PVC...this has worked well for us.
When I first started using Hedge Apple (Osage Orange), I didn't realize how much I was putting into Plastic bins...and I didn't realize how dense and heavy it was:)...It ended up taking 3 of us to lift the stuff and drop it into the lake!:):):)
Then I started really making the barrels, bins, and buckets full and dense with BIG Lightweight PVC, and then adding Osage limbs to really fill it in and bring all that natural goodness!
Hard dense wood not only lasts a long time, but it also kicks off the ecosystem...by bringing all the micro-organisms, which brings baitfish, craws, etc, to feed....which brings the fish you want to feed, hide, etc.!
The BIG PVC, when sanded with 60 grit, will allow layers of algae to build, which will also bring in the bottom of the food chain...But the Big PVC has a better benefit...shade and ambush points for BIG Predators.
Like Lowell said...if you build the cover starting with laydowns, brush blocks, pallets, cedar, Christmas trees, etc. for baitfish in the shallow water, then medium sized cover close by, then the big stuff deeper, you will build a self sustaining areas that will replace the fish that you take.
Some guys just drop stuff and can't understand why it stops producing...Crappie will follow the same paths over and over throughout their life...if you remove a lot of fish from a certain area, it can take a long time to get fish back in the area....you have to offer them something to get them to change their patterns.
If you provide plenty of food for them, big safe cover, and places to hide or ambush, then the fish will come and stay!

I also go to my local restaurant and get there oyster shell a couple times a week to really jump start my spots. I live on a lake and I put as much time making attractors as I do fishing. I am working on an aluminum boat now that washed up with a hole in it, going to make a hotel for them��. I'll post some pics of it when done

I have 160 lb of concrete in it now every time I add mor in to the barrel I add a sack of concrete, I'm not worried about weight my buddy builds piers and has a pontoon boat with a small crane.

I'm a ways away from being done I have 2 sacks of concrete in it now, as I add my woody structure to it I will add concrete. I got a buddy with a crane on his pontoon boat "he's a pier builder" so lifting is not a problem

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Originally Posted by Andrews

I'm a ways away from being done I have 2 sacks of concrete in it now, as I add my woody structure to it I will add concrete. I got a buddy with a crane on his pontoon boat "he's a pier builder" so lifting is not a problem

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That is awesome...the possibilities for you are limitless when it comes to size and area coverage! Nice!

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/image_29.jpgi will be putting these in the line with my pvc

That's just too cool...those look sweet!
I seriously doubt that you'll have problems attracting fish to your man-made forest! :)lol

I hope it sinks good. I put 80# sacks of concrete in the biggest and the smallest is a 10" steel pipe I put a bunch of scrap nuts and bolts with a sack of concrete.

If you look in the la forum under jake St. John you can see some of the 2# plus fish I been catching

ENSURE that you have enough weight to firmly anchor it in place especially if there is current present. We added 10 hole red bricks to quite a few of our bigger "C" trees. These double as cover for small crayfish. Several different places in shallow clear water have seen bass of all sizes learn to literally look at the holes in the bricks and then suck these small crayfish straight out of them for an easy meal !

I meant to say 4 sacks of 80# it's plenty weight

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Originally Posted by Lowellhturner

ENSURE that you have enough weight to firmly anchor it in place especially if there is current present. We added 10 hole red bricks to quite a few of our bigger "C" trees. These double as cover for small crayfish. Several different places in shallow clear water have seen bass of all sizes learn to literally look at the holes in the bricks and then suck these small crayfish straight out of them for an easy meal !

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Bricks are a great idea thanks

You are more than welcome. TRY it, chances are you`ll LIKE the `results` !

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/image_30.jpg added drift wood and pallet just sank it 25 '

I will be adding c trees tomorrow along with bricks. I was able to find a good many, I'm also going to add more drift wood with the c trees. Thanks again for the ideas.

I will be adding c trees tomorrow along with bricks. I was able to find a good many, I'm also going to add more drift wood with the c trees. Thanks again for the ideas.

All great ideas

:ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp

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Originally Posted by INTIMIDATOR

GBS

Please Do Not take this wrong...I'm just trying to help you!:)

The small tubing is a waste of your time....the time spent drilling holes for them is just wasted unless you make them dense...I mean dense like a Christmas tree, etc.
Your time will be better spent to add more BIG limbs, PVC, or boards. Big Crappie use big cover for ambush areas (dark areas) and for shade from sun and heat....the more shade you can offer the more Big fish that will use it.
If you want to use up the tubing, just make your vertical cover dense, so fish can get in it for protection....that's all that cover is...protection and a place to feel safe, or a food station for hunting or for baitfish attraction.
Another key is to drop as much of your cover together as possible, you want ALOT of cover to hold ALOT of fish....you have to give them a place that can hold a lot of fish in a school or Alot of Big Predatory Slabs.

Alot of the cover pictured was dropped in groups of 10 to 20....with laydowns shallow and bigger cover deep....but always in dense groups.
Notice the Crappie camo....this is preferred cover for small to medium fish....they still need protection from predators.

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Most think that Crappie want dense cover but it is better IMO if the spacing allows then to swim through it . I try to leave room to allow a big fish room to swim through it with no trouble . I have seen stakes places 1' apart in rows , several rows evenly spaced load up .

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

Most think that Crappie want dense cover but it is better IMO if the spacing allows then to swim through it . I try to leave room to allow a big fish room to swim through it with no trouble . I have seen stakes places 1' apart in rows , several rows evenly spaced load up .

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You are thinking correctly...Dense Cover for Big Fish and Smaller fish are totally different.
Big Fish will use BIG Dense stuff...Osage Orange trees, Stumps, Sunken Trees, Wood Posts, Stakes, Big Plastic stumps beds, Dock Pilings, etc...they use these for shade, ambush points, and for protection if needed.
Smaller fish will use Smaller dense stuff...laydowns, Christmas Trees, cedar, 'boo, and really small dense Plastic stuff that they can bury in for protection. They also use these smaller dense brush etc. as feeding stations, because it decays faster and draws the bottom of the food chain, small minnows, fry, insects etc.

We dropped 50 buckets with 1 six foot tall, 8 inch drain pipe, in each, with osage and oak limbs surrounding it...that mine-field has been loaded with big fish for over 10 years, and is still going strong!

In my opinion anything that the fish can get in or around is better than nothing as long as it won't hurt the fish like treated lumber, walnut, or other toxic materials. It don't matter if it lasts a year or a lifetime it is still better to place some fish habitat than to not have it if the lake needs it or not. Dense habitat will hold small fish,crayfish,water bugs,frogs,frog eggs,etc. which is food to bigger fish. If you have the food the big fish will come to supper for sure. I think large fish structure-habitat is somewhat used for shade mostly as well as ambush sites for larger fish. But to my notion if small fish habitat is less important, then the eco environment is going to get out of balance and if you don't have the small fish after awhile you won't have any big ones either. This is just my 2 cents worth of thinking and it won't cost you nothing.
Fish habitat "Build it and they will come"

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Originally Posted by scrat

In my opinion anything that the fish can get in or around is better than nothing as long as it won't hurt the fish like treated lumber, walnut, or other toxic materials. It don't matter if it lasts a year or a lifetime it is still better to place some fish habitat than to not have it if the lake needs it or not. Dense habitat will hold small fish,crayfish,water bugs,frogs,frog eggs,etc. which is food to bigger fish. If you have the food the big fish will come to supper for sure. I think large fish structure-habitat is somewhat used for shade mostly as well as ambush sites for larger fish. But to my notion if small fish habitat is less important, then the eco environment is going to get out of balance and if you don't have the small fish after awhile you won't have any big ones either. This is just my 2 cents worth of thinking and it won't cost you nothing.
Fish habitat "Build it and they will come"

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There aren't many of us who are about building an underwater ecosystem....we did it to save and build our home lake.
Most could care less and only want to build a honey hole for themselves....for those they have all the info that they need!

Intimidator, you, Lowellhturner, Nimrod and a lot of others here have done way more for the fish ecosystem than me and most others will ever. I have learned more in the past few years from you all than I ever did on my own. I have read and seen a lot of your old posts and pictures and if anyone has honey holes you all should have them. Thanks for helping a old man learn new tricks of the trade.:ThumbsUp