Sinking of trees

Im new to the forum and we have alot of xmas trees that were collected this year and will be placing them out in the next week or so. I have several 5 gallon buckets full of concrete and a piece of cable cemented into each bucket. I drilled holes in each tree trunk to pass the cable through. Just wondering if anyone could help by telling me about how many trees a bucket will take down with no problems. Trees are from 6-8 ft tall. This is a start and have many other ideas thanks to the knowledge passed on this forum. Any help is appreciated

5 gal. bucket of concrete weights 88 lbs......
I put a 2.5 gal. jug in top of my trees (to help keep it upright) and 5 gal. bucket will sink it with NO problem...
Good fishing...........

Due to the boyancy force of water you have to subtract 62.4 pounds per cubic foot from that to get the weight after it is submerged. Thats about 21 pounds of weight per bubic foot of concrete...and then you have to account for the bouyancy of the tree you are trying to hold down which further reduces the weight. I go a little heavier because of the currents when they are pulling water in my local lake.

Don't waste your time with the Christmas trees. Grab some fallen timber from the shoreline and sink it with bricko blocks. Christmas trees collect silt and get mashed down before the needles fall off.

I work with a group that puts out several Christmas trees per year. We use 3 twelve inch concrete blocks (around 33 pounds per block) to sink 4 or 5 trees. The trees are tied together at the trunks and 1 of the trees has a 6" x 6" styrofoam block tied to its top.

DHC,
Thanks for your help. Thats the information i was looking for.

Lately, I have been cutting small cedars 5-6' tall, and all I do is fill a 5 gallon bucket about 1/4 full with quikcrete mix. Then I take 3 cedars and work them into the mix and let them sit overnight and sink them. I have not had any problems getting them to sink yet.

Are the cedars you are sinking fresh cut cedars?Cause dont they throw off some acid that will run the crappie off and make them not want to hang in them.I was told by a guide one time it would so I was just asking.

i always tied two trees to a cement block tied a quart oil bottle to the top first clean out the bottle

Some trees will go through a souring period and then they are fine. CF

cedar works pretty well, but i think you are wasting time and good concrete
and buckets if you put out fir or other christmas trees that seem to rot
pretty quickly. just a thought

john b.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crappiefarmer

Some trees will go through a souring period and then they are fine. CF

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Yea I've noticed that with Oak. The Willow or Persimmon trees hold fish right away. They also are easier to fish without hang ups than Cedar or some other limby trees. Willow sank in shallows may become Beaver chow. My preference is green Persimmon Trees , they are also easy to sink. One concrete block will hold them in place. Cause they will almost sink themselves when green.:D

Cedar is good. If they do give off something, it doesn't bother the crappie where I fish. Last year I put one out and a week later caught 30 big keepers off it. About a third of the 100 places I fish have cedar in them.

I sank three christmas trees last week and i'm already catching crappie, that is untill the rain and cold snap

Last christmas I got into droppng structure. My father has a dock on a 300acre lake and its in a cove that is 4-8 feet deep. 4 foot off his dock. He has lived there for 10 yrs now and we NEVER caught crappie at this location except for spawners. WEll I put in one tree and two PVC structures and caught fish from last febuary to November almost every time we went. I will say that the tree was closer to the dock and held less fish but bigger fish. Also when the bit was tough/slow the trees would always produce some slabs. also caught the biggest bass of the year off the tree. It only took two days from sinking to catching. well worth the work.

Christmas trees are better if you let the needles fall off first. I guess you don't have to, but I've heard its better. I've also heard its better if you coon tail the trees. Cut limbs out in sections every foot or so. This gives the fish and baitfish areas to hide in. Personally, I would use hardwoods, but any cover is better than nothing. I try to consider my time on the water, I want to use what little time I have to put in the best cover there is, and thats hardwood. There's plenty on blowdowns all over the banks, why not use your time putting in really good cover.

cedar will last a long time and offers excellent cover I think fish will move to it much faster than plastic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crappietime

Are the cedars you are sinking fresh cut cedars?Cause dont they throw off some acid that will run the crappie off and make them not want to hang in them.I was told by a guide one time it would so I was just asking.

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Burn the needles off and you wont have this problem.