Proposed Test

So there are very mixed results

genec has a great pic of PVC with hardly any algae from his DI

Others can hardly spot PVC until it is all covered with algae

Others have cover out that is invisible and if they don't get coords when they drop, they might as well forget it!

That's why I wanted to see if PVC would act the same as a ping pong ball or a fish bladder. Seal one shut with air in it and see if it will show. I think it would still be nearly invisible to fishermen who didn't know where to look....they would only see a single bright spot. But the guy who planted it would know where to look and what to look for. I was hoping if I put out an 18-24" piece, horizontally, it would show up as the brightest stick in the world! Drop a buoy!!

I don't want anyone to go out and spend money to do this test....surely we can come up with a way to plug a couple of holes for nothing.

Here's genes picture.He used a dedicated di transducerhttp://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...pspglqykn9.jpgCane pole, has posted some good pvc pictures also....
Vic, I really don't mind spending money on the wine, because I no its for a good cause...rotfl

Maybe we should split the cost.....AND the wine!!!!!

I put out a bunch of pvc and my HDS will show it on 2d, DI and SI.

Maybe wrap one limb of the PVC with burlap. Should promote faster algae growth and make that part easier to see.

I have heard of people putting a small metal plate like an old license plate on the structure to see it as well.

Does the "sealed air" work for something like a bottle with air in it tied to the top of a tree to hold it upright on the bottom?

I truly don't know what will work best, but Kosmo has been doing some testing with ping pong balls that show up pretty well. Now, he is right on top of them and even lowering them right into the DI/2D beam, so I don't know if I would try tying ping pong balls to my crappie cover and expect to drive right up and spot those. But what if there was something with an air chamber tied on to the cover that would give a strong return? Not the whole pile, because then everyone could find it, but just an 18-24" piece of closed PVC, so when you get close to your coords you would start looking and be able to recognize that it isn't just some piece of a stick showing up, or a lone fish, but your own little pile. I don't know if a metal plate works, but I was told that it doesn't work too well. I don't know how long it takes for algae to get established. I was just hoping I could talk one of our diehard experimenters to try it and see what happens. We know that the bright white spots we see on DI and SI are the air bladders on fish, so why not try to find a recognizable sort of signal to put with a crappie bed that wouldn't attract others like the "blue light special", but we could still find it.

A 20 ounce soda bottle should give a decent sized hit.

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Originally Posted by vic n

I truly don't know what will work best, but Kosmo has been doing some testing with ping pong balls that show up pretty well. Now, he is right on top of them and even lowering them right into the DI/2D beam, so I don't know if I would try tying ping pong balls to my crappie cover and expect to drive right up and spot those. But what if there was something with an air chamber tied on to the cover that would give a strong return? Not the whole pile, because then everyone could find it, but just an 18-24" piece of closed PVC, so when you get close to your coords you would start looking and be able to recognize that it isn't just some piece of a stick showing up, or a lone fish, but your own little pile. I don't know if a metal plate works, but I was told that it doesn't work too well. I don't know how long it takes for algae to get established. I was just hoping I could talk one of our diehard experimenters to try it and see what happens. We know that the bright white spots we see on DI and SI are the air bladders on fish, so why not try to find a recognizable sort of signal to put with a crappie bed that wouldn't attract others like the "blue light special", but we could still find it.

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The forums where I read they put the metal plates on their pile were pretty fresh and they said they could spot the square plate on the sonar very easily. It is metal so it WILL show up when the signal bounces off it.

And that's why I asked if a bottle with air in it tied to the structure could be seen. The pvc pipes I put out could be pluged and are 36" long so in theory you could see the 36" long pvc pipe and the others would be invisible...I doubt it, but if someone else could chime in that knows better.