I have put out stuff in some of the lakes here in Indiana before. It is one heck of a lot of hard work. Some of those spots turned out not be worth a hill of beans, and some of them were very good. When you tournament fish a lot, it sure helps to be competitive by adding structure to productive areas, or experimenting to see if you can create a new spot.

Last year the Crappie USA Classic was at Kentucky lake, and many of the teams that finished high had been out all summer after they qualified putting out stake beds, and other structure. Some of the teams that did that had a lot of stake beds out didn't even finish that high.

We did not have any structure out, but we were able to find a lot of stake beds with the Humminbird Sidefinder and fish them. I understand where you are coming from as far as the feel of finding your own structure and spots. I used to feel like you. But once I put out structure and saw how hard it is to get it there, it gave me a completely different angle of seeing it.

Another way of looking at the PVC in the water is it is going to last forever and will help by being habitat that won't rot away. The pipe is not toxic, it is used for drinking water lines in many homes and businesses.

I totally agree, Patoka has plenty of structure in it currently and probably doesn't need anything anyway. It definitely compares to the Masters course in golf for fiishing. Very tough to figure out at times, with huge rewards.

Good Luck to you Tom!

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Jim Raymer
Crappieking1