Alternative to Death Stars?

[PGottshall]

Check this out:

http://www.fishattractor.com

Paul

[CohuttaCrappie]

Those look like they might work as well. Though they may draw thug fish a little more as big as they are. The site even says "Bass will love it" Maybe doing a scaled down size of these would work too? just with smaller pipes. Might have to try it.

[Slab]

looks like you could make these yourself with just pvc and the right sized drill bit

[crap-king]

it definately takes away having that center piece and the pvc is very reasonable
crap-king

[Barnacle Bill]

looks like you could make these yourself with just pvc and the right sized drill bit

Yea, and I bet anyone here could make them without spending $21.00 for plans.

[Jerry Blake]

The right size hole-saw and a drill press is all you need to make these. Probably put some self-drilling stainless steel screws in the smaller pieces on both sides of the larger piece to keep them from moving.

I'm thinking about trying it with 10-foot lengths of 4-inch PVC with 1 or 11/2-inch cross pieces about 6-feet long, about 1-foot apart all the way along the 4-inch piece. Then the 4-inch piece would be horizontal - like a log lying down - and the smaller pieces would be at 45-degree angles along both sides (like limbs) and hold the 4-inch piece off the bottom a couple feet. Would be a bit expensive but would last forever and probably hold crappie real well.

[Moose1am]

Hey Paul:

Those look almost exactly like the PVC trees that I made. Only mine are 10ft long 4" OD PCV pipe with ten of the 1" ID pvc pipe.

That is a great picture of the trees under water. I imagine that since I didn't fill the top of my tree with a buoyant type of material that they fell over and are laying on their sides just like those in your picture.

Wish I had an underwater Digital Camera and had my scuba gear ready to use so that I could dive down to my trees and take a look at them LOL

The water is really clear at this time of the year and they should be visible even in the 15 to 20ft depths.

But my tank is empty as all the air leaked out and it's not been hydrstatic tested or pressure tested in many years. The wet suit is a small and I need an XL these days. LOL Too many beers, steak dinners and potato chips and dip over the years.

Now the tank I could get checked and refilled but the Wet suit I will have to sell or give away on Ebay and then I would have to get a new one that fits. Also I would need a new BC pack as mine is shot. There really is not good places to dive around here and since I quit the FD I don't need the diving stuff anymore. I use to do search and recovery work when I was on the FD. But that was many years ago. Today I try to stay in the boat and out of the water.

But I would love to see my trees and get a picture of them. Maybe I can get one of my old friends to dive down there and take a picture for me. LOL

Check this out:

http://www.fishattractor.com

Paul

[Moose1am]

Bass do like these trees. In fact I have caught more bass by my PVC trees than I have I have crappie. Humm maybe that is why the crappie don't use them like I thought they would. The bass have chased them out of the structure and taken over.

Those look like they might work as well. Though they may draw thug fish a little more as big as they are. The site even says "Bass will love it" Maybe doing a scaled down size of these would work too? just with smaller pipes. Might have to try it.

[Moose1am]

Hey Guys don't pay for these plans. This is a simple do it yourself project. If anyone needs to know details just ask. There is an article in last years Crappie World that describes exactly how to make a PVC tree. All you have to do is measure the outside diameter of the branches and then buy a hole saw that is that exact size. I use the 1" Schedule 40 pipe. The 1" is the Inside Diameter and the thickness of the Schedule 40 pipe makes the outside diameter exactly 1 and 3/8" in diameter. Just drill a hole in the side of the bigger pipe and another hole on the other side of the pipe and then slide the smaller pipe though the holes. Alternate the holes so that the branches are not all in the same plane and you have a PVC crappie tree.

You could weight one end of the Tree with concrete by screwing some 3" long screws into the pipe. The put the pipe into the ground. Dig a shallow hole in the ground put the pipe in to a depth of about 1ft and backfill. This will keep the pipe standing straight up and allow you to put the concrete and water inside the top of the pipe. The screws at the bottom of the pipe will end up embedded in the concrete and keep the concrete core from sliding out of the pipe. I used a temporary pipe cap to keep the dirt out and then drilled some small holes in the pipe to let water inside the pipe. Then I put the quickcrete in the bottom of the pipe and added water to the inside of the pipe and then let the water in the hole seek into the holes of the pipe to completely saturate the quickcriete inside the bottom of the pipe. This should be faily easy to do with a short piece of pipe. My pipes were 10ft long when put together but I used the type of pipe that has the flang on one end. Those pipe are designed to be stuck together to make long runs. I just cut off the end with the flang on it and then flipped that short piece over to attach it back to the other end when I was ready to drop it in the water after adding the cement to the short piece.

These only take a short time to make.

The major consideration is the cost of the PVC pipes as it cost me 55 bucks to make two of these 10fl long trees. That can be expensive if you make a lot of trees. But they should last forever

I would also recommend that you insert some of the Fun noodle type foam in the top of the tree and then cap that in place. That way the top will float and the bottom will sink and the tree will stand upright along the bottom off the lake and not lay over like those in the picture. Either way they should work fine.

looks like you could make these yourself with just pvc and the right sized drill bit

[Moose1am]

Jerry:

The idea of making these PVC trees came to me via Crappie World. There is a crappie fishing professioal guide who wrote the article and took pictures of his PVC trees. He explained exactly how to do this. If it were not copyrighted I would copy it and post it in this forum.

But I can describe how to do it. I see that you know how to do it already.

If I were a guide and wanted to put out structure that would last me a lifetime and that would be hard for other fishermen to find then I would put out a lot of these. I would do it over time adding just a few each year until I got all the spots covered in my lake. Again this idea comes from Skip Surbaugh who fishes Lake of the Ozarks. He was the guide in the Fall 2003 issue of Crappie World who gave me the idea about making and using PVC Trees.

Does anyone know how to get back issues or copy's of crappie world magazine? I would like to get some of the 2000 though 2002 issues.


Jerry:
The major cost is the PVC sections. Those ten foot long 4" pipe are not cheap. Especially the schedule 40 types (green) with the expanded ends that help connect the next pipe section. Expect to pay about 55 to 60 bucks for two of these and that does not include the quickcrete concrete mix. One bag of quickcrete should fill about 8 two foot long sections of the 4" OD pvc pipe. And you will need to buy some 3 " long screws and maybe some fun noodles things. Then You need a way to keep the fun noodles inside the top of the 4" pipe so a cap would need to be glued to the top of the 4" pipe.

I am planning on making some more this winter. The thing about these is that they could be moved from one spot to another. Another positive thing about this system is that it's very portable. You can actually just drill the holes and make the concrete ends and then take these out in the lake and put it together on the water. I did the prelim work at home and then too the boat out and installed two of these in just under an hour. It might be easier to do with a helper. I did it all by myself. I was able to put all the pieces together using a velcro strap to hold them together until I was ready to assemble the trees. I added the weighted pipe section first then installed each of the 10ft long 1" ID pipes.

If you use larger pipes then you will need to get a larger sized hole saw. The 1 3/8" hole saw only works for the 1" ID PVC Pipe which is about 1 and 3/8" od due to the thickness of the pipe.

Just make sure that you get your ID and OD straight. I tend to get them mixed up sometimes.

The right size hole-saw and a drill press is all you need to make these. Probably put some self-drilling stainless steel screws in the smaller pieces on both sides of the larger piece to keep them from moving.

I'm thinking about trying it with 10-foot lengths of 4-inch PVC with 1 or 11/2-inch cross pieces about 6-feet long, about 1-foot apart all the way along the 4-inch piece. Then the 4-inch piece would be horizontal - like a log lying down - and the smaller pieces would be at 45-degree angles along both sides (like limbs) and hold the 4-inch piece off the bottom a couple feet. Would be a bit expensive but would last forever and probably hold crappie real well.