cover, brushpile, stakebed, etc

[superdave1984]

Has anybody tried or thought about trying cornstalks as a man-made fish bed? My mind wanders while driving by all the hundreds of acres of corn around here. I wonder how well the stalks would hold up before they become waterlogged and fall over. It seems like ideal cover if you tie several together and sink them with a big rock or something. Maybe get them while still nice and green. Just curious. I guess I could go nab a few and test in a farm pond somewhere.

[crappieseeker]

I asked this same question on here a long time ago and most people said they didnt think it would work.

[willsjwills]

why wouldn't it work? i have put out bamboo and cane beds that have attracted fish in a couple of days. crappie love shade and cover. that's what you are providing. sounds like a good idea to me. if you try it, let us know how it works out. catch a lot of crappie.

[superdave1984]

I am guessing that it would provide excellent cover, my question is durability. How long would it stand up? Bamboo and cane are very stiff, corn stalks are not. They may float for months for all I know. Guess I will go raid a cornfield and see.

[DavidD]

I guess because of the soft stalk it would start to rot and fall over fairly fast.
If you were to tie a capped milk jug to the top it would greatly increase the length of time it stands.

[crappiefarmer]

Stalks would not last long. they go away pretty fast after harvest. Also, you better not let the farmer catch you in the field breaking off a bunch of stalks. People get shot for doing things like that. The best thing to do is find someone with a garden of sweet corn. these stalks are never planned to get run through a combine and after the corn has been pulled the stalks get mowed. That time is coming up very soon. Corn will break and even more so the dryer the stalks get from the wind from storms. I don't think they would hold up long if there is any current but if you find a still water area they might would last a little while. I wouldn't give them a year in optimal conditions. If you want to get alot of that green corn right now, go talk to the farmer and pay him for the corn. It ain't but $2.50 a bushell. pay him for 2 or 3 bushells and just tell him what your doing and it will probably be fine and he might tell you to help yourself if he understands your not going to wipe out an acre. I have run people out of my crops for doing things like this but if someone stops to take the time to ask and offer to pay me for the crop then 95% of the time I'll let them go with no aggrevation. I'm just glad they respected me enough to ask. And also if the corn does work then you will have a pretty unlimited supply with the relationship you build with the farmer. It ain't being stingy or greedy because there is just so much corn out there, whats a couple bundles gonna hurt? If he lets 1 person go and word spreads not by you but by passerbys then he might start seeing more and more people who didn't ask for permission out in the field pulling way more than you were. So we generally try to nip that kind of thing in the bud from the get go. So if you get approached out in the field by the farmer. Thats what he is doing and might get ugly with you. Best thing to do is just go talk to him first. This ain't no rant by a fellow farmer. I just don't want any of the crappie.com members being in a bad situation. And this is one that I understand. CF

[crappiefarmer]

Oh yeah, Corn is only an annual plant so it is only strong for a little while. Stalks are pretty rotten after 8 or 9 months after planting so they just naturally don't last long. CF

[fishinRod]

nothing ventured nothing gained. I suggest you try it, what's the worst that could happen? I grow sweet corn in our garden, after the harvest, we cut down the stalks and tie 'em in bundles and stand them up until they dry out enough to burn, which is a considerably long time. Get you a stalk and cut it, then submerge it in a 5 gal. bucket of water and see how long it takes to break up. I remeber years ago I used fish a large farm pond (about 30 acres) somebody threw a bail of hay into the shallow end of a cove, it sunk but it was shallow enough to see. I fished that pond for a couple years before I moved and that bail of hay never rotted away. It always had minnows around it, and I pulled many a fish from that area with a beetle spin.

fishinRod

[superdave1984]

I wasn't planning on wiping out an acre of corn here, just a half dozen stalks to test the theory. I do understand crappiefarmer's reasoning and I am glad he would be willing to help out. He works hard for his crop and it isn't right or fair to hijack his profit. I apologize for insinuating.

[crappiefarmer]

No need to apologize! Didn't mean to sound so strong. Just wanted to warn just in case you do get into a situation with a farmer(which really you probably won't) Why he would act like he would. I've problems with people going into peanut fields before and getting peanuts off the vine before I picked them and that really rubs you the wrong way but then I've had total strangers come up and ask permission to get some and I would go get them out of the trailer just because they were good enough to ask. Just want everyone to understand from the farmers perspective. I've probably stepped in it pretty good this time and if I did sound harsh I apologize. If you try the corn and it works let me know! I may have to grow a patch just for brush!:D Who knows might start a new market and be able to sell it for more than $2.50 a bushell. More like $5.00 a bundle! . Good Luck. CF