Best plastic structure questions

[soonerfan]

I am very new at all of this Crappie fishing stuff and I have a few questions. How do I keep the plastic in place while the quickcrete cures? How many pieces makes a good structure, is there a best height? What are the best depths to place them. I have a camp at Toledo Bend, it has many depth ranges with the average of 60'.

[crappiefarmer]

Put your plastic whatever your going to use in a five gallon bucket and let it cure. Give it 2 days. I use up to 12 pieces of pvc pipe in mine. Also you can use 1 gallon milk jugs and cut a hole up near the top but leave the handle. fill with concrete and then stick about 4 pieces of pvc in it. Also you can go towards the top of the page and do a search on pvc and you should get all kinds of info. CF

[crappiefarmer]

Oh yeah, make sure you fill the bucket about half full with concrete. About 10 to 12 inches deep at least so it will easily hold your pipe up as it cures. About 5 to 6 feet is about as high as you wanna go with these. CF

[slabbandit]

Hey there Soonerfan, Crappiefarmer is right on on his reply. The only thing that I might add is to make sure to space your PVC apart enough that the crappie can get in and around them. 12 pieces to a 5 gallon bucket would be plenty.

A tip would be to cut the bucket down shorter to allow the PVC to spread more. I've heard of people using small shallow plastic wash pans also.

[crappiefarmer]

Hey there Soonerfan, Crappiefarmer is right on on his reply. The only thing that I might add is to make sure to space your PVC apart enough that the crappie can get in and around them. 12 pieces to a 5 gallon bucket would be plenty.

A tip would be to cut the bucket down shorter to allow the PVC to spread more. I've heard of people using small shallow plastic wash pans also.

Yeah, cut a good third of the bucket down and fill up to that point and you should be able to get 40 pounds of concrete in there. You can also cut the bucket straight down on each side all the way to the bottom but don't cut the bottom. This will leave a verticle slit on either side of the bucket. Duct tape the sides back up and wrap around the bucket once. spray inside bucket with Pam cooking spray then dump in concrete already mixed. give it about 2 days or more. Then cut the tape and pull on each side of the bucket and the condo will break loose. Pull it on out of the bucket to use over again. Now you won't have to be constantly searching for buckets. Just use the same ones over and over. CF

[soonerfan]

That is some great info and I am looking forward to getting all this going. The weather looks bad for this weekend, but I hope to have some secret spots in the Bend soon.

[TAZ]

Sooner- I use those plastic dishpans you get at the dollar store. I coat the inside with oil before I fill it with concrete -usually 40 lbs. I always put a large piece 3or 4 in PVC in the middle then put smaller ones all around that one. You can lay them out at a pretty good angle because the pan has low sides. I also found out that you need to drill a hole in the pvc so the concrete has a bite on the pipe or it will pull out. After it sets I strip the pan so I can reuse it. I also put about 6 of these in a group when I set them. Good luck!

[crappiefarmer]

Sooner- I use those plastic dishpans you get at the dollar store. I coat the inside with oil before I fill it with concrete -usually 40 lbs. I always put a large piece 3or 4 in PVC in the middle then put smaller ones all around that one. You can lay them out at a pretty good angle because the pan has low sides. I also found out that you need to drill a hole in the pvc so the concrete has a bite on the pipe or it will pull out. After it sets I strip the pan so I can reuse it. I also put about 6 of these in a group when I set them. Good luck!

Taz is right about drilling holes for shallow pans but the buckets don't need holes because they are deeper. If you have 10 to 12" of concrete to stick your pipe in you won't need holes but any less and you may want to drill. Also try to keep concrete on the thick side. This will help to keep multiple pipes propped up until it cures. Thus making the desired number of pipes work. CF