Making "stumps"

[CarpPoop]

I was out fishing last night and was trolling across this wide flat. It doesnt have much structure on it and its about 5 feet deep. I was thinking, what if I were to get several plastic buckets and fill with concrete then sink them on the flat. I have no experience with this. How much concrete should go in the bucket? Would they stand upright ok? Would adding a few short PVC pipes in each one be better? Just seeing what anyone thinks.

[ceb]

If there isn't any cover on the flat....either way should work fine. The easiest thing to do will be to just take the buckets and fill them up with gravel, chunk rock, or anything else that you can find. I wouldn't spend any money on concrete unless you want to put vertical cover in it....

Take a 20' piece of rope and double it through the handle. Lower the bucket down and bounce it up and down with the rope to settle it on the bottom without knocking over the "stump" and spilling the rocks out. Then just release one side of the rope and pull the rope on out....then go to the next one.

[crappie52]

i agree with ceb, do not spend money on concrete, just about a third full should do it if it is in a low current area, that away you can get more in your boat, i like putting them in a circle formation, just take that rope and lift once or twice and make sure it seeds well and when algey gets on them it should work well. good luck.

[3's]

Plus the gravel will draw crayfish and provide a spawning area in the bucket.

[1weezer]

I put out thousands of buckets every year. All I do is put one scoop of gravel in a bucket, let it fill up with water, and then just let it go. No rope, no nothing. I just let it fill up with water and let it go. It will sink straight to the bottom and will be there for ever. Make sure you don't put them any where that there is any current. It takes a little longer for fish to come to a bucket, but they will be there long after a wood bed has rotted. Just ask any one that has ever gone fishing with me if they work. The beauty of using buckets is they are VERY hard to see on a sonar unit. Most people will never see them.

[CatFan]

A good cheap way to make artificial stumps is to use the plastic nursery pots that large plants and trees come in. They are free for the taking usually, and never have anything in them that is toxic or unattractive to fish. Talk to a landscaping place, and you can get all you want. I used Liquid Nails construction adhesive to glue a chunk of busted-up concrete from an old driveway the neighbor tore out to the bottom and filled them with water and down they went.

Good part is these thin, hollow plastic buckets don't show up on the sonar, so I'm the only one who knows where they are. One of my bucket fields produced a 2.25lb crappie and a 5.5lb bass in the same year for my brother-in-law.

[kincade]

anything is better than nothing. Put out what you have and you'll see fish. My suggestion is fill bucket with sand or rock then top off with concrete. Bamboo or pvc or oak coming out of top is better. Try something different and let us know how it does.

[CarpPoop]

Good suggestions...especially the gravel part. Sure would be alot easier than messing with concrete. I wander, what if you took 3 or 4 pieces of short PVC and set them upright in the bucket then filled the bucket up about 3/4 with gravel around the PVC. Do you think the PVC would stay put? I assume maybe not or else no one would use concrets on their PVC sets..right?

[Greenwing]

Do you guys think it would work to use buckets and river cane to make stuff for shallow water? I am wanting to bait up some areas that are in the 5-6ft. range. The river cane in Western Ky doesnt get very big I would guess most is 5/8 to 3/4 inch diameter....How long would this cane last? ....I was wanting to try and make the buckets and cane and flare the top as wide as possible and keep the height to 30-36 inches.

CarpPoop not trying to steal your thread this is just something I thought of as alternative to just using buckets.

[haugboss]

hey poop
you can add pvc to your buckets with out concrete
1 screw right through the side of the bucket into the pvc
2 drill into the bucket and pvc and run a wire through them and tie off

then add gravel or chunk rock in the middle

al