Caught my limit in an hour and a half.

[FalconSmitty]

weather was good a few drizzles water was 47. Caught all in one spot on a bamboo condo I dropped last week. This lake has no structure so they seem to just love my condos. Took a pic in the basket before it got dark. Fishin is good. :D

[FalconSmitty]

another pic

[drill instructor]

Can you tell me how did you build the bamboo piles, I plan on doing some soon but want the best way to do it. Sounds like you know what you are doing.

[FalconSmitty]

the people in this place don't know how good of a hole they have out here from the dock.....shhh

[FalconSmitty]

Can you tell me how did you build the bamboo piles, I plan on doing some soon but want the best way to do it. Sounds like you know what you are doing.

This is a pm JerryBlake from the main board sent me. The finished copy will have pics and be in the article section of crappie.com They are easy to build I stuck in a pic of one of mine.



Rough Draft - Building Bamboo Crappie Condos

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This is a rough draft! Let me know which parts are most confusing so I can work on them. When I get the pictures it will make more sense (I hope).

Bamboo Crappie Condos

We’ve discovered that bamboo is an excellent material for building crappie condos. It lasts for years and will hold crappie year around when properly constructed and placed in a good location.

After building quite a few we’ve come up with a system that works well.

We’re using bamboo that is about 12 to 15-feet tall or only the top 12 to 15-feet of taller bamboo. The shorter bamboo seems to be bushier than the taller stuff we’ve used. We don’t use any larger than about 1¼-inch in diameter at the butt end because larger ones take up too much room in the bucket and are too buoyant.

We’ve been cutting the bamboo with a chain saw and carrying it to the lake in the boat by placing the butt ends towards the front and packing the tops down and securing them to the boat with a rope. I can carry enough bamboo for three condos and am still able to get in the boat to get it off the trailer and motor to our building spot near where we want to drop the condos.

We’re putting about a dozen stalks in a 5-gallon plastic bucket with 60-pounds of Quickcrete. We start with about 3-inches of water in the bottom of the bucket and stir in about 1/3 of the Quickcrete before adding the other 2/3. We make the quickcrete a little soupy and make sure it’s stirred up all the way to the bottom of the bucket so we can get the bamboo down all the way.

If it we’re having a hard time getting it stirred down to the bottom we just pour the whole thing into another bucket to make sure it is mixed well. If you get it too runny the gravel can settle in the bottom and keep the bamboo from going all the way down.

The biggest problem we’ve had is keeping them standing up until the quickcrete sets, especially if there is any wind. To stabilize them we have four 3-foot pieces of 3/8-inch rebar driven in the ground around the buckets to just below the rim with a rope tied around the bucket AND to each rebar so they can’t spread. We have these setup near some big trees for additional support and we start with two stout bamboo stalks placed in the bucket at an angle so the butt is at the bottom edge of the bucket and against the rim on the opposite side. We put one on each side of our support tree and secure them to the tree with a bungee cord about 6-feet off the ground, which is about half-way up the stalk.

We then add more of the bigger stalks at an angle like the first ones and then put the rest at different angles with a few of the shorter ones straight up. Since we’ve been doing it this way we haven’t had any problem with them tipping over. On land they are quite top heavy but in the water the bamboo is buoyant so it keeps them standing straight up. I don’t know how long it will remain buoyant but some bamboo condos some guys put in Greeson almost 2-years ago on a steep bank are still standing straight up.

We let the concrete set for at least 24 hours before sinking the condos. We untie one end of the rope so we can get the buckets out and leave the rebar in the ground for the next batch. We put the condos in the boat so the bucket is in the bottom and they lean out over the sides or back because it’s real hard to keep them standing up while motoring, even going slow. I can carry three condos at a time in my boat – two in front and one in back.

Once over the drop zone we just lift the bucket over the side and drop it. Don’t have to worry about dropping them straight because they go down like a parachute with the bucket at the bottom.

We’ve discovered it’s easiest and less messy to handle the quickcrete in the boat if we put it in the buckets first – only takes little bit of moisture and the quickcrete bags come apart. For stirring up the quickcrete we use a small garden rake with a long handle – works real good.
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