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Thread: Another Bamboo Crappie Condo Design

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    Default Another Bamboo Crappie Condo Design - Rough Draft


    Here’s a design for bamboo crappie condos that are easy and inexpensive to make and work real well if you can find an ample supply of bamboo. You can carry everything you need to build one in your boat and still be able to cruise to your drop zone. Two people can build one on the front deck of a boat and drop it in less than 10-minutes once you have all the materials ready and you’ve located the spot you want to drop it.

    All you need to make one is two 8 x 8 x 16-inch cement blocks, about 3-feet of nylon rope and 20 to 30 nice bushy stalks of freshly cut bamboo 12 to 15-feet long.

    We fold the front seat down and put a towel or piece of carpet on the back of the seat to protect it and set the blocks there with one on top of the other with the holes horizontal and at right angles and tie them together.

    BLOCKS TIED TOGETHER AND READY FOR BAMBOO

    With one person steadying the blocks and the other person getting the bamboo we cram the bamboo in both holes of each block from both directions.

    STARTING TO INSERT THE BAMBOO

    We line up the blocks on the boat at an angle so the bamboo is hanging off each side of the boat towards the back and out over the front – the ends of the longer pieces are usually in the water.

    We put the bamboo through the holes so that about a third of the stalk is sticking out the other side and put as many in each hole as we can with about equal numbers from each side. We end up with a big cross about 20-feet across - depending on how long the bamboo is - with four big heads that will come up 5 or 6-feet off the bottom and some open space in between.

    CONDO ASSEMBLED AND READY TO DROP

    Once assemble we just pick it up by the bamboo near the blocks and walk it off the front of the boat and drop it.


    CONDO DROPPED AND SLOWLY SINKING

    We try to use bamboo that isn’t too big – 1-inch or less in diameter where we cut it – so we can get plenty of stalks in the holes and they aren’t too buoyant. It’s a good idea to have an extra block on the boat just in case it doesn’t sink. In that case just grab the butt end of a couple stalks and slide another block over them. If you have freshly cut bamboo with stalks that aren’t too big two blocks will sink it fine.

    Lopping shears work real well to cut the bamboo and a chain saw works too. We try to cut it close to the ground and as straight as possible or the stobs can be hazardous. We put the bamboo in the boat with the butt ends facing the front so they travel well and we can pick them up easily to put them in the blocks.

    Compared to wood, bamboo is much easier and lighter to work with, seems to attract fish faster, lasts much longer and it’s a lot easier to fish in and around without getting permanently hung up – jigs pull through it fairly easily most of the time. I think it also makes excellent cover for young crappie to feed and grow up in. Even after the leaves are gone there are a lot of small branches that provide tight cover but open enough for small fish.

    If bamboo grows in your climate there’s probably some around that you can get for free. We’ve found several patches that have gotten too big or taken over and the property owners are real happy to let us take all we want – some are right on the water.

    A little time and effort providing good cover in the right location can be very rewarding.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

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    Jerry - Nice looking condos - I don't think I have ever seen any bamboo growing here in east central Illinois. We do have a lot of willows growing along the river banks where the trunks look to be about the same in diameter as the bamboo stalks. I think I will give that setup a try using willows.
    Ken

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    fiddlefarter's Avatar
    fiddlefarter is offline Moderator Crappie Cover Forum * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Thats a good one, I've got a hook-up too. Buddy of mine works at a block plant.
    Ya ain't holdin' your mouth right.

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    Thumbs up

    Hey Jerry, they sure make a good looking top for shallower water. I experimented with a few buckets by using an 1 1/4 hole saw and cutting holes all the way around the buckets into the sides. I then fed the cane stalks into the side of the buckets and filled with Quikcrete. Little too much work involved and without having any open spaces they were a pain in the butt to put out.

    I like your idea a whole lot better and I've accumulated quite a few concrete blocks as I'm around new home construction quite often.

    I plan on making up several of these as I rarely have to fish over 12 to 15 feet deep here on Nimrod.
    CATCH A BIG-UN

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    Hey Bandit:

    The first ones we made like this we put in fairly shallow water - 8 to 10-feet - for staging and/or spawning beds depending on the lake level and water clarity but we are putting them in our typical deep spots now to see how they work there. I think they are going to hold a lot of crappie year around even in deeper water.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

  6. #6
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    papasage is offline Crappie.com 2011 Man of the Year & Moderator GA * Crappie.com Supporter
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    that will work better in blacksher . it is shallow except the river channel . mostley 14 ft or less . got plenty of bamboo around here . most will let you have all you want
    retired and now i will always fish

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    Hey Papa:

    We're putting them in 18 to 20 feet of water on points that extend into channels now for the Fall Feeding Frenzy and they should be good staging beds for next Spring's spawn too. We'll probably put in some deeper ones on down the points for Winter and Summer fishing.

    The last picture in the articles is of one we had just dropped and it was slowly sinking when I took the picture.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

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    Hey Jerry, it still amazes me how fast the crappie get on these condos. I've never put in any brush or PVC bed and caught several nice sized slabs within 24 hours like I have with the cane condos.

    One thing I think I need to work on now is putting more than one condo per location. Right now I only have one condo per location. I feel like this limits me on how many I could possibly catch from one area.

    I've got a small tree about 20 feet long sunk on the side of a creek channel edge about 10 yards off the main river channel. It is 12 foot deep on one end and 17 foot on the other end. The creek channel is 27 ft. deep and the river channel is 35 ft.deep. I've been thinking about placing a condo in the 27 ft. creek channel just off the end of my brush but I am afraid that if I do this it might mess up my brushpile as this has been one of my better big fish spots.What do you think?
    CATCH A BIG-UN

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    After you said something about it yesterday, I was hoping you would post some pics. Thanks.
    Life is what you make of it...

  10. #10
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    Neat idea! Looks like it would be much easier to transport in the boat that way then pre-made buckets. Much less expensive as well. I wonder how well they will work in the deep water. If you drop them in 20' of water and the fish are holding in the upper 10' of water (lets say because its summer time and the oxygen levels near the bottom are near nil) do you think they would still hold in a top that only comes off the bottom a few feet?

    I am also a bit curious about my buckets I dropped in deep water. Looks like on the sonar they are still standing up. Have you guys notice many of your buckets lying on their sides? I guess once a bucket tips over and lays down it might come off the bottom even less then this way of constructing them.… hmm... and I would guess most buckets do end up laying on their sides. (anchors knocking them over ect…)

    Buckets vs This method which is better for 15’ or more of water?

    ~Fishin' Magician~

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