Thread: Attractors for Bass/Crappie

YOU CAN READ THIS THREAD, BUT THERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION IN THE ARTICLES SECTION AT:
http://crappie.com/content/view/135/2/








These attractor/habitat devises loosely resemble suspended lilypads, and provide shade as well.

Drill a hole in the center of a 5 gallon bucket lid just big enough to run a piece of braided poly rope through. If it's white, quickly sand to roughen and spray paint a dark color....just the top and sides.

Cut a piece of foam fun noodle and liquid nail it over the hole on the underside of the lid....make sure the hole in the noodle lines up....run the rope through and tie a figure 8 knot on top. Experiment with the size of the foam piece...it should hold the lid up underwater, but not float the brick or make it too light to hold as an anchor....Now slide on a foot of gray electrical conduit and tie off at the 18 inch mark by fastening a brick with holes for an anchor. From the brick to the floating lid will be 18 inches... the lid will be upright at the top, then underneath the 4 inch or so fun noodle piece, a couple inches of exposed poly braid rope, then the conduit hook guard will rest on the knot at the brick. You can plant these after obtaining permission from the authorities in your state.

We're planting ours in the local reservoir owned by the TVA, but are restricted as to where, as we've been granted permission by the Wildlife Agency under an Experimental classification. We're only planting at the 6 to 8 foot range in coves starting with secondary points and working in from there.

I don't think you would need any permission in private ponds, but do check.

We're planting in clusters of twos and threes to hopefully supply shade and protection for spawning bass. Wildlife Agency will survey our results with their shock boat later on. I'm really pumped as they were very pleased with my design. Just wanted to share the idea....good fishing, Mac

If you get the lids from a bakery, they often have a tube type seal inserted in the rim. These seals are hollow and provide a little extra floatation....not necessary to use as much fun noodle foam to float....just have to try different sizes to fit your floatation needs.

DIAGRAM FOLLOWS a couple posts down on this thread thanks to Flycaster....

rnvinc,

I'm speculating that if the foam is attached, it will better keep the lid upright. It's just a speculative hunch. It would rub against the rope if tilted and would not allow it to tilt too badly...such as if decaying material on the bottom was emitting bubbles and they were catching in the rim....trying to tilt the lid. I am just guessing....very good question and questionable answer. Lol, Good Fishing, Mac

UPDATE.....UPDATE

First of all, the material change.....I found out from a poster that the fun noodle will take on water when submerged over a period of time. We siliconed 4 blocks of styrofoam under each lid....each little block was 3/4 inches thick and 2 X 2 inches in size. The brick still was very sufficient for anchoring the attractors. The TVA wouldn't allow the plastics in the reservoir so we contacted the rangers in the national forest....they liked the idea and planted the attractors in a mountain lake on an experimental basis. We planted 75 in 9 groupings of 5 and 10. Come September, they will survey the use by the fish by running a shock boat over the top. They were planted under the supervision of the fish biologist at a depth of 8 feet, and were dropped near changes in the bottom at that depth such as small channels and humps.