Thread: Bamboo vs. Cedar

Sir Intimidator is correct; about 3/4th of our cover is mostly for use as nursery purposes but the logic still stands that #1: ANY cover beats none and #2: if it allows juvenile fish to get bigger it`s still going to attract some predators occasionally... a gentleman named Saugeye Marc posted when we were 1st starting the projects saying that while 1st ice fishing each season that he tries to find the sets of cover that still are covered by the moss and algae and will patiently await a school of shad to arrive and start devouring it, pooping and shedding their scales inside the sets. In the mean while he would watch on his Aqua-View camera with low light capability as the predators would start to gather just outside...soon the school of shad would almost completely strip all the algae off the cover. They are then faced with a choice: run for it or stay and starve...he says he has done VERY well under such circumstances and is bummed out because by mid winter all the sets have already been stripped of their algae...

Originally Posted by Lowellhturner

Depends on the fertility of the water they go into, depth they come to rest at, bottom type, and the type of cedar or wood. When give a longevity in years am actually giving a "half- llfe", ie, 1/2 the original volume of say locust will still be where it was dropped in 10 years. in 20+ yrs 1/2 of osage orange will still be there; ect. Most 6`- 8` cedars will still have 1/2 their starting volume in 8-10 yrs. There is a cedar at the corner of a dock that at the end of each ice fishing season has annually been snagged, hauled up, picked clean of snagged ice jigs and then dropped back now for about 9 years. It still has about 1/3rd of it`s original volume, is in 14 fow on a sediment bottom AND is heavily fished...and is STILL producing !

Here every draw down I've seen lots of blocks with a trunk (cedar) tied to it but very few with limbs still on them except the very large ones. The native red Cedar outlast the Christmas Trees they sink ,but unless they have Red heart wood will rot in this lake very quickly. Only telling you what I've seen here but it is a shallow fertile lake much farther south. Wood lasts the best if it stays submerged all the time too. There are huge stumps still here from trees cut down before lake filled in 1942 , but none last that are exposed.

Originally Posted by vic n

The harder the wood, the longer it will last....cedar, oak, hedge(osage orange), are all good. Bamboo, willow, silver maple, pine......not too good.

The soft woods work good but only last a season or two. Also if green wood like Willows are sunk and reach the surface Beavers are bad about eating those!

Mr Nimrod is the Crappie whisper. He said build them and they will come. If you have persimmon trees in your area. For some reason musk rats, beaver will not eat Persimmon. Asked a legend crappie fishermen was putting out Persimmon for crappie cover. I asked why Persimmon. He said "you ever seen a worm in a Persimmon"

Jackie53; Looks like you have been working hard, helping the fishery out. Hope you catch a boat load this year. Thanks for helping the other fish out for generations to come. But I don't know about the persimmon (bark; toxic to fish) check it out here. Be safe and good luck fishing.

http://plantsciences.utk.edu/pdf/Pla...PoisonFish.pdf

That link refers to Asian Persimmon not native. We catch fish out of ones we sink as well as live ones in flood water. They work great being heavy wood easy to sink. Work great for fishing because of few limbs to hang on .

Originally Posted by scrat

Jackie53; Looks like you have been working hard, helping the fishery out. Hope you catch a boat load this year. Thanks for helping the other fish out for generations to come. But I don't know about the persimmon (bark; toxic to fish) check it out here. Be safe and good luck fishing.

http://plantsciences.utk.edu/pdf/Pla...PoisonFish.pdf

Would love to take credit, Creekslick( crappie guide)Pro Crappie fishermen).(Local guides),COE, AGFC,D-10, local schools pitched in on these fine fish cover.

Originally Posted by NIMROD

That link refers to Asian Persimmon not native. We catch fish out of ones we sink as well as live ones in flood water. They work great being heavy wood easy to sink. Work great for fishing because of few limbs to hang on .

Nimrod; Your right I didn't know they were different types of these trees. I just took for granted that it was all persimmon trees.