Thread: How many

Those look good. The fish will love them.

A couple of weeks ago I placed some cover. After learning a lot from this site. I decided to place 5 at a time. I found the place I wanted to drop and first put out a buoy to mark the center of the spot. Then I placed the habitat in a H or X type pattern one at each counter about 10' from center on 4 counters and then 1 in the middle. This would be like having a 20'x20' room with 1 in each counter and 1 in the center. I placed 1 in 12' water and 1 in 19' water where I knew that I had caught fish before. This is just how I done it and I know a lot of others can help you also. Yours look good and another thing to think about is to sandpaper the 5 gal. buckets on the outside, as after the wood is gone they will keep producing algae like a big stump. I learned that on here also. I have been reading passed posts. (I really like this site). Just my 2 cents worth.

Here is a suggestion on possibly getting some free buckets too. Check with local businesses who use a lot of them, such as maybe restaurants. Some of them might save the buckets for you instead of throwing them away. I have about 50 buckets now I got for free.

The stakes at the top look to be 3 to 4 foot diameter. I place mine about that far apart.

Any store that has a deli gets buckets of icing and some other products. I ask at walmart and Kroger. I may get a few 2 gallon, 3 1/2 gallon, maybe a 5 gallon. Super Lo sells their 5 gallon buckets with lid for $2, smaller ones are cheaper.
If you want to reuse the buckets for more condos cut the sides from top to bottom, not the bottom. Duct tape the seams and around the bucket to hold together while making a new condo. Let the concrete cure for a week, remove tape and pull the sides out a bit to release the concrete.
On a craigslist ad there were 5 gallon buckets for 0.20 each. I'll take 100. When I got there they didn't have handles and some stuck together. I said no and the guy gave them to me.

Congrats to all you guys...Blueball the cover looks great, I keep my stake buckets close together, so a Big School of Crappie Can use it....but really, you can't go wrong with anyones ideas.

Congrats to everyone else, for finding cheap buckets, etc....you can do the same with untreated off-size 2x4's, off size or broke PVC, Milk Crates, Chipped or broken concrete blocks, etc...alot of people are just itching to get rid of this stuff for cheap or for free!
GOOD JOB TO ALL!

I do a lot of post season scouting when flood control lakes are drawn down. I will tell you that 75% of the bucket setups like that end up knocked over, from what I see. Most of the time, it's due to setting them on a sloped bank. Even on flats, guys get snagged while long lining. You may not pull it over with 10 lb line for crappies, but striper guys and their 50+ braid don't give these a chance. There is no doubt that they will attract fish/baitfish, but to keep them upright try to support the bottom. I've seen some with PVC and some with wood, but if you punch holes(like making an X or cross) in your buckets and run the supports through as close to the bottom of the bucket as possible and then fill with concrete, you will yield much better results.

Originally Posted by crappieseeker

Here is a suggestion on possibly getting some free buckets too. Check with local businesses who use a lot of them, such as maybe restaurants. Some of them might save the buckets for you instead of throwing them away. I have about 50 buckets now I got for free.

my fishing partner bought the ones in the pic,have a friend that owns a sawmill and i get their hydrolic buckets and clean them real good

How many in one area? That s up to your lake I would say. Do the fish congregate at the spot you are putting them at already? Are you adding to other structure nearby? If it is all alone I would put as many as you can (at least 4) about 3-4 feet apart to give the crappie a condensed area to assemble and feel safe to hang around. I put three to four "C" trees out at a time in one area and it does well for my lake. I dropped close to an area that previously had structure so I knew the fish would be there year round. If the area has structure already then you can add as many as you think is needed to "spruce" up the habitat to keep the fish coming back. Good luck!!