Thread: Sinking christmas trees

Sounds like a good plan that is if they hold enough concrete for weight to hold them down. Would like to see pictures of the stands.

I'd like to see a pic also....
We were able to get Concrete block "Seconds" from our Concrete Company in Spfld, for 25 cents per block....but you really had to do then right to keep then standing over time!

Most Christmas Trees too thick and rot very quickly. Beats nothing . Please post photos , stands I've seen would not hold much concrete .

Of all commonly sold types of "C" trees Blue Spruce seems to last longest; remember to clear off the limbs 18" up the trunk from the cut end of the flattest side and secure your block TIGHTLY for laydowns and with 2 holes drilled into the trunk and Zip Tied to the center of the block for stand ups. FAR better are cedar shrubs and tree limbs about 2-3" thick and shoved opposite directions thru a cement block, all branches on 1 side going in the same direction and secured TIGHTLY with VHD Zip Ties around both ends of each bundle then secured together with more Zip Ties on diagionally opposed ends. The end result is a "BB" (brush block) that is low to the bottom and should last 4-6+ years... while not completely invisible to sonar they often resemble a small patch of weeds or a rock or stump. These can be easily stacked 3-5 high on a pontoon (less for bass hoats) for transporting and can be rapidly deployed.

I have put out many Christmas trees. What we do is tie 4 trees together at the base and sink with 3 12 inch concrete blocks. One of the trees has a 6 x 6 x 4 inch Styrofoam block tied in the top for it to stand up. We would put out around two hundred trees at a time so we don't try to make each tree stand up.
Alternatively, you could tie a 12 inch concrete block to one tree and put Styrofoam or a jug in its top and it would stand up.

My friend contacted the owner of a Christmas tree farm around the first of the year and the man had cut down probably 40 trees that were too big that he knew he couldn't sell next year. He was gonna burn them and let us have them all for free. I knew where there was an abandoned old home place where cinder blocks were readily available so we picked up the trees and blocks on the same day.

My friend is retired and he took on the task of trimming them down a bit so they weren't quite so thick and attaching each tree to a block with wire. We've made several trips to our favorite local lake in the past two weeks, putting out 8 trees per trip. We freshened up a couple of old spots and created some new spots dropping 4-6 trees in each spot close to each other, but not right on top of each other.

We've good luck on trees we've sank before, but they surely are hangy. You're gonna leave some jigs behind, but the fish will find them. GTT

Would deliberately decorate our family "C" tree with an embedded ice jig just below the base of the Angel as a good luck "charm" ! Let us face facts: generally we tend to fish into cover and hanging a jig/ lure is occasionally GOING to happen.... it`s literally a "contact" sport. If 1 is not prepared to lose it then please keep it IN the tackle box...

Back in 1972 our local Fishing Club got a great idea for a real cheap way to put structure into our local lake, we came up with this ? Every year everybody just throws away their Xmas trees, so lets go collect them and drop them off at one of the members fields till we are ready for them, We took a dozen of the biggest Xmas trees and removed all limbs up to 12 inches from bottom, drilled two holes in bottom of each tree with 1/4 inch drill ,10 and 12 inches from bottom, now drill a 1/4 or 3/8 drill thru bottom of tree 4 inches up and run the 1/4 0r 3/8 bolt thru tree so it sticks out same on both sides (at least 2 inches ) After this we had buckets to slide over the bolts and then concreted the buckets to the trees bottom and the bolt will grab onto the concrete and hold on to the tree securely. In February we hauled them to the local lake and took all 225 Xmas trees onto the ice and placed them in circles of 12 to18 trees and placed them all over at 12 to 14 ft of water depths , and wired them all together with wire that was about 1/8 inch thick, thru cement blocks,(we bought blocks that were cracked or slightly damaged and got them for real cheap price) we put a cement block in between each tree on the circle, one tree into each circle that had concrete bucket on bottom and wired the tree thru predrilled holes at 10 and 12 inches and onto circle trees , securing everything together , the center tree is the only one that is in upright position. Those days we had to triangulate everything between rocks, shorelines, trees so you could find them after the ice melts and they would sink. We kept checking positions on the ice till it melted, just in case somebody moved them.
You got it made today by just hitting Mark on your GPS. I had this spot off A Point where my kids and I caught 1000's of crappies over the yrs but early on I had a heck of a time finding this spot till I got my new boat in 1972 ,a 14 ft aluminum boat from Montgomery Wards for $225 , and I had a 12lb thrust electric motor from Sears. I also purchased a Green Box depth finder that had a circling red line constantly around it at all times and if something showed between surface and bottom, another red line would indicate it. One day I would find the spot and my kids and I would hammer the crappies and next day couldn't locate it and with two very impatient boys, 6 and 8 yrs old , and after circling the spot twenty minutes went over it and thru my marker and my kids were getting crappies every cast, so I thought there has to be a better way to find this spot. I noticed a huge tree 125 ft from shore on this side and two trees that reminded me of goal post on the other shoreline. their wasn't much boat traffic those days. So I left my marker overnight they were yellow markers but I sprayed mine black. The next day had 200 ft of rope and a eye bolt , a spike, hammer . got to my marker on the bay area of the lake, lined up with goal post and the other side and went to shore on other side and drove a nail into big tree and placed an eyebolt in it, tied rope to it and took boat to marker while feeding out rope and when I got to marker with a double knot in it and my spot was forever marked . All I did each time was out fishing was go into shore hook rope onto eyehook back out to knot ,line up between goal post and We were on crappie heaven for next 10 to 12 yrs

I don't understand why nobody uses XmasTrees for lake structures today, they are ground up each year, Make sure you get permission to do it?