Thread: Wood vs PVC?

Originally Posted by Catscratch

I'm impressed with the amount of work you guys have done! That is a lot of loads of rock/cement/brick.

I've been studying your pics. I see what you are saying about making it so that it's attractive to fish and not too open.

Interesting about the plastic and electronics. I didn't know that you could build cover that is hidden from others, I always figured it would be visible to people with the good electronics. That isn't a factor for what I'm doing though. This on private property and when other people come out to fish I'll put them right on the cover. No need to hide anything, everyone will be a guest and I'll want them to have the best fishing available.

Thanks a ton for all the info! I'm learning a lot here and I'm certainly forming my plans differently now that I know more than I did.

Yep, the reefs were a Huge challenge, and we built 2 of them. We had a lot of sore and stiff guys the next few days.
We used the reefs to tie in 3 or 4 huge areas of various cover and structure....that way we could influence the yearly pattern and cycle away from areas that are fished heavily, so the lake could continue to grow and sustain itself.
Lakes in Ohio are smaller and highly pressured....if cover is found, a boat is sitting on it 24/7...people will fish cover until the fish are gone and it is destroyed.
Here, we have to hide it, to keep repopulating the fishery...we became VERY good at planning and hiding our drops.
One year, we got wind of a group that didn't want to help us at all, but they were going to come out on the designated day to follow and GPS where we were putting cover, so they could fish it.
We rounded up the troops and dropped the cover the night before, the scheduled day we posted. It was great, and cool as heck, doing a night drop....the best part was the looks on their faces the next morning, it was priceless.

Also, don't worry about how long it takes fish to inhabit the cover....we have put cover out, went back 15 minutes later to add more and fish were already on it. Several times we have finished drops and went back out to take pictures with electronics, and fish had already populated it.
To this day, none of the guys who dropped the cover fish it often...sometimes when we do we just C&R...we many study it, take picture, and try to use the data to help build better stuff for future drops.
To be truthful, we really have made our lake harder to fish, because we reset most of the lakes patterns, and drew fish away from the normal, highly pressured fishing areas. Now the fish holding capability of the entire lake has increased, and a secondary benefit is that the cover has also helped tbe shad population to grow, expand, and be healthier.
Shad fry have teeth and are predators in early life, they eat zooplankton and other micro critters that use the cover also, as they grow big enough, they lose the teeth, and convert to a filter feeder of algae a water organics..allowing more shad to survive to sushi size, will feed a hungry population of predator fish.

Originally Posted by INTIMIDATOR

Yep, the reefs were a Huge challenge, and we built 2 of them. We had a lot of sore and stiff guys the next few days.
We used the reefs to tie in 3 or 4 huge areas of various cover and structure....that way we could influence the yearly pattern and cycle away from areas that are fished heavily, so the lake could continue to grow and sustain itself.
Lakes in Ohio are smaller and highly pressured....if cover is found, a boat is sitting on it 24/7...people will fish cover until the fish are gone and it is destroyed.
Here, we have to hide it, to keep repopulating the fishery...we became VERY good at planning and hiding our drops.
One year, we got wind of a group that didn't want to help us at all, but they were going to come out on the designated day to follow and GPS where we were putting cover, so they could fish it.
We rounded up the troops and dropped the cover the night before, the scheduled day we posted. It was great, and cool as heck, doing a night drop....the best part was the looks on their faces the next morning, it was priceless.

Also, don't worry about how long it takes fish to inhabit the cover....we have put cover out, went back 15 minutes later to add more and fish were already on it. Several times we have finished drops and went back out to take pictures with electronics, and fish had already populated it.
To this day, none of the guys who dropped the cover fish it often...sometimes when we do we just C&R...we many study it, take picture, and try to use the data to help build better stuff for future drops.
To be truthful, we really have made our lake harder to fish, because we reset most of the lakes patterns, and drew fish away from the normal, highly pressured fishing areas. Now the fish holding capability of the entire lake has increased, and a secondary benefit is that the cover has also helped tbe shad population to grow, expand, and be healthier.
Shad fry have teeth and are predators in early life, they eat zooplankton and other micro critters that use the cover also, as they grow big enough, they lose the teeth, and convert to a filter feeder of algae a water organics..allowing more shad to survive to sushi size, will feed a hungry population of predator fish.

Lol, I bet they were ticked when their plan didn't work! Sounds kind of fun going covert and undercover. Kind a bummer that you don't really get to fish on the cover you made, but like you said you created a better overall fishery. Very cool!

I don't see me using a boat to do the amount of work you guys did but I could really get into dropping stuff off of a dock. I need to build a long dock that gets out past the shallows and create a fish heaven under it.
Thanks for all the advice!

We had a fine older gentleman the previous year who while not wanting to help decided he would follow us and mark each drop. All 5 boats loaded and cast loose going off in 5 different directions... He followed just 1 boat returned to the dock and proceeded to demand to know exactly where the rest were placed. We in unison answered " On the bottom of the lake ! " and Sir Intimidator yelled " So go FIND them !" We all busted out laughing at him...

Btw, there is a reason that we strongly recommend using PVC and wood either together or on the deep end of wood... It WORKS like gang busters !