retired from building cover

How many of you young Crappie fishermen and fisherwomen build Crappie Condos ( brush piles , stake beds , and bamboo buckets )? A few of us old timers built thousands over the years Been many weeks spend our money and time building them when we could used it fishing . Since all the high tech electronics makes them easy to find I see few putting in anything . Have people asking if I put anything out in awhile but going to leave it up the someone else now . Got more than I can fish out now so I figure it will last rest of my fishing time on this earth. Used to offer help to ones interested in doing this with materials , technicial information , and even sweat . Let's see how many young guys will carry the torch to maintain our lakes and build cover to add habitat . Been too many just scanning or following other fishermen then taking over their hard work without doing anything to help .

I have built a few in the past. On the home lake I am on now I do not know if it is allowed to put anything in the water.

So lets say you have a smaller size lake in the hundreds as opposed to thousands of acres which has a max depth of roughly 10’.
Maybe a few very small areas having a foot or 2 more.
But lots of year round heavy weed cover on much of the shoreline extending out to deeper water of 6 to 8’ in some areas.
We are talking Florida where surface temps will go beyond 90 deg.
How practicle is it to be building structure in those deepest areas?

Are there open areas in deeper water for winter ?

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

Are there open areas in deeper water for winter ?

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Mostly 4’ to 8’ deep, some areas 10’ deep, very very few small deeper areas of 11/12’.
Winter here consists of mostly 70s with a few cold spells lasting a few days in the 50s.
Actually that description describes lots of Florida lakes, even some very large ones.
Ive not seen anything on my electronics as i move about on these lakes, so im assuming there isnt any man made structure.
What is the minimum depth you would consider placing structure with those conditions?

not aloud to put anything in the water around here so pretty much up to mother nature or the DNR..

I was just discussing this topic with another CDC member this morning....... we are planning to build and install a few in Clarks Hill in a few weeks. The thing we don't understand is how many "boo buckets" to place at each location and where are the "prime" locations to deploy them? I have also bought a pack of the PVC spheres to try out. Is there a secret that makes them more successful?

Please share your thoughts and I'll do the work! If you wanna come fish em with me, gimme a yell!! :highfive

Chris

go shallow to deep in staggered rows with PVC on the deepest end as the anchor. use long lasting 2" diameter hardwood limbs and branches and you might fish them with your grandkids

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Originally Posted by NCkenner

I was just discussing this topic with another CDC member this morning....... we are planning to build and install a few in Clarks Hill in a few weeks. The thing we don't understand is how many "boo buckets" to place at each location and where are the "prime" locations to deploy them? I have also bought a pack of the PVC spheres to try out. Is there a secret that makes them more successful?

Please share your thoughts and I'll do the work! If you wanna come fish em with me, gimme a yell!! :highfive

Chris

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location

Here's just a few of some homemade structure I put together about 3-4 years ago. I got some funny looks when they were being "thought up", put together and then delivered into the water, the one with the Cinder blocks are Crepe Myrtle tops cut about 9' tall. As I piddled around making these, the nicer and better looking they got to be over the course of making 8-10 of the big PVC "Trees".Attachment 402978Attachment 402979Attachment 402980Attachment 402981Attachment 402982Attachment 402983Attachment 402984Attachment 402985

Not allowed to put anything in the lakes in my area but ive always thought it would be a fun project

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Originally Posted by mdac272

Here's just a few of some homemade structure I put together about 3-4 years ago. I got some funny looks when they were being "thought up", put together and then delivered into the water, the one with the Cinder blocks are Crepe Myrtle tops cut about 9' tall. As I piddled around making these, the nicer and better looking they got to be over the course of making 8-10 of the big PVC "Trees".Attachment 402978Attachment 402979Attachment 402980Attachment 402981Attachment 402982Attachment 402983Attachment 402984Attachment 402985

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Attachment 408406

Attachment 408407

It's not allowed here without a permit. I figure it's harder to be seen at night.

We just hung 12 big cedar trees from the crappie dock and have 10 more cut to add soon. Approx 100 boat slips so we try to do 25 a year on rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Originally Posted by Fishnwiz

We just hung 12 big cedar trees from the crappie dock and have 10 more cut to add soon. Approx 100 boat slips so we try to do 25 a year on rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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I fish a dock that has some trees haning from it. They do a good job of holding fish