What is the best depth to sink Crappie cover

I live on a 200 acre lake that was once again stocked in 2013 with 15,000 Crappie amongst other fish, based on input from our Department of Natural Resources. The deepest part of the lake is 32 feet but is mostly 4- 20 feet deep. This lake has very little structure currently as most of it was removed when there was damage to the dam back in the 1980's.

Our HOA has asked me to find out how to improve the Crappie fishing on our lake, so I have a few questions.

How do we keep these Crappie growing when our lake includes Largemouth bass up to 13 Pounds, Pickerel, Bluegill, and Shellcrackers?

What is the best depth to sink structure to improve Crappie Fishing/Breeding.

How big should a brushpile be for Crappie? How long, how high, how wide?

I have seen a lot of structure start deep and move up shallow. That gives the fish a place to relate to at any depth they choose to be at. Blow downs or trees cut and allowed to fall over into the lake in deeper areas also provide crappie a place the like in spring and fall

What type of stuff, will your HOA allow being put in the lake? That is the question you need to ask of them, first. A lot of places, especially Corp lakes are against any type of pvc type stuff being put in them, and first you have to have permission, and must give them the gps for it. If you check thru all the stuff here, you will see a lot of good ideas.

The HOA has given approval to sink the orange 2 inch conduit we just collected from a company putting in fiber optics. They are looking to make the lake healthy for both Largemouth and crappie. The state DNR says this is great stuff to use for fish structure as it does not leach any type of chemicals .

We also have 10 big brush piles to sink as well and was wondering should I mix the brush piles and orange spider structures we have built and how big and how deep we should sink them to attract Crappie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by S10CHEVY

What type of stuff, will your HOA allow being put in the lake? That is the question you need to ask of them, first. A lot of places, especially Corp lakes are against any type of pvc type stuff being put in them, and first you have to have permission, and must give them the gps for it. If you check thru all the stuff here, you will see a lot of good ideas.

---

Be good to have habitat
/ structure for bait fish to breed and thrive as well. All those crappie and bass have to have something to eat

What is the depth of the lake? You want to follow any contours, and drop offs. Do they draw the lake level off for winter? You want hard woods to sink, not pine.

not trolling BUT 13 lb bass ?

it would make sense to find contour changes at any depths and put the piles there . winter fish will hang in deeper stuff and fall and spring fish in the shallower stuff .
larger piles will hold more fish and be easier to find and as stated no Christmas trees or pines in the mix .
some piles will never be very good and some will be the best there ever was from what I have seen in the past .
more is better btw , fish of all species need cover to thrive , some places the tpw puts cedar bushes in really shallow waters for the fry to hide in .