I got a few questions about how y'all sink your piles. What's the best way to sink willows (bundled with weight/block, small trees concreted in bucket, etc)? And i've read alot about people tying bottles to the tops to help them stand up. Do you need a 2 liter bottle or something smaller, and do you tie one on the top of each tree you're sinking? To me, i don't think one bottle would stand up a whole willow, but it might i'm not sure. I'm sure it depends on the tree size mostly.

Heard that it's better to sink the brush while it's green. I have to transport some bamboo and a bunch of willows from back home, so it may not be green when i get on the water. Is the bamboo pretty tough to sink if it's not green?

Any other brush pile knowledge you got please share, I hope to do at least a few of these the right way.

Green trees sink easier because they are still full of water and sap....bamboo, although hollow, is light and can be sank with little weight, but if current is an issue...you may want to overdue it...also as far as bottles go...never used them myself but I like the idea....only issue I see is current would cause sway and I'm not sure how crappie would take to it....

I can see your point on the current. In the main body lake, is there ever current if you're a ways from river/creek source?

Even wind effects/creates current....even if your not fishing on a windy day, I don't believe fish would want to hold in something that's not constant...just my opinion..I have nothing to prove that theory...

P.M. Ernest or kieth...those guys have alot of knowledge...

With willow you don't need to use a bottle to stand it up. Willows have long limbs so they stay fairly tall off the bottom. I have used 1 gal jugs to make suspended piles off the bottm, This works well with about 7 ft of rope from the weight to the tree set it in about 25 to 30 ft of water. Suspended piles are harder for people to find because looking at it on a depth finder it looks a lot like a bunch of bait fish. I use limbs that have a lot of spread to it, I would use 2 or 3 per pile. The most important thing is to set it in the right location, a area that the fish will travel down, such as along a ridge down a bank. You may set some in areas that are protected from the wind too just to make it easier to fish on windy days. These are just a few tips that will help you out.

I like the suspended idea, that's pretty clever. Thanks for the information.

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