Thinking about using Palm Tree Leaves. Would they last underwater?

I think they’d snag your baits really badly.

Agree, and that is an understatement.

Brush piles you do not want "leaves", that is just a snag trap. Brush piles, even with leaves all dead and dropped off are bad enough, a reason I prefer flooded timber vs brush piles. Drop your jig into flooded timber not bad, but drop your jig into a brush pile, probably will get snagged. Add "leaves" to the brush pile even worse...

I prefer leaves on my piles. Seems to hold fish better for me. If you use bamboo or fresh green willows, you can drop in the center and never hang up. You will bring leaves up but that’s all

I wouldn't use palm leaves. I'd imagine they would get stringy and snag your line a lot as they break down. I like green willow best but it doesn't last long. Usually use green cedar or whatever is handy!

I built 3 brush piles last year with a 5 gallon bucket, quickcrete, pvc and rubber hose. They looked awesome. I dropped them on a long under water point near some other productive brush piles. Over the last year I've caught less than 10 fish from those. My lesson learned from this is it is much easier to find someone elses brush piles than build them Luckily the guides on my home lake keep the lake populated well so I don't have to.

Ron, I have said this for years but I am not a big fan of artificial brush for crappie. My home lake has tons of both natural and artificial brush and the natural just seems to hold more fish each time I fish it. Not to say the PVC ones do not hold any and I do catch quite a few off them but they do not produce as good as natural. I sink natural 100% of the time and it usually takes me about 15 minutes to sink a brushpile. It truly depends on the lake IMO. Some lakes have ample brush to find and others don't have much at all.

I get the idea for shade, but no way I would want to fish in them. Like Kid said above, I love fresh willow and bamboo with leaves. So, maybe cut the bottoms out of some 5 gallon buckets then cut the walls in half or a likeable size and shape. They'll be a little rounded but you can use those pieces as shade producers. Find a way to attach them to pvc or hardwood in whatever fashion you like. Then put that together with willow/bamboo, if you want leaves, and drop. Hardwood pieces without leaves would be fine too. I prefer to mix in some fresh willow/bamboo even with those if I'm able. I'd defintely want something natural along with the buckets, personally.

Big green cedar work great and last a long time!!!! Some I have put in were over 20 ft long with 8-10 " butts and were put in over 20 years ago and they are still producing fish. Daniel

Will those large pieces of cedar sink on their own or do you have to add a lot of weight?

Thanks,
Bozz

Green will sink on its own nearly but a tree that size we're sinking 2 60lb blocks on it. Mainly I don;t want the current to move to pile around. Not using enough weight you might have to find it first before you fish it every time!

I made 2 of these about 3 or 4 years ago. One I dropped in a spot I do not fish any more, this other one has been sitting in my back yard, I keep holding on to it waiting for a really good spot to put it. It was a lot of work, took me a few beers to make it.

Thanks Slewfoot ... I'll be sinking some cedar before long.

Good Luck,
Bozz

20 years ago, I was 20 years younger, I put 60 lb bags of concrete but now 40 lb bags are tough. Once the tree is on the bottom , it doesn't seem to move. Maybe the limbs stick into the mud and act as anchor. A green cedar cut today and sunk today does not need much weight to get it on the bottom but let ot sit for several days or maybe 2 weeks, It is a TOTALLY different story. A buddy and I pulled a large cypress tree trunk with limbs, that had been dead for months into the lake and it took 400 lbs to get it downout of harms way. Daniel