i've spent 16 hours this week looking for brush piles. i found 3 so far. caught some crappie at each pile i found.

i'm using a lowrance X51, b/w unit, and i'm tired of searching for BP's.
i want to fish, not scan the lake. i even have trouble finding piles when i know there's one in the area.

what's the answer? do i get a 898c si unit.?

maybe if everybody gives me the GPS locations of 3 brush piles you all can help me save $1500

it never hurts to ask

Rob

Don't want to be a smart arse, but your in the market for SI Technology

The SI units have come donw in price and I think you can get an 898 for 1200-1300. You can get a 798 for < $1000.00.
I purchased mine last March and paied full price.

+1 Makes finding them much easier if you have one plus a navionics map and start looking in likely locations.

Good luck on getting GPS #s,maybe if you spent some of that time and built your own piles,you would have some numbers to share and trade with other poeple on your lake,I am not in anyway trying to be rude or a smart Azz,but after you build a few you will see how much work goes into it and why poeple dont share them with everybody,I do share with poeple but only with those who reciprocate,you can spend the money on a side scan and you will find alot of stuff with it but if you are not adding your own you are still at other poeples choosing as to where you are going to fish,a good GPS and some hard work will make you a much better combo for catching fish than a sidescan unit,the B/W graph will work fine also,I just recently upgraded to a color graph on the front and I cant say that I catch anymore fish using it than I did with my old garman, sorry to be so long winded but I hope this helps.

I am pretty sure the pros has spent more time on water looking for structures than fishing when they first started.

Once you are familiar with the body of water, you then spend more time fishing.

Actually, it's not that hard to find brushpiles...if you first know WHERE brushpiles SHOULD be set. If not, you might want to consider points, ledges, big flats with nothing on them, high spots, etc. In other words, if you know where one should be set, then you go looking in those areas and in most cases, there'll already be one there. In the years that I've been on the TFF, I have watched the crappie guys go from "ain't got a clue" to "very knowledgable", therefor there are a lot more brushpiles showing up in lakes than there use to be. In fact, some lakes are flat getting too many brushpiles in them, with a corresponding spreading out of the crappie population.

Start out by looking at every point that you can find in your lake. Start shallow and criss-cross the point out to about 25'. If you find one, mark it...if you don't, go to the next point and do the same thing.

You don't need to spend $1500 - $3500 to find brushpiles. Just learn your trade (crappie fishing). Hope this helps.

Rob, witha good set off binocs you can see boats with SI and follow them. You can tell when they have found a brush pile. also look for boats with signs on the side of the boat.

....and then become know as a "pot licker".

Spend some time building some of your very own
Then you can spend more time catching

+1

If the lake has standing timber on it forget the brush piles and fish the timber ( way much less work) Not sure which lake you want to fish but copy and past the link below to your browser and look around as there are some cords avail. You may even want to make some piles of your own Not a big deal Not sure what the seceret is all about I tell and show people how and where to catch fish all the time on a much smaller lake then most of what is around there There are plenty of fish and fishing places for everybody, Sometimes it gets a little crowded but hey I like good friendly people.

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AgUQypiVyoO0NjIGCfKY0T9G2vAI?p=brush+pile+gps+cordinates+texas+lakes&fr=my-myy&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8

Signs?

I think he is referring to following guide boats.

problem solved. just picked up an 898C si from David Goodson at
shut-up-and-fish in Carrollton.

if you see a blue/white Glastron fish n ski boat, do not follow me to secret brush pile locatons at lake lewisville and ray roberts.

i am also buying binoculars so i can see other people with binoculars looking at me.

lol

Just bought a new HDS5 at Gander in College Station yesterday. They had the 798SI for 899.00