We have never done Christmas Tree's or Cedar Tree's. But this winter we are clearing the trash tree's off of our places, so decided to sink some cedars. With that being said, I just never have had the thought that a Christmas Tree standing up in a Bucket of cement was the most effective way to use them. We have decided to lay them horizonally across the bucket, and wire them on. I feel this should give the Cedar more fishable area, and set up off the bottom about 5' tall, and the cedar tree's are anywhere from 6'-10' tall. So this will mean the it will cover 6'-10' across the bottom, and be 5' tall. I don't need anything standing up 6'-10' tall.

We will put 3 cedar tree's out to a location. We figure this should give us about a 15'-25' diameter of structure, that will be 5' tall. we will target fish at different depths. We will put some out in 10'-13', some in 15'-18', and then some in 18'-25'.

FYI - Another trick we have started doing is MARKing our waypoints, and then color coding them to the depth the structure is put or found. We have taken the X on our HDS's and use it for our structure MARKS. When we run across a Brush Pile or sink a structure. We place a X , then if it is in 7'-13' we change the color of the X to YELLOW, from 13'-18' we use a RED X, and 18'-deeper we use a BLUE X. Now we can figure out what depth the fish are in, and know what depth the structures are, and only target the structure that are at the depths we have found fish. So during the fall bite, we know and have been catching fish at 15' of water, we can know EXACTLY which structures are in this depth of water, and target those structures. No matter what depth the fish around, we know exactly which structure will be holding fish.

It has been working REAL well for us this past year. We may haft to try 2-3 structure to figure out what depth the fish are, but once we figure their depth, we are only hitting productive depths. I'm sure others have thought of this, but no one tends to share info like this, so thought I would report what has been working for us this past year. So we are constantly thinking of ideas to shorten the amount of time it takes for us to get on fish.



keith

Nice info

I totally agree with you on the placement of the cedar trees. If I had plenty, cedar is all I would use for crappie. I actually like mine to stick up about 3 feet off the bottom. I have never had much luck with trees sticking straight up off the bottom. I always tie my rocks in the middle of the tree so it lays flat. The crappie love to spawn in the cedars laying flat. The late spawners will be in 5 to 10 feet of water spawning in the cedars. I only put them out fresh. I don't like them cut more than 3 days. It is too hard to sink them if they are dried out. That is why Christmas trees are my last choice for crappie brush. I think the cedars will work well for you the way you did them.

aside from the depth., I also encode the size of the pile, sm, med, lg.. so if I have several clients on the boat, I can keep in mind to fish the larger piles.
for example *** 14ft np med *** fourteen feet at normal pool medium size pile

the way you are setting the piles out, you dont even need cement, just drill 1/4 inch holes abt every 3 inches around the perimeter of the mouth of the bucket, fill it half way with big rocks , then stretch weedeater line back and forth across the mouth of the bucket, tieing it now and then, till it forms a web, so the rocks cant fall out., then tie that to your tree. So all you need to bring to the lake, is your pre drilled buckets, weedeater line, and your trees. once your there, get your rock.

Make a plan then work the plan.

Cooter, there you go thinkin again....don't you know how dangerous that is? I can see that black cloud clear up here in Okie Land this mornin!!!

Thanks for the ideas Keith. Well thought out plan.

Great info!

gps coordinates would be awesome

I fish for other kinds of fish , but always view the crappie threads. Your passion for crappie is awesome! You all certainly take the art of pre-fishing, fishing and on the water crappie fishing to the next level. Keep it going.