Reef Building

OK all you structure gurus, lend me your expertise. My Pop kept old tires for years and I'm thinking about making a combo tire/oak limb hump out in front of my boathouse in about 11-12 feet of water. Do you think crappie are attracted to tire reefs or does the rubber repel them?

I've got a bunch of old sono-buoy cases I got surplus for burying your valuables in - about 36" long and 8" diameter with screw off tops. Probably got 25 of them. I was thinking of making 3 sides pyramids by wiring the ends together, putting some concrete in the bottom tubes and lining them up on the bottom also in reef form.

I'm confident the ditch pickles and cats will like them, but what I'm trying to do is put in a quasi permanent reef that sticks up about 3' off the bottom close enough to the dock for short casting using slip corks in weather that keeps me off the water. I'll do it regardless, but wonder about the effectiveness for crappie.

Just looking for opinions.

I don't have any type of advice, but actually a question. What are the rules on material types for stuff like that, and where do you find the guidelines for it? My father always cut down trees and drug them in because he hated when people put tires in Texoma.

BigCrappie guys swear tires hold a ton of fish.

Send Lane a PM.

Well, they should know, shouldn't they?

In New Mexico there was a push for Fish Habitats to be built and the Fish and Game went out with structures made out of tires and cable plus weight and put markers with a sign: Man-Made fish habitat. These were sunk in Cochiti lake. The second year all of the markers and signs were gone, this was back in the day of big time water fluxs, nowadays they keep the lake at the same level mostly. I know where they are, they are at the ends of long points and I never caught one fish off em.

So sorry for the long bunch of words ... but that is my only experience with tire structures.

I've caught crappie on Cypress off the tire reefs and have watched a video someone posted here showing them slaying crappie off tire reefs.
My vote is YES, but I'm no expert, just relating my experiences.
Be sure to check with the local water authority before hand or do so in the light of the moon

We have a spot here on CCL that someone dropped a bunch of tires. No particular pattern, no build up, just laying around flat on the bottom.
I promise, they hold crappie, oh yeah!