New Ideas For "brushpiles"

[peachhead]

Ok, so this is sort of a spin off from slade house's thread about his pet bass. I say "brushpiles" because that is the default name for anything you throw in the water with the intent to attract fish. Someone asked about using 55 gallon drums. I have thought of this before and right now I have access to a lot of milk crates. I have previously taken cinder blocks one at a time and dropped them in a spot.

 

So what other creative things have yall come up with for "brushpiles"?

[buzzed bait]

odd looking contraptions made out of pvc....  doesn't have to be pretty or even make sense, the fish will relate to it. 

the drums would be a good idea if you cut it so that both ends are open, then stake it down or hold it down with a block.  that way the fish can swim through it.  i don't know about the milk crates though....  seems like it would take a lot of them and would require you cutting them up, would likely look like trash to most people. 

the usual old christmas tree plan works well.... 

[roadwarrior]

Discarded toliet. Sinks on its own, will not move and virtually indestructible.

[Fish_Whisperer]

So here was the design I was talking about in Slade House's thread... as said before, two 55 gal plastic drums, tops cut out, bottoms cut out yet leaving an outer ring on the bottom so you have room to bolt the bottoms together. Then lots of big holes cut out in the sides Like this....

 

[Chris S]

collect old Christmas trees and cement them into 5 gallon buckets! just don't forget where ya dropped them!

[Fish_Whisperer]

These are not my designs, but since you asked about ideas, here are some I found using google...

 

[Slade House]

http://www.ncwildlife.org/News/Blogs/NCWRCBlog/tabid/715/EntryId/126/Artificial-Beats-Natural-in-Fish-Attractor-Study.aspx

IDuring the first two years, all four types of structures were holding more fish than the control sites, and all were holding about the same amount of fish. However, by the third year, all three artificial structures held more fish than the Christmas trees, which by this time, had lost all of their needles and were nothing more than trunks and a few major branches. We also found that by the third year of the study, the “Georgia” attractor, a structure composed of PVC pipes and corrugated plastic pipes, was holding more fish than any of the other three structures.

Artificial structures attracted a wide variety of fish species — from bait fish, such as shad, to game fishes like large mouth bass, bluegill and crappie. The PVC pipe barrel structures held the largest fish — mostly catfish — and the three attractors made of synthetic materials had higher odds of having schools of bait fish present.

We are not sure why the “Georgia” attractor held more fish than the other artificial structures in the third year, but we were not surprised by the Christmas trees’ decrease in performance over time because they decompose so quickly.

[Slade House]

We deployed four different types of fish attractors — three that were constructed from synthetic materials and one from natural materials — into Lake Townsend in Greensboro and Lake Cammack in Burlington. We selected these lakes because of their abundance of sport fish,similarity in size, and lack of underwater structures.

Using GPS coordinates, we dropped two porcupine attractors, two attractors constructed of PVC pipe and corrugated plastic pipe, two attractors constructed of PVC pipes and halved plastic barrels, and two attractors constructed out of Chri

[Slade House]

So here was the design I was talking about in Slade House's thread... as said before, two 55 gal plastic drums, tops cut out, bottoms cut out yet leaving an outer ring on the bottom so you have room to bolt the bottoms together. Then lots of big holes cut out in the sides Like this....

 

That is very similar to the design of the tube i have in my aquarium that they love.  I would also recommend looking at using corrugated pipe.  If you had large diameter corrugated pipe and then just cut some holes in it, and then laid a 3 inch layer of concrete inside on the bottom of it  Christmas trees aren't good , period.    If you look at the photo ive attached the one with the black corrugated pipe was the most successful. 

[Fish_Whisperer]

That is very similar to the design of the tube i have in my aquarium that they love.  I would also recommend looking at using corrugated pipe.  If you had large diameter corrugated pipe and then just cut some holes in it, and then laid a 3 inch layer of concrete inside on the bottom of it  Christmas trees aren't good , period.    If you look at the photo ive attached the one with the black corrugated pipe was the most successful. 

 

Right. Wonder why?  I assumed that bass would want a habitat that they could hide in, and come out to ambush prey???

[buzzed bait]

all of those designs from fish whisperer are unique, not pretty per se, but they will all work. 

the only one i would steer clear of would be the pallets.  they will eventually break down the screws or nails holding them together and become more of a trash pile than a fish attractor. 

that very last pic of the blocks with black tubing coming out look awesome, almost like monkey grass or border grass.... really cool idea.

[Fish_Whisperer]

That is very similar to the design of the tube i have in my aquarium that they love.  I would also recommend looking at using corrugated pipe.  If you had large diameter corrugated pipe and then just cut some holes in it, and then laid a 3 inch layer of concrete inside on the bottom of it  Christmas trees aren't good , period.    If you look at the photo ive attached the one with the black corrugated pipe was the most successful. 

 

The only thing I would change to the lower right design, Is I would buy some pvc pipe that is larger in diameter than the pipe used in the frame, and cut it into 12" spacers that would fit onto the pvc frame everytime i added a new black pipe.  Basically spacing out the distance between black pipes so they aren't just laying on top of each other.

 

Edit: sorry for crude paint drawing, but here is the sketch with changes I suggested...

 

[TrapperJ]

standing by for information gathering.

 

[J Francho]

In many states, all of this is illegal to throw in the lake - natural or not.  Check your local laws before placing anything in the lake.

[Fish_Whisperer]

This thread has too much potential to go to the graveyard....  So Slade House posted a pic of a "brushpile" that was best of the four in the pic... Any ideas on how to save money when building this?  I estimate the black corrugated pipe used is 4-6" in diameter, my local lowes sells 100' of 4" for 70ish dollars, and it would take 100' to do it.

[00 mod]

Check out these threads.....

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/128444-xmas-tree-brush-piles/?hl=%20brush%20%20piles

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/109401-fishing-in-the-middle-of-brush-pilesupdated1111/?hl=%2Bfish+%2Battractors#entry1193188

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/111205-a-little-work-ahead-of-me/?hl=%2Bfish+%2Battractors#entry1212520

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/128428-pvc-trees-do-they-hold-largemouth/?hl=%2Bfish+%2Battractors#entry1417020

 

Jeff