Fishing Cribs

[4fishys]

One of the links on top relates to finding structure / cribs placed by the corp. Does anybody actively look for / fish these? Are they at depths and areas that might hold some bass, or are they mainly used by guys trying to pull some nice gills, etc.? I don't think I've ever seen them mentioned in any posts, and was just curious.

[skeeter]

Having watched the MDC work boat late last Fall place brush in local coves and seeing the pink ribbons they tied on shoreline trees to indicate where the off-shore brushpiles are, I can tell you for sure their map is NOT up to date. Have no idea what the problem is about updating the interactive map on their website but I can tell you one cove where there are far more brushpiles than what the map indicates.

[fozzie.]

It may sound like a copout, but the folks out installing brush piles aren't the folks making the maps, or the people running/updating the MDC website. It just takes a while for the information to get from one division to another, and for the changes to show up on the website.

[Bassman755]

I can tell you from first hand experience that the guys with the MDC dumping the brush gps the piles as they drop them and than send the points they have taken to someone that puts them on the map on their website. It does take some time to get the points put on the map though. You just cant send one point at a time. That would be a waste of time for the person putting them on the map. So what happens is,The guys dumping the piles wait till they have a sufficent amount of data to send and they send it. You can access these maps on the MDC website and you can even download the points straight to your gps if you wanted to. Hope this clears some things up.

[4fishys]

I can tell you from first hand experience that the guys with the MDC dumping the brush gps the piles as they drop them and than send the points they have taken to someone that puts them on the map on their website. It does take some time to get the points put on the map though. You just cant send one point at a time. That would be a waste of time for the person putting them on the map. So what happens is,The guys dumping the piles wait till they have a sufficent amount of data to send and they send it. You can access these maps on the MDC website and you can even download the points straight to your gps if you wanted to. Hope this clears some things up.

[4fishys]

I'm sure it is a rather large task to place and then document locations, and I can understand the process takes time. What doesn't??? Getting back to the original question though---does anybody target these as fishing spots? The lakes that I fish tend to get a fair amount of attention on any placed cover, and was just wondering if they receive the same attention there, given the different nature of the water / fishing habitat and behavior.

[skeeter]

Thanks much for the info about time it takes to transmit/enter brush piles on MDC maps. I understand. Always appreciate replies and information. Maybe they figure the fishing season hasn't started yet ??? Really thought the cove we saw them working in would benefit from their work and the placement seemed well thought out.

But....four months as of next week ?

[Bassman755]

That cove you saw them working in and marking with the ribbon was probably a cove they were going to shock. Shocking is a method they use to monitor how well the brush piles are working. Since shocking is done at night they tie ribbons on a tree on the shore so it makes it eaiser to find the brush pile. For those wondering shocking doesnt hurt the fish. Just thought I would throw that in there. Eventually you will benifit from the piles just give it time. How long ago were they in your cove. I know that when fresh trees are sunk it sometimes takes a while for the fish to relate to that structure. Initaly the trees put off something the fish dont like but that doesnt last very long. It can be days or maybe weeks. Hang in there and keep fishing those piles you will eventually start seeing fish on them.

[Bassman755]

4fishys the piles do get alot of attention in my opinion. I know there is a lot of fishermen that target the piles for crappie fishing. The shallower piles get targeted more for bass when the spawn is on and the water is a little warmer. It depends on the pile too. There are a number of brush piles that are hard woods which the bass relate to a little better than the evergreen piles but you can still find bass on evergreen and crappie on hardwoods. With the evergreen piles you will find that there are alot more crappie, pan fish, and young of the year fish that like to hang out in those types of piles. The reason being is the evergreens have alot more branches for cover against predetors. So to answer your question there are alot of anglers out there that target brush piles. Another type of pile dumped is rock piles. They do this in the clear water and they work amazingly well for smallmouth. I have fished some of the rock piles put in on table rock and have caught alot of bass off of them.