Rules On Brush Piles?

[HYDE]

CAN anyone tell me what the mdc rules are on sinking or making your own brush piles? i've searched the mdc web site with no luck. just wanted to check before i did it.

-thanks hyde

[straw hat]

I put out 20 to 30 brush piles each winter and check with the Corp each year. The Corp is in charge of brush pile rules for corp lakes. Be careful, some corp lakes require permits before putting out brush piles. Stockton does not. Brush piles may be made of any time of brush or tree BUT if you are going to cut and use trees from corp land you need to get permission first. This even includes dead wood along the lake edge. You can not use any type of container such as buckets, barrels or cans. They worry that these items may still contain chemical residue from the original contents. You can use cement blocks, rocks or similar items. Brush piles can not be placed within 10' of the lakes surface at powerpool levels. Any type of wire or rope may be used to attach the tree to the weight. I prefer cement blocks. I place the base of the tree in the hole in the block and wire it in place. The Springfield brush collection center allows people to come in and pick up trees for use in the lake. These trees are cut in 6' length and are easy to handle. Soft woods such as maple, pine, cedar and such usually last 5 to 7 years. oak, hickory and hackberry last for decades. I have some hardwood brushpiles on Stockton that are still there after 20 years.

[Trav]

There are a lot of piles in the lake already. There are GPS locations available from the corp of thier drops. I think they have fifty or so..?

You really don't need to drop any if you have a good sonar.

Of course, the best piles we owe to guys like Straw! Some of those piles are huge....several years worth of drops in the same locations. And those piles you have to hunt for with your electronics. I like to troll for walleye while I scope. Everytime I see one on the graph, I make a notation so I can go back for those bass!

I am sure I haven't spotted even one percent of what is out there. Although, I am looking for piles which have drifted into 30 or even 40 feet of water...