Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Christmas Trees - Best methods to sink them

Check here for a couple more photos of tree/pallet structures.

http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=004988

dave b, i posted somewhere a year or so ago about my pvc trees. i built a long white vinyl pvc fence. lots of left over parts; had to cut some of the bottoms of the post and rails etc. also, you can check for left overs from a fence company or plumbing company. i took those, drilled holes thru them and thread them on stiff rebar. then anchored them in in quickreted buckets. put some old bent fence posts x'd on bottom to keep upright. worked well. also, on some of them, i took some metal fence posts, drove them as far in as i could leaving a few feet out, then tied xmas trees and pvc trees to it with plastic duck decoy wire to keep trees upright. the post method was the easiest. easier to do as pond is filling . otherwise, get some scuba gear which is what i did on some of the trees/posts. hope this helps, mark williams ilovefishingmark wish i could find the pictures somewhere.

So no one misunderstands...my comment was partly tongue in cheek. I certainly welcome questions, but I also welcome paying customers. We have chosen to keep this site free, to provide the best information to all comers. As you all know, this site has taken a life all its own, and I love it. But, I would be remiss not to remind everyone to be sure and buy a subscription. It's what fuels the magazine as well as this website.
No harm intended...just offering everyone the opportunity to buy a subscription.
So there. Thanks, friends and subscribers.

I've placed a couple of back issues of Pond Boss out in the waiting room of my dental office. Both were immediately stolen so they must be pretty darn informative!

I'll have Kathy send a couple more. Let's nab those thieves.

I sit outside of your office and send your patients in to take them and give them to me. It is cheaper than a sub.

If you're still looking for carpet tubes, go to any home supply store (Menard's, Blowes, etc) or a local lumber yard and ask for Sono Tubes.

8"-16" diameter cardboard tubes used for pouring footings of concrete. Waxed, they hold up for months and are cheap (12" x 48" was about $5 last time I bought them.)

I only hadda use about a 6" piece to hold down the average xmas tree (maybe 15-20 lbs of crete).

Has anyone tried anchoring the bottom of the trres with concrete, and wiring a 2 liter bottle to the top of the tree to give extra bouancy at the top causing it to float vertically?

Matt:

That is exactly what I did. Home Depot sells cardboard concrete forming tubes. I found that carpet roll tubes were too small of a diameter to sink a tree. The tubes I used are 12" diameter and 4' in length. I cut the tube to 12" sections with a chain saw to produce 4 tubes per tube. Then I placed two ropes between two trees with the rope placed about 4' off the ground. Next put the tubes on level ground, drop in a tree and fill with the cheapest concrete you can buy using a 5 gallon bucket. I bough concrete from the same Home Depot - 90 lb. bags for
$ 2.10 per bag and rented the mixer from them too. Fill each 12" x 12" tube with 11" deep of concrete. Last have the ropes hanging on each side of the trees so that the concrete cures over the course of two days and the trees stand up right. This amount of concrete per tube sunk every 4' - 7' tree with no problem. I ended up putting 225 trees in the lake over the course of three days working by myself. I used two of our docks as a barge to transport the trees (50 per load) and pulled the barge around with me boat to the various pre-selected and marked with a buoy spots. I grouped the trees in tight 10 - 25 tree groups on points and underwater islands with immediate access to deep water. The trees are in 10' - 25' of water now. After placing the trees I took GPS positions of each of the clumps. These have become key spots for me to catch bass in my lake. Amazing what good structure will do to attract bass. Lots of work but well worth the effort.

Dave

Dave B, 225 trees? Just goes to show that there's nothing a labor of love can't accomplish. If I recall, you have a pretty good size pond/lake.

So how does next week sound for me a few PB forum members to come out and fish?

I used plastic pots that plants came in. Had several just laying around. Cut the cedar trees, put nails in the trunks and put the quikcrete in. When the crete dried I cut the plastic pots off and sank the trees. Seemed to work okay

i use 6' to 8' christmas tree , cut one side flush and hold it down with couple rocks. get alot more habitat , fish love it. we all want happy fish

I've used both cleaned anti-freeze and bleach bottles wired close to the top of cedar trees for years.Tie to the main trunk and use heavy concrete blocks Tied to the base of the cedar. On pond bottoms slopes they tend to remain in place and upright. Buckets with concrete would tip on uneven surfaces and tree would be on its side. Kids running a gas motor on a boat caused many of my buckets and cross braced wood to fall over.

I picked up 10 of this years Xmas trees. I want to add to the original 4 structures with a additional tree or two to each.

I was thinking of just laying down 4 or 5 trees with the trunk twards the bank and placing them 2 to 3 feet apart in a row. The bank has a nice slope leading into about 5 foot of water. What do you guys think?

Joey:

They'll last about 2-3 years at best, that way. That's what mine do, anyway. If I sink them completely, they seem to last a lot longer...just off shore, in maybe 7 meet of water...

Joey :

Tell us what you want from the xmas trees. Cover to concentrate fish for fishing or for an aid to spawning and protection of yoy fry. Where is the existing cover/structure and where do you think the BG will be nesting ?

Everyplace that there is things in the water, either a laydown or dock or grass, there is always fish around. Little ones big ones etc. On that bank the bass spawn near the point and one spawned almost in the corner. The whole bank is a tapering slope with basically nothing on it. I layed a old RR tie but other then that its bare. There are very few fish there when I look the pond over. I was just thinking by laying the trees down it might pull small fish in and maybe bigger ones hang by the tops of the trees in the deeper water. By spacing them I figure it gives a casting lane, plus maybe a place for one to tuck up and spawn, also give the sunfish a place to hang out semi protected.

My only suggestion would be to put a couple of xmas trees on the back (deep side) of the island in addition to where you have them drawn. I would space them out by depth also.

Ya, I got enough. I could do 3 on the deep side of the island, 3 where I figured and one more on each of last years structures. There gonne be on a sharp drop on the backside of the island. When the trackhow dug that part it was just about vertical.

In the first pic, the trackhoes boom is pointing to where you sugested to put the trees.

In the second pic to the right of the pick is the backside of the island or the old dam. That aria you see is covered in about 10 inches of water then it tapers up to land, but the drop off is a sharp vertical drop right to the bottom into about 6 feet then it tapers to about 7 1/2. I just felt like sharing the pics...!

That sounds like a good plan to me. An xmas tree laying down on a steep slope should be a good spot.