Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Porcupine cribs

I recently made some porcupine cribs as per the Pennsylvania Fish & Game specifications out of 2" x 2" hemlock. They sat on the ice for a month but finally have made their way to their intended home on the bottom in a place where the highest point is in 6 to 8 feet deep.

I do believe now (after looking at them sitting on the ice for a month) that they will snag a nice collection of hooks in their lifetime. Are there any special hooks or lures that are more snag resistant?

Hey Pa,

FWIW in my experience, Aberdeen hooks (the gold ones) are softer and will bend to let you release from a snag easier. If you pinch the barb down they are even more forgiving.

Bill D.

Circle hooks seem to be a little more snag resitant.

Texas rigged plastics will work around this type of structure. I like your structure.

Tracy

Tracy, I worm fish but pretty well go weightless on the ponds. It is less obtrusive and doesn't get hung up nearly as bad. A stout spinning rig is pretty much the answer for my pond bass fishing.

Hey,

I was wondering if you have the instructions on how to build the porcupine cribs, if so could I get them from you?

Cribs made out of various types of plastic pipe would have less of a tendency to float and less likely to snag hooks.

The Pennsylvania fish and game commission has these plans on their site. I followed their design including making the template to start the base on. They were easy to build and I will say 2 years in they do attract fish. I mounted a foam filled plastic bottle on a line to mark each piece of structure and now I just cast over the structure or drop a line down from my boat and never suffer from lack of a hit.

I had a local sawmill cut up some hemlock into 2x2 pieces so everything went as per their plans.

This is their pdf;

http://www.fishandboat.com/Resource/Documents/lake_structure2_porc2.pdf

As far as my fears of snagging my hooks on the structure, I took the circle hooks suggestion and that seems to do the trick.

Whoops, that didn't include the base jig which helps if you are making more than one.

This is the base jig pdf.

http://www.fishandboat.com/Resource/Documents/BaseJig.pdf

I have built and placed two different cribs in the pond. One made from pvc with plastic lattice to surround it and an old used plastic Christmas tree inside the crib and the second was built using pallets with cinder blocks added as a rock pile inside the crib. I can not see under the water to see which hold more or bigger fish

Lazareth, come forth!

I just ordered the hemlock from a sawmill and will be building a couple of these porcupine cribs and had a question about fasteners. Should I avoid nails and/or screws and try to dowel the thing together to keep unwanted metal bits out of pond once the crib decays? Or am I overthinking this completely?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Stainless steel screws.
as long as they stay under water and the air doesn't hit them they will last a long long time.

Hi folks -

I built two of these cribs and had hoped to place in position while my pond was still covered with ice, but never got the chance. The cribs are on my flatbed trailer and I’m trying to figure out how to get them into the water. I angle cut the bottom skids and was thinking of dropping at pond’s edge and onto a piece of plywood so they’d slide easily. I’d loop a long rope from the opposite side of the pond and quickly pull out.

Any other thoughts? These things weight over 350 pounds, so they’re not easy to handle.

Thanks in advance.

Nice work. Added to structure archive.

They should be easier to move once in the water as part of the weight will be displaced.

I bought some "porcupine heads", that hold 26 pieces of 1/2in PVC. I like that you can cut them to handle any pond depth. Has anyone used these? Do you pre-sand the PVC so plankton will attach?
https://www.amazon.com/Cedars-Dance-Porcupine-Attractor-Spheres/dp/B001BAAVMK

I don't sand them and I found that you need to glue them or some will fall out over time.

Using a wire brush, I rough them up a little, but not where they attach to the head. Helps accelerate growth.