Creating fish attractors is hard work, but they pay dividends for years with dependable fishing.
Bill Eldridge of Benton, an avid and accomplished crappie angler, recently invited Ed Kubler and I to help him refresh two aging brushpiles at one of his favorite crappie fishing destinations. One brushpile is productive in the spring when crappie stage before moving to the banks to spawn. The other is pile productive in the fall where crappie stage before moving to deep cover for the winter.
In any body of water, natural and artificial structure serves several important functions. It provides a place for fish like crappie to concentrate, but it also organizes a food chain that begins with the formation of algae on the structure. Invertebrates eat the algae. Baitfish eat the invertebrates, and game fish eat the baitfish.
The beds of old reservoirs are barren, so many anglers create their own fish attractors. You can create structure from material like PVC, or you can use natural materials like brush or discarded Christmas trees. A scuba diving acquaintance told us of encountering on the bottom of Lake Ouachita near Brady Mountain a frame containing a vertical screen of orange safety fence. It was coated with algae, and fish were all around it.
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Over time, brush degrades and collapses. To continue attracting fish, they must be renewed with fresh brush every three to five years. Eldridge, Kubler and I attended a restoration mission on Feb. 17 to distribute a load of crepe myrtle branches from a friend's garden.
"Fish will come to this kind of stuff within a day's time," Eldridge said. "It takes fish a lot longer to get on cedar, I guess because it's so acidic."
Four cinderblocks stacked to create a square comprise the base of a brushpile. Using nylon rope, Kubler created harnesses to secure branches to each cinderblock. We stuffed clusters of limbs through each opening and then looped line back through the openings. These we looped around branches and bases, then passed the line back over the blocks and cinched the brush against the blocks granny knots. This also cinched the four blocks together to form a single unit.
When a unit is ready for submersion, we erected the structure on the boat deck.
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"When it goes overboard, it sinks straight down and sits upright on the bottom like a tree," Eldridge said. "We'll put two in a spring spot and the other two in a fall spot."
With the brushpiles riding on the front and rear decks of Eldridge's Express aluminum boat, we set a course for undisclosed locations.
"Most people do this at night when nobody will see them," Eldridge said. "A lot of times people will follow you and GPS the location."
It's all part of the timeless cat-and-mouse game that anglers play to conceal their favorite fishing spots. Anglers, especially those with advanced electronics, spend a lot of time looking for structure. Everyone has a right to fish any structure on public water, but Eldridge doesn't want to bottle feed potential rivals.
To throw off the hounds, Eldridge took a serpentine course to the first spot marked on an ancient Magellan Meridian GPS. A Humminbird electronic graph with GPS confirmed the accuracy of the Magellan, and a smaller Lowrance graph confirmed the other two units by imaging the structure on the bottom. When Eldridge confirmed the location of the existing brushpile, he tossed a green buoy overboard.
"I like green because it blends in with the background," Eldridge said. "Orange is too bright. People can see it from a distance, and I don't want them getting nosy."
With the buoy in place, Eldridge circled back while Kubler positioned the first brushpile on the forward gunwale.
"Readddyyyyyy ... NOW!" Eldridge barked.
Kubler shoved the brushpile overboard. It sank quickly with a hiss.
Safety is of utmost importance. We all wore lifejackets, and you must be very careful to keep from going overboard with the brushpile. It's a simple matter of keeping your feet clear of limbs and lines, but you're wise not to do it alone.
We circled back around, and Kubler jettisoned the second pile. As planned, it landed next to the first pile. Eldridge showed us the handiwork on his graph. It also showed fish on it.
"I don't know that I believe that," Eldridge said. "They don't usually get on it that fast."
We returned to shore and assembled the last two brushpiles and repeated the process in the autumn spot. Eldridge was delighted with the result.
"The tops come up to 9 feet," Eldridge said. "That's perfect. Right where I want it. There'll be some good fishing here in the fall."
Sports on 02/23/2020