Bill Dance Porcupine Fish Habitat

[reeves]

This is a pretty neat thing and much easier than sinking old cedar and Christmas trees. Would anybody have a lead on who might be manufacturing the spheres that are used with these? Or even some alternative thoughts on an inexpensive replacement would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Bill Dance Porcupine Fish Habitat

[Vodkaman]

Probably could be achieved with a lump of clay.

No offence George, but I think this is an incredibly bad idea.

Dave

[reeves]

Dave,

It is a very common practice to sink old trees, known as brushpiles. All the lakes in this country are loaded with them. They attract fish of all species, especially the fry and little ones to avoid being on the menu. This contraption that Bill Dance is sponsoring is merely and artificial replacement for a tree, and should serve the same purpose.

Would you care to elaborate, I'm listening.

George

[Vodkaman]

I guess it is just a British thing. Such practices would never be permitted in UK. It just seems wrong to introduce lumps of plastic into the habitat, even though the promotion of the food chain in the water is a reasonable arguement.

Do you think the clay ball would work?

Dave

[reeves]

Makes sense, I now see where you are coming from. Grand Lake O' Cherokees, the nearest lake to me is loaded with brushpiles. If they ever removed them all, the lake level would drop 10 feet easy.

I think the clay ball would work if it could be hardened and wasn't too much of an expense for that size ball of clay. I will have to check it out, and Dave, thanks for the input, I appreciate it greatly.

George

[gone2long]

I'll just add that in this country early on in made made resivoir days the dumb jerks would strip the land clear of all trees brush and structure in the area that would be flooded so if we didn't have man made intervention such as brush piles and introduced contraptions such as this there would be no structure for fish to connect with.

[Vodkaman]

A plastic ball (toy shops) of a suitable size could be used as a mold. Drill holes for waxed wooden dowels, to be removed and drilled out later, for the pipes.

A pour hole cut and the mold filled with 50:50 bondo filler and fibreglass resin. This should be thin enough to pour.

Dave

[Romeo D]

What about a PVC Pipe tree glued and then filled with dirt, gravel or even cement? You can get as creative as you want.. 2 inch center stump, drilled with holes that 1/2 inch pipe can fit through, then add cement down the middle to hold it all together... Better check with the lakes you want to dump them in, Could be fined for littering. Private ponds should not be a problem.

[hazmail]

Dave

They have started to do it here too, not brush piles though, as lots of Eucalypt trees would pollute the water - They have been using concrete spheres in this salt water lake I fish and it has improved the fishing no end, not so much the volume of any particular fish, but the variety of species has exploded. pete

Six artificial reefs for St Georges Basin | NSW Department of Primary Industries

[braveviper]

the key here is to design structure that wont snag you favorite lures, bill dance claims his wont.

[redg8r]

Right,

On private property, we would simply drive pvc stakes into the bottom. a dozen or so evenly spaced works well, no snags and easily salvageable if needed.

Here's an thought, grab a few tubes of plumbers 2 part epoxy putty, knead it up into a ball & start inserting pvc couplers or caps into the ball, let it harden than add the piping. for extra safety, fill the pipes with sand (for weight) and cap them off with a nice rounded cap.

my