A lot of trees on the side of the road. I know a lot of fresh water guys use them for lake reefs. Any one doing it in saltwater? Was thinking of rounding up about 6 and dropping them on a creek bend. Other question is how much weight? I have some cinder blocks. Wondering if a single block would hold a tree in place under a moderate tide? I know a lot depends on water depth,size of tree proximity to channel etc. Figured I would drop them to where they almost show at dead low, and over a dead oyster bed on the outside of a bend. Not trying to necessarily make a new fishing hole just enhance a habitat to draw in more bait and hopefully more fish. Thoughts? Shared experiences?
Not sure I’d drop them somewhere people may have been running for years without a hazard. Not saying you were, just something to consider.
Did it once in my youth. Didn’t do squat and you need a ton of weight. One big tide and the sucker is gone. It’s easier just to find the fish in their usual hideouts.
I’ve dropped large like 60lb boulders as breakaway bricks shark fishing before I went to giant spider weights and about 100yds of line with a decent current, even just beach current was enough drag to drag any block, brick or rock I’ve ever dropped. Any where with current will drag a Christmas tree and a 5 gallon bucket of concrete. If you want to build something to hold fish big rocks and chunks of concrete work well. If you want them to have an accelerated growth ad some chicken wire and/ or a coating of concrete with oyster shells crushed into the mix. I did this as a experiment with them tied off to a dock so I could pull them up and check them. Somebody stole the ropes and threw them back in under the dock. That dock has very good fishing. I used to pull them up and they would have baby groupers, bsb, flounders and dog fish. Not all at once but there was almost always a fish or a few in there. This was in the folly and growth happened really quick. All the half inch holes were nearly filled after like 6 months. I had a similar piece of what I guess people call fads in a shallow water brackish back creek off the stono tied off to a tree and it had almost no growth in the same amount of time and shrimp would hide in it and I often seen a red fish near it when I would check it. A few creeks I fish have rocky areas that hold fish. I think trout tend to hang on them more then reds but both areas are far more trouty then red fish. I would love to know if it is legal to put big rocks in a creek if its deep or inaccessible to boats.
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Originally posted by contender1A lot of trees on the side of the road. I know a lot of fresh water guys use them for lake reefs. Any one doing it in saltwater? Was thinking of rounding up about 6 and dropping them on a creek bend. Other question is how much weight? I have some cinder blocks. Wondering if a single block would hold a tree in place under a moderate tide? I know a lot depends on water depth,size of tree proximity to channel etc. Figured I would drop them to where they almost show at dead low, and over a dead oyster bed on the outside of a bend. Not trying to necessarily make a new fishing hole just enhance a habitat to draw in more bait and hopefully more fish. Thoughts? Shared experiences?
Please do NOT do this. Many people fish the same areas and are familiar with underwater structure. If you go throwing Christmas trees underwater, odds are you won’t do much to make a fish sanctuary but you will definitely cause other fishermen headaches with snags and possible boat damages. We have enough obstructions to be cautious of, no need to add more to the mix. Our fisheries have plenty of structure for fish to hold on, so the benefit isn’t there for dumping Christmas trees. Also, we all are responsible for maintaining our resources for future generations. Dropping trees for your own “fish hole” doesn’t seem to be the best idea in my opinion. Imagine if even 25% of all the fishermen just decided to start tossing crap in the water to try and make places for fish to hold. There would be so much garbage in the water that could have been avoided. Just spend some time on the water, learn the structures that fish like best and catch them up. Tight lines!
Capt. Jeremiah
Southern Slam Fishing Charters
Pioneer 197 Sportfish
If u are going to round up Christmas trees please just burn them in a bonfire #128293;
South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 49 - Waters, Water Resources and Drainage
SECTION 49-1-20. Permitting logs and the like to obstruct or interfere with navigation of rivers or harbors.
Any person who shall be found guilty of cutting any trees or tree tops, brush or logs, or throwing any refuse material whatever into any navigable river or harbor or who shall float logs singly or in rafts in any manner whatsoever without being properly or plainly lighted at night and attended by day with a sufficient number of men to prevent such rafts and logs from negligently damaging property along the river banks, from catching on snags, sinking and forming obstructions or in any manner whatsoever interfering with the navigation of or obstructing such rivers or harbors shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding two years. All such trees, logs, rafts, floating booms or pens of timber dangerous to navigation in any such river may be captured, secured, properly rafted to market and sold, one half of the net proceeds over the expense of capturing and marketing to be paid to the county treasurer of the county in which such timber may be captured and the other half to the person capturing it. But this section shall not apply to logs or timber accidentally drifting loose from a raft or from any stationary boom where timber is kept for proper use or for proper rafting or to any logs floated off from the owner by a sudden freshet before he shall have had an opportunity to raft them.
Iain Pelto
Pathfinder 2000V
'71 Scout “Ugly Duckling”
Thanks hair ,you should have been with us dodging all the logs in front of the paper mill back in the fifties.Nothing would keep us from the greenheads in yellow house creek tho,and all we had was little plywood boats.
What about rocks, bricks, metal and other non buoyant artificial reef materials. If legal I will build a few inshore reefs a few blocks at a time. I got a few 20 ft holes I would love to load down and a couple like 12ft holes in the back creeks and I got access to good amount of some nice size boulders of rubble.
I would just do it 40.
Cant answer the legal question but in small creeks, please ensure they are a minimum of 3ft below the water surface at the lowest tide. Bigger the water way the deeper they should be. Also all the people who throw castnets will love you. No more shrimp from that hole.
Most creeks are pluff mud. Concrete is heavy and easily sinks.
I believe there were several failed SCDNR studies done with inshore artificial reefs. If you pull out a Hot Spot map it will show them. Also listed on SCDNR website in the same place as the near shore reefs.
I didn’t do these. When the tides up and rippin, its a good trout spot. If I step there it goes over my knees before I even get weight on my ft to take a step. Pluff mud. They’ve been there a long time and never sunk. Picture was took at low tide and is about 2 to 3ft
