Many crappie fishermen make it a routine when fishing slows down in the winter to start creating habitat that will hold fish in warmer seasons. The benefit of creating aquatic habitat is that you know where to go to find crappie when you want to catch them most any time of year, but it also benefits the fish.
Planted structure generally falls into one of three categories: brush tops, stakes or commercially produced structure. Brush tops are any form of naturally occurring woody cover, like Christmas trees and also includes fallen or cut tree limbs or small trees. Stake beds are wooden stakes or poles driven into the bottom in a pattern or stakes attached to a wooden frame before sinking. Commercially made attractors range from homemade PVC-pipe structures to intricate tree imitations made from materials that will probably outlast the angler who sinks them.
Game wardens don’t want you creating a boating hazard, so make sure there’s enough water to cover the structure to keep from impeding boat traffic. The cutting of live trees from adjacent land, including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, is illegal. If you’re out for a day of making brush piles, it’s best if you provide your own brush.
According to Ross Self, chief of fisheries for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, SCDNR has plans for some large-scale habitat enhancement on Lake Hartwell in 2013.
“The good news for Hartwell is that we’re hoping to get started on some habitat enhancement in the lake,” Self said. “Money was appropriated for this from the Lake Hartwell PCB Settlement Fund. We’ve been doing a lot of things to anglers by way of creel and size limits, but this project will provide something for anglers in replacing some needed fish habitat that has been lost over the years due to development of the lake.
“We’re talking grand-scale enhancement — providing spawning substrate in some protected areas that are devoid of cover as well as establishing rigid cover habitats — well beyond the typical dumping a few Christmas trees out around a buoy.”
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