An FLW Feature. December and January are the two months when anglers really start preparing for the coming season, whether it’s firming up sponsorships, planning tournament schedules or restocking baits and equipment. This is also the time of year when a lot of anglers plant cover in the lake or the lakes where they fish so they’ll be productive the following year. Depending on where you live, this manmade cover is referred to as “brush piles,” “piles,” or “tops.” No matter what it’s called, big bass will use it for ambush cover.
If you’re going to build brush piles, first make sure you know what the state or local regulations are and abide by them. Some states enforce stricter rules than others. Then develop a general idea about where you want the cover based on how it’s going to benefit you in the fishing season.
Then there’s the question of material. Brush piles can be made from old Christmas trees, other small trees or shrubs, or PVC pipe, and anchored with bricks, blocks, buckets with cement in them or anything else that’s heavy enough to hold the brush in place. I like to use wire rather than rope to anchor the brush since rope can easily snag a hook. The most cost-effective brush piles are discarded Christmas trees. However, those made of PVC can go undetected by most sonar units and make it hard for other anglers to find them easily. You don’t want your brush piles to become a community hole.
After building the piles it’s time to drop them in multiple locations that you know will complement seasonal patterns. For instance, in the prespawn you’ll want to put piles in an area fairly close to spawning flats – usually about 10-20 feet deep where the bottom structure suggests likely staging points for bass as they move up. Then you’ll want some for the spawn in water that’s 5 feet deep or less in known spawning areas. For the post-spawn and summer, plant other piles here and there all the way out to deeper water. This might be in the 15- to 35-foot range in most lakes.
Quick tip: Put the brush in areas where there’s a short route from shallow to deep water. Pay attention to bottom contours, knowing that bass relate to drops, dips, points and other transitions.
There are lots of likely places to plant brush where bass will find it, but other anglers won’t. Once you’ve got yours down, pay attention to when they’re productive, and determine why. A lot of the time fish won’t use them because they’re not around that part of the lake right then, but brush piles can pay dividends on highly pressured lakes at any time.
Dropping brush or PVC is very time-consuming and can be costly. Remember, though, you reap what you sow.