Fishing guide and radio-show host Bobby Holmes has been guiding for crappies and bluegills since 1983 in West Tennessee on shallow waters like Kentucky Lake and Reelfoot, and in deeper hill-land reservoirs like Percy Priest. When it comes to brushpiles, his degree in botany certainly doesn’t hurt.

“I mostly use willow and river birch, which tend to create an infusion earliest, meaning living things begin to invade or infest the wood more quickly,” he says. “Peach or apple branches infuse quickly, too. Willow is best but it’s also the most delicate. With a willow brushpile, you tend to leave one third on the bank, one third in the boat, and you might get one third in the water by the time you plant it. If you handle it with care, you might get two thirds. I set two cinder blocks in the boat and lap, head to toe, two large willow limbs or whole saplings and wire them in place with electric fence wire.

“My brushpiles are 20 feet long, 4 feet wide, and average 4 feet tall. I use major limbs and tree trunks. Big brushpiles are easier for both crappies and anglers to find. As far as height goes, my rule of thumb is: In 20 feet of water, 6 feet wouldn’t be too tall. In 6 feet of water, a height of 3 feet would be plenty. No sense letting everyone know where your pile is by having it show above the water. If it rises above the surface, give it a haircut.

“Willow lasts 2 to 3 years and has holes you can get a jig through,” he adds. “With river birch, you have to cut strips through the middle of the pile so you can get your jig down through. Apple or peach-tree trimmings can sweeten a brushpile. Find out when the local orchard owners prune. They’re usually anxious to get rid of the brush.

“Add five or six nice brushpiles to a flat with no cover and, presto, you’ll have crappies there. Around here, brushpiles should be in 12 feet of water in October and November. You need some idea about the fluctuations of the reservoir, and you need to know where the water level will be in fall. So if you drop it in spring, drop it deeper. Around here I drop brush in 16 feet of water in spring, knowing that most years the water will drop 4 feet by October.”

Holmes rarely puts brushpiles down in the same pattern twice. “Place a distinct pattern in each area you use, so when you make contact with one brushpile, bingo—you know how it’s laid out. Hexagon, straight line, circle—doesn’t matter; just know your own pattern so you know how to follow it. I like to space my brushpiles at least 40 to 50 feet apart,” he says. “That way, if someone comes by and gets a fix on you with GPS, he gets only one fixed point. You’re the only one who knows the pattern. Make the other ones hard to find. Use a notebook. Triangulate and make notes on your topo map, or just use GPS. Or put buoy makers on each pile, back away and take photos with a Polaroid camera, then staple them into your log book.

“No matter what type of water I fish in western Tennessee during fall, I want brushpiles on big flats next to river channels, on steep rough banks or long-tapering points, or on outside bends in the main river channel or main creek channel. In cut stumps you only have to add brush in the backs of the creeks where natural cover has silted over. In lowland reservoirs like Ross Barnett or highland reservoirs like Percy Priest, find cover and you find fish. Where water is clear [water clarity has as much to do with it as anything], placement should be deeper. I want brush at 15 to 20 feet minimum on Percy Priest in October. The best action could be in 30 to 40 feet. In shallower, cloudier lowland reservoirs, brush should be 4 to 12 feet deep.

“If the water is discolored or we have cloud cover, I reach all around the brushpile with a long, 12-foot jigging pole. With a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce jig fished vertically on 4- to 6-pound line, I touch-lift and finesse that jig all around the brushpile. I use B&M poles and little Mitchell Spider Mite reels.

“For vertically fishing in deep water, I don’t use a long pole,” says Holmes. “I don’t tip with bait, either. I use dyed kip tails [calf tails], which have a lustrous effect in the water, or I tip with plastic tubes. Lacking wind and if the water’s clear, I pitch jigs because the crappies will be spooky. I suggest little fiberguard jigs, and I trim the fibers. I use an 8-foot Classic, a spinning rod especially designed by B&M for vertical fishing. Best way to figure out depth is to use rod length for the first 8 feet, so you can always strip line off the reel in 2- or 3-foot lengths to figure out precisely how deep you’re fishing. You want to know exactly where you are in terms of depth around a brushpile, because biting crappies tend to be at the same level most of the time.

“I go over the top of the brushpile first and read it, so I know what depth to start. If I don’t have to penetrate it, I don’t. When crappies suspend over the brush, I note their depth and measure my line accordingly.

“Scatter brushpiles in slightly different depths,” Holmes suggests. “That way you’re covered when water levels fluctuate. And place brushpiles so you always have somewhere to fish out of the wind. Make sure a few are protected from the west, some from the north, and so on; so that no matter which direction the wind blows, you’ll have protected brushpiles.” (Not that crappies won’t be out there when the wind blows, but it’s difficult to maintain position and vertically finesse jigs through brush in wind and waves.)

“Dropping brushpiles will teach you more about a lake or reservoir than you otherwise could learn,” he says. “While using good electronics in the search for existing brush or new drop sites, you’re going to find old roadbeds, ditches with fence rows, stumps, channels, and other key elements that aren’t on the map. Diligence never hurts.”