cheap buoy marker you can make for marking structure

Know how expensive plastic buoy markers are from the catalog? Ridiculous !
So, I happened to be at the dollar store (dragged there once a week by the wife) and saw a box of foam bop ’em tubes for kids, used in the water. Seeing as how they float, why not cut a 7″ section, wrap about 30′ of old stiff braid I’ll never use and attach a weight to that.

Note: the screws are secured on one side only with duck tape for weight so the rolling buoy doesn’t keep unraveling more string when a wind blows the buoy.
I keep 4 on board in a gallon size freezer bag and mark mid lake structure easily. If I leave one behind (which is inevitable) only to find someone made off with it, at least the cost is less than a few bucks to make another.

Nice tip.

Personally I ditched those for the most part couple years ago. It’s already hard enough having guys crowd your spot once u throw one of those out in water. Although when I setup bobbering I will deploy those not necessarily on structure, but more as a line of defense. It’s kind of a boundary most won’t cross and let you have your space.

I usually just press mark on my graph

If you want to have some fun throw one out in the middle of nowhere of a busy lake and just watch how many people stop to fish it.

Empty pop/water bottle has a little more “Camo Factor”. Looks like floating trash. Attracts less attention.

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Empty pop/water bottle has a little more “Camo Factor”. Looks like floating trash. Attracts less attention.

-J.

Chunk of stick…….same effect.

In the 80’s on millelacs I used a seagull decoy made by carry lite decoy co. Nobody rushed over to it. Worked great.

I fish five waters that aren’t open to the general public and when I fish during the week, being retired, I have the water all to myself. Same for some public waters. Therefore marking areas I want to come back to on a lake that’s 4 miles or less long allows me the freedom of not worrying about giving up spots – which most of those who fish those waters know as well as I do. Plus there are areas that hold fish for that day but usually are gone the next and marking them is quick and accurate.

For example, a 75 yd long hump may have fish to the northwest of it but only off one part of it. No point in recasting the area when I know a certain spot is holding fish.
Outlining the shape of a hump and knowing which buoy marker represents a bolder or steep drop is also helpful.

Granted, with new electronics and GPS it’s easy to mark areas, but I have neither and buoy markers help.

mwal wrote:

In the 80’s on millelacs I used a seagull decoy made by carry lite decoy co. Nobody rushed over to it. Worked great.

I’ve used the empty water bottle trick, but the piece of stick is good. I expect to see a lot more “seagulls” though!

Stick idea is genius. Stealing that one. Not that it will help with a bunch of lil guys in the boat. Last Friday they were yelling to other boats that we had tons of fish. Lmao. They haven’t learned to keep their spots secret yet.

mwal wrote:

In the 80’s on millelacs I used a seagull decoy made by carry lite decoy co. Nobody rushed over to it. Worked great.

I’ve heard of people using duck decoys too, little more incognito like the seagull lol.

munchy wrote:

If you want to have some fun throw one out in the middle of nowhere of a busy lake and just watch how many people stop to fish it.

I fully admit to having done this after getting p!sssed off by other boats crowding us after seeing us catch fish.

I went to a new spot, made one pass, threw down a red home-made bouy (ISO Heet Container) and then waited. Within 10 minutes we had guys almost bumping rails with us. Nobody knew who threw down the marker except maybe the first guy who piled in after us. After 6 other boats showed up, I left the marker and slipped away.

An hour later I could still see guys making passes at that dud marker. They couldn’t give it up, nobody knew whose marker it was, but there just HAD to be fish there because everybody kept making passes.

Grouse

lol @ the grouse…. I did similar hijinks on Winnie yrs ago. Made some cheap Styrofoam dogbone markers with a 2ounce lead weight. I only put about 10 feet of cord on em. when boats got close because they saw us catch a fish, I would toss a marker. They would see it unwind and then stop. Boats would flock to that marker that wasn’t anchored to bottom…..it would float away and the vultures would follow it. Had many a laugh over that.

Timmy wrote:

lol @ the grouse…. I did similar hijinks on Winnie yrs ago. Made some cheap Styrofoam dogbone markers with a 2ounce lead weight. I only put about 10 feet of cord on em. when boats got close because they saw us catch a fish, I would toss a marker. They would see it unwind and then stop. Boats would flock to that marker that wasn’t anchored to bottom…..it would float away and the vultures would follow it. Had many a laugh over that.

THAT IS EPIC! I’m going to fish MN opener on Winnie or Leech next year just so I can do this to the opener weekend warrior tourists!!!