Has anyone tried to make their own weeds? I have been tying with the idea of usig the artificial greenery that wal mart carries and attaching that to cord and using high density foam as the float. Any type of a clip would work for holding the float in place. I thought of using wire ties to hold the plastic greenery to the cord. Just wondering if anyone has changed it. I am thinking of using marker bouy weights for the weight.
What if you used old tip-ups, take the flag off and find a way to hold the reel in place when you reach the depth you want. When your done just reel them back up. 
Ed
pm putt2win…he had just made some of his own. Don’t know of any specifics but they looked like they would work.
You’ll probably find that after the expense, time and trying to make it work, its best to just get the reel deal. 
I’ll admit when I first saw them, I tought the same thing. I was at Petsmart looking at weeds. To get 24 feet of weeds it was going to cost $200. 
Walmart probably has something less expensive but one of the main features of the Reel Weeds is the cord. The cord doesnt soak up water and wont freeze. Your not going to find that cord material at Wal-mart.
Was bored the other night and decided to put ~6 feet of X-mas Tree on my VS560. Haven’t had it out yet to see how they last. Just can’t spend the $70 right now…
Use some of the fake x-mas greens, coated tip-up line, decoy anchors and cut those kids swimming floats with the hollow center for floats. I made 6 for under $25 bucks that have more “foliage” than the mfg’d ones.
EJ
I spent $15 at walmart to get what I needed to make 12 ft of weeds. I made 2 3ft sections and tied a 6ft section to my camera. I used tipup line, zip ties, and a 2 oz weight. I cut a few inches off a noodle pool float to use as the float. I haven’t used them but I sent them up north with a buddy yesterday. I’m sure I’ll need to tweek something but for $15 and 20 minutes worth of work it’s worth trying. 
You can check my garden out about the 2nd. week in July and you can have all the real weeds you want for nothing. want them over 3 ft. wait until AUG.
These are exactly the ideas I was looking for. I had the same ideas just hadn’t been out yet to look at the exact materials and have not had the time to really do much thinking about them other than a flash idea and a few questions. I like the swim noodle idea and the zip ties are what I was thinking of as well. I have and old artificial x-mas tree that I am getting rid of this year as well. Maybe I have lots of options here. Tip up line would work too….. hummmmmmm…
Thanks for the replies guys. I think as simple of an idea that they are I can come up with soemthing that will work for now.
These are some good ideas. I however am fortunate enough to be able to purchase the Reel Weeds saving myself some time to keep my gear in order or spend time going through river maps trying to come up with new (to me) areas to fish and of course, cruse IDA 
Yeh, yeh…the wife and kids are in there somewhere too
The things you will be giving up on not purchasing the Reel Weeds, they shed water and will not freeze up on you when picked up to make a move. They are made for the harsh winter environment both the plastic and cord. Products purchased at craft/department stores are made for decoration not the outdoor winter elements. The Reel Weeds also wrap up and stay tangle free on the storage unit. This makes it nice to just toss them in the sled and run then set back up again without wasting time to untangle things or straighten out frozen plastic. These are just a few things that make the purchase worth it in my mind.
Good Luck on the Ice People and with whatever you are able to put together 
Bret
Go to a pet store or dept. some where – there are dead ringers for coontail in the aquariunm section!! – zip tie them to the camera , and cord (so you can take them off in the summer.) Cost you 10 bucks and take 10 minutes. -(Stick to the natural stuff, I Dont recomend the pink ones) 
Michaels had all the stuff to make my weeds. 8′ sections of leaves, 3″ round styrofoam for the top and I had the tip up line and weight for the bottom. Made 2 out of the 8′ piece for 10 bucks. Worked good!
Bret , all good thoughts. Plus the fact, I see their a sponsor for IDA.
big g 
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Bret , all good thoughts. Plus the fact, I see their a sponsor for IDA.
big g
Copied from Reel Weeds site.
LaDredge Outdoors has spent over 5 years designing this type of artificial weed, including hundreds of hours of testing in extreme winter conditions, improving what was not right, and building the perfect artificial underwater weed for fishermen and fisheries.
Although appearance and familiarity to fish is high on the list, quality, safety and durability exceeds everything else. Our product line has been custom designed and manufactured specifically with these factors in mind. It can withstand extreme winter weather conditions and is completely safe in our fisheries. We will cut no corners to provide to you the best possible artificial weed structure.
We caution anybody in constructing and/or submerging into our fisheries a homemade weed structure with products purchased from pet stores, craft stores, etc. Those products are in no way designed for this type of application, but simply intended and constructed for household decor, or heated aquariums.
Please do not take this the wrong way. I was only asking a question. I am not trying to discourage anyone from buying the product. I just like to do things my way and think they are a great idea and a way to hold fish around your fishing area.
Smooth way to bring that up Bret,Derek…hats off to you 
There are SOME sites that MIGHT have closed or locked a thread such as this with a sponsor involved.
Not gonna mention no names
This is a great place.
This thread can be locked or deleted if necessary. I was not trying to undercut anyone. I did not see them listed as a sponsor. I see Marcum, Storm hide, G3 boats, Brovarney Baits,bfishn tackle, and lake master. I looked under the sponsor section on the home page and it talks about reel weeds but only tells that Everets lets you try things out before you buy them. I am sorry if I may have caused some problems.
Paul, It’s no problem. Reel weeds is a sponsor here but we’re not going to restrict anyone from talking about making their own product. We encourage folks to consider buying the reel weeds because we think they make a quality product that works, and we appreciate the fact that they help us keep the lights on.
Back to the subject at hand, this topic has come up a number of times and it does seem that reel weeds has the edge in terms of overall quality, usability, and durability.
Hat’s off to you inovators making your own innexpensive weed imitations! If us ‘little guys” can’t dicuss ways to save money by making something ourselves or identifying other products then this is not the website I have come to enjoy. Sponsors dont deserve 100% of our allegiance. They advertise and hope their product is viable and does well. In the case of Reel Weeds they have a fine product and it is obviously respected on this site. That’s no reason not to discuss alternatives.
I made some of my own, wallmart has a few different 6′ strands to choose from, they’re plastic with the wire running through them. I attached the “vine” to some decoy line with small zip ties, lead weight. I used a chunk of 2×4 to wrap the line. Works out pretty slick! If memory serves me right each strand cost $4-5. I had the decoy weights and cord laying around.
I also made one for my camera.
BIRDDOG
All very clever ideas.
I’m headed home to build my own camera and flasher.
Seriously, long before cameras came out, some buddies and I built an underwater camera. We took a security camera and housed it in PVC. We got it down to the bottom and started seeing images. We were thrilled until about 5 seconds later when we saw bubbles and the screen went to snow. It leaked big time. We had the strongest marine silicone we could get. We gave up after a month or so. We even had a Maglite mounted to it.. 
This must have been 14 years ago or so.
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We were thrilled until about 5 seconds later when we saw bubbles and the screen went to snow.
That made me laugh ! Excellent !
Kinda like say…..Take yer brand new LCR 2000 (one the first affordable liquid crystal Hummingbirds) Slap’in it in a wood box with a motorcycle battery and making your own “portable” ice fish’in sonar….Them first units did’nt handle cold very well. 
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Hat’s off to you inovators making your own innexpensive weed imitations! If us ‘little guys” can’t dicuss ways to save money by making something ourselves or identifying other products then this is not the website I have come to enjoy. Sponsors dont deserve 100% of our allegiance. They advertise and hope their product is viable and does well. In the case of Reel Weeds they have a fine product and it is obviously respected on this site. That’s no reason not to discuss alternatives.
Suzuki,
I couldn’t agree more. And I will also try my darndest to give my business to the site sponsers.
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If us ‘little guys” can’t dicuss ways to save money by making something ourselves or identifying other products then this is not the website I have come to enjoy.
We always have and always will allow this type of discussion. We’re not here to control the direction of the topics discussed as long as they’re done in a respectful manner.
Carry on.
In that case…I’ll bring up my idea…My dad was taking down the christmas stuff a couple weeks ago and i saw that christmas garland and got thinking…That stuff can’t be too expensive and has a nice bulky weed look to it. zip tie it to some tip up line and put a 3 oz bell sinker below…Bingo. We have to have like 300 ft of that stuff, We put it all around the deck every year.
Guys, before you drop the garland ect into the lake…wet it down and take it outside in our welcomed 3 degree weather. No need for us to be out leaving “trash” in our waters because our experiments cracked, broke or otherwise became irretrevable.
Looked at the reed weeds, and they seemed very well made. Personally, I just like to putz with things to see if I can do it or just to annoy the wife. If your going to make your own try decoy line with the long decoy weight. The decoy line does not tangle and the lead weight can be wrapped around the plants on the handle to secure everything together so they don’t make a mess.
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