I’d like to create a stake bed but have no idea of what I need to get started. Can you help?

Stake beds are a perfect place to fish for Crappie in the fall.  Creating your own is fairly simple and you can purchase everything you need at a hardware store such as Lowe’s, Home Depot or Menard’s.  The best place to locate a stake bed is on the flats next to a creek channel.  You can also try putting them along the channel in either a bay or a secondary cove.  If you’re planning on Crappie fishing in the spring, you can set the beds in shallow water, however for fall fishing, you’ll want a depth of anywhere from 10-15 feet.  Tomato stakes are perfect for use in a stake bed and you’ll want to cut them to a length that is half of the depth that you’ll be fishing.  Allow an extra foot to drive the stake into the bottom.  For a depth of 15 feet, you’ll want at least 7 ½ feet of stake showing plus another foot to drive for a total length of 8 ½ feet.  You can arrange the stakes in a circle, a square or a rectangle. You’ll want to make sure that you leave open space in the middle and enough room between the stakes to cast and retrieve your bait or lure.  (12 inches between stakes is usually ideal)  An easy way to mark the stakes is to tie a plastic soda or half gallon milk jug to the stake when you drive it in.  Simply remove the bottles when you’re finished.   To drive the stakes into the bottom, you can make your own driver with by attaching a 3 foot section of 3 inch galvanized PVC pipe with a 3” to 1 ½ inch reducer to 8 foot sections of 1 ½ inch galvanized PVC pipe (should be threaded on both ends).  To make a 20 foot driver, attach the 8 foot sections to each other with couplings.  The couplings and reducer make it easy to dismantle and transport the driver as needed.