American Falls Info Request from an Out-of-Stater

[jnbsigma]

Hello, I just found out that I'll be attending a family reunion at Sportsman Park in Aberdeen by American Falls the weekend of July 20-22. Naturally my first instinct was to find out what type of fishies live there! [angelic] If my info is correct, I'll be playing with browns, cutts, largies, and perch. Is that right?

I've never fished in Idaho before but have heard good things about it. Can anyone offer me some helpful info as to where and how to fish American Falls? Also, where is Sportsman Park in relation to the reservoir? Has anyone been there lately that could post a report? From my quick perusal, the [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=337620#337620"]most recent one[/url] I found was on May 19th. Any and all info would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I'll be fishing from a float tube and would like to target bass primarily, but I'm not proud--I'll go for anything that will grab a hook. [] Finally, is there an online proclamation for Idaho fishing? If not, does anyone know of a place I could call to have one sent to me (I live in Provo)? Thanks!
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[poky-mon]

[url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/"]http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/[/url] heres the F&G sight theres a little bit of everything in AF . what do you fish with fly, lure ,bait that can help out can you travel away from reunionor are you stuck there. Sportsman park is in aberdeen which is toward the end of the lake (the lake is like 20 miles long ) as for reports I don't fish it so I'm no help there and its more of a family req in the summers boating skiing etc.
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[IDHunters]

Sportsmans Park is a boat launch/picnic area that is a part of the AF resevoir. It is at the mouth of a large lava rock cove formed by many springs that flow into the resevoir there.

More than likely, the springs will still be flooded from the backwaters, but low enough you will be able to tell where the upper ones are. There are many neat coves to explore NW of sportsmans park, along the resevoir.

Primary fish are trout (brown, rainbow, cutts, hybrids) and small mouth bass. There are very few largemouths but there are rumours of their existence. On a more limited basis there are perch, bullheads and crappie.

The best ways to fish for trout are trolling, ice fishing and dunking worms along the bank. Most of the bank fishing occurs along the "rip-rap" along the banks (its not all rip-rap). You will probably get some smallmouths using the float tube, and I would probably fish around the lava rock cliffs by sportsmans park for the smallies. Not that you can't catch trout with the tube, theres just lots of water to cover. There have been lots of 8-10 pound trout come out of there this year.

You could also travel another 15 miles or so to Springfield and fish springfield resevoir. Its a trophy lake, artificials only. You could also go another 5 miles from Springfield and fish the snake river by Mctucker which you could wade.

Have fun.
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[jnbsigma]

Thanks for the info both of you! Hopefully I can get into some smallies and of course I would love to land one of those big troutskies as well. I appreciate the heads up.

Do you happen to know what the regulations are for that reservoir? I'm not having luck finding any kind of online Idaho fishing proclamation.
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[IDHunters]

[url "http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/rules/"]http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/rules/[/url]

Click whichever link you want to go to a specific part of the brochure.

Its a general season resevoir. 6 fish limits. Bass must be 12" or more. Have fun, get OFF the water if the wind start blowing. Really.
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[BrianID]

Welcome to the Idaho board. [size 1]

[size 1]Naturally my first instinct was to find out what type of fishies live there![/size]

[/size]Sounds like something I would do.[]

Rainbow trout are by far the most popular game fish in American Falls Reservoir. Most of the rainbows I've caught in American Falls are in the 2lb-3lb range, rainbows over 5lbs are very possible any day you fish there. Don't expect to catch a lot of trout though. If you are catching more than 1 trout per hour you are doing much better than most fishermen. There are a few brown trout and cutthroat in American Falls but they aren't near as common as rainbows.

Here's a link that you might find useful.
[url "http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/burtea.cfm"]http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/burtea.cfm[/url]
Click on the "boat ramps" link in the top part of the page and you can find out how many feet below full pool the reservoir is.

Smallmouth fishing can be alright but don't expect high catch rates. Like Idhunters mentioned, there are many rocky areas around Sportmans Park that can be good for smallmouths.
Perch can be numerous in some areas but finding a school may be difficult. There are also some large carp in American Falls Reservoir.

I also like Idhunters idea of checking out other places in the area. A couple other options are McTucker Ponds for small greensunfish, bluegill, largemouth bass and bullheads. Most of the fish in the McTucker ponds are 6" or less but there are many of them in there. You could also check out the new Crystal Springs pond for planted rainbows. Crystal Pond and the McTucker Ponds are 2 or 3 miles south of Springfield. The Snake river below American Falls for trout (mostly rainbows with a few browns and cuts) and smallmouth would be another option.
Good luck!
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[jnbsigma]

Thanks for the great heads up! I'm excited to get on the water. This will be my first time fishing Idaho and I know it won't be my last. Thanks also for the links! I'll be sure to post up when I get back.
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[jnbsigma]

Thanks again for all the great tips. I'm headed up to ID tomorrow for the reunion. Has anyone been to American Falls in the last couple weeks? If so, how was it?
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