CJ Strike.

[hooknhunter]

Not much recent chatter, but the perch and crappie are biting at CJ. Pretty good sized ones and decent numbers if you hit it right. In the narrows the average crappie was around 11 inches with some pushing 13 or so. Perch are more on the main body but are nice fat ones.

Just in case anyone cares. This forum seems to be dying.......
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[Kodiak1]

Hooknhunter,
Thanks for the report. You always produce useful and helpful info. You are right.....the site seems to have taken a downturn. Fewer reports, but the "views" remain similar. That means more people taking but not giving. Please, folks, if you are not registered, please do so. And if you are registered, please post results of your fishing forays. If you don't, this helpful site will wither and die. Mike
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[PACKFAN]

That's funny, I wonder why?[cool]
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[Squarehog]

Nice! You found some biting crappies at CJ??[shocked]. We put in at Loveridge Bridge on Sunday, for a change of scenery and such and motored on down to the cove arm area. We caught some nice perch and 2 squawfish and several smaller bass up to 13". My crappie spots from last year just aren't producing and I've only caught 1 or 2 crappies at cj this year but from what I've heard there are some dandies.
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[hooknhunter]

They were biting pretty good on Friday, but it tapered off a lot by Saturday.

I normally do pretty well for both Crappie and Perch this time of year. Might be just a touch early, though.

Those big Crappies might as well get eaten. From what I've ready about Crappie size, age, and survival, most of those fish won't survive to spawn next year anyway. Might as well make them into tacos.
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[hooknhunter]

Oh, I forgot something. I saw some commercial crawdad fishermen leaving the lake as we were launching. That fact alone made me reluctant to even put my traps out. Still, I had them, so I thought what the heck.

One of my traps zero'd and the bait didn't get touched. It was only about 100 feet away from the other trap, which was clear full of delicious bugs. 16 in all. All I can figure is that my empty trap must have been siting in a way that prohibited the bugs from getting in. The other trap was completely loaded. The smallest bug was about 7 inches in total length, so they were very nice sized. I'm going to make more traps so next time I can put out my legal limit of traps. [cool]
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[Squarehog]

Mudbugs!! I trapped my first 3 at Hell's Canyon this late spring and since then built my first chicken wire trap of legal size but have yet to have success with my home built trap. We used canned cat food and fish guts and placed it next to the dock over night. I have since tried at Brownlee one day with no luck. Any tricks on where or how deep to place the traps? Also How big of opening do you have on your traps? I basically copied my store bought cylinder style trap but made the openings bigger..
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[hooknhunter]

PM me pictures of your traps if you don't mind. I might be able to help a bit. I have learned a couple things that have really helped. I had very marginal success until I modified my trap to make it so they can't get out as easily. Only 1 is modified, but I won't use the un-modified one now until after I get it updated. When I build more, I'm going to change my design to make better use of the space so it will hold more bugs, but I believe it will be just as effective.
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[fshnfwl]

Thanks for the update on CJ. I plan to be down there at the end of the month.

I just ordered a couple traps. Any recommendations on where to put them (location and depth) or bait to use?

We plan to fish the res. one day and then try some sturgeon fishing below the dam
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[physion]

I brought back 14 nice crappie and one nice perch today. I was in the narrows towards the east end for most of the time. I also caught 2 small bluegill, lots of small bass, and 1 bass about 3 pounds. I seemed to do best on red and white crappie jigs with crappie nibbles. Not a great day, but enough fish to make a mess in the kitchen and some good eating for my wife and me.

Phyison
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[lowe-185]

still a few in Cascade. biting on plastics. had to search around a bit.
Blue Heron in getting little rocky to get in and out of.
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[hooknhunter]

For bait I just use a filleted out crappie, perch, or bass. I did best in about 25 FOW. I'm not ready to give away any exact locations, but I will say that I seem to do better in areas with a cobble stone bottom. My theory is that if the boulders are too big, then it become difficult to set the trap on the bottom in a way where the bugs can get in. An overnight soak always seems to produce better than a daytime soak.
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[idahopanfish]

Last summerI did well enough in 2 To 3 hours to catch enough crawdads for a boil for 4 people. I was in the narrows on the north side towards the east end. I was using some of the scraps of fish cleanings I had saved in the freezer. I was fortunate to have seen some other trapers leaving and went in behind them with my 2 store bought square traps. I was about 10 to20 yards out from shore about 15 fow. Not sure about how rocky the bottom was or the type of rocks. It did appear like it would have plenty of cover for the dads to be looking around for food.
I have slso dome well at SFCR and have heard thst Murtaugh Lake has many.
They sure make a good meal!
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[hooknhunter]

I modified my second trap last night so that it should work just a well as the first mod'd trap. Now I just need to get busy and make 3 more.

It would go a lot quicker if I had access to a sheet metal shear or something to speed up the process of cutting out parts so they can be assembled. It takes a lot longer than I thought it would........ I've been using a cut off wheel on my hand grinder as that seems to be a lot faster than tin snips or heavy pliers for cutting the wire. One problem with the cutoff wheel is that the wire seems to be pretty hard on the life of the cut off wheel. The material I use is a roll of ~1/4 to 3/8 inch mesh wire like a rabbit cage would be made of.

My traps are a modified and homemade version of this: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=craw...ajaxhist=0
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[BrettWad]

Hook, i was wondering if you could pm with some info on recommended setups for crappie. I recently got my first "big enough to fish CJ" boat and have only done minimal crappie fishing. I have an excellent fish finder i just installed and have no clue on how to use yet but just knowing what to look for on the finder would be useful as well. Shoot id even be happy to take you out on my boat just as a thanks for giving me a head start. Ive only been fishing about 4-5 years, but have almost exclusively bank fished rivers for sturgeon, bass, and some panfish. Im just jonesing to learn how to really put my new boat to good use. Besides I can always use more fishing buddies.

As a side note, fishing at swan for me has been horrible, and my jet boat is not loving the moss shedding since they opened a spill way and increased flows at swan. I am hoping that the weather changes will scare off the fair weather fisherman and turn back on the sturgeon bite.
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[hooknhunter]

Crappie seem to be a bit finicky, but even more than finicky is the way they bite. Super soft. In fact, if you use too heavy of gear, you'll likely get a number of bites that you don't even know about.

My ideal crappie setup would be a 6-8 foot fast action UL rod with 5 lb or less test of high quality line. Tie a crappie jig on that setup. I generally like to use 2 jigs. With the bottom one being a 1/8 oz or so and then a smaller one above that. Red and white is a pretty standard color, but it is good to experiment with other colors too.

Go to the narrows and look for the stacked up boats. Politely work in with them if you can. Most people won't mind if you are friendly, cautious, and courteous.
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[BrettWad]

Awesome! I appreciate the info! I usually go as light as I can. Love UL's. And I wasn't far off mark I guess, how deep are they this time of year? Do you use a float and how far apart do you run your jigs?
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[Spoons]

Nice thread.
Thanks for the report.
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[fshnfwl]

Thanks for the info. I understand what you mean by the trap laying so they can get in. If the bottom has too large of rocks it would be hard to get a good lie. I'll report back how we do both with the traps and fishing. I hope we catch a few Sturgeon in the river. BTW, what is the best way to tag your trap? Can you just put you name and address on the float or does it have to be in the trap itself?
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[fshnfwl]

Thanks so much for the detailed info. I hope to trap enough for at least a good appetizer for the group.
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