07-17-2009, 05:04 AM
Took the family for what has become our annual trip to Hells Canyon and Oxbow Res. What would possess us to go to Hells Canyon in July? Well actually the weather was nice the cloud cover kept temps down and the fish were plentiful.
On Sat. we set up camp and the kids got after it right away finding Crappie and a few bass right in camp and off the boat ramp. White and red jigs seemed to be the ticket but there actually hasn't been a time when the Crappie were feeding that red and white wasn't the best color. Why is that?
The kids caught a few bass incidentally on their crappie jigs and one cat was caught on plain old night crawler.
Sunday we went for a drive up the canyon to see what we could see my favorite part was the old pioneer orchard at the end of the road. Some of the fruit was coming on and the apricots and plums were awesome.
Monday we rented a boat and headed up to the dam were the crappie fishing was non stop. The fish were little but the kids were having fun. We also caught a couple of cats at the dam. Then we headed downstream to explore the reservoir. We caught a few bass on drop shots and tube jigs and a few more cats and crappie.
The highlight of my day was the last hour of light when the fish just went bonkers on a perch rattling crankbait. For a little while I was catching a bass or crappie on every cast. I even caught a trout near the inlet stream.
Tuesday morning my son and I got up early to do some serious bass fishing for a couple of hours. The bass did not disappoint. We caught 20 or so in the 12-17" range before the other kids even got out of bed. The thing about oxbow is the bass are there if you don't get distracted by the crappie.[cool] Most of the bass were caught on a pumkin tube jig.
We took the kids back to the dam for more wild crappie action until the day got hot and they wanted to go back to camp and rest until evening.
We spent the last night concentrating on cats from camp. We caught 7 although four of them were really little. My son did have a thrill for a moment when a really large cat took the bait at about 11:30PM and ran down stream. He happened to be using my bass rod instead of my cat rod and he could not turn the fish at all finaly the cat rapped around a rock. We tried to get it off the rock but eventually broke off.
The guys who were doing really well for the cats were using huge mormon crickets taken off the road on the way in. I wish I would have known they were going to be good as I squished thousands of them as I drove in. The only problem was they were about 20miles away from camp.
BFT member Snakeriver was also in camp with his family. It was really good to meet you and fun to watch your kids doing well with the fish. I will let you report on how you did.
Ok I have gone on long enough. Overall it was a wonderful family trip. I didn't get pics of the bigger bass because my wife was using the camera in camp when we went on our "serious bass trip."
Windriver
[signature]
On Sat. we set up camp and the kids got after it right away finding Crappie and a few bass right in camp and off the boat ramp. White and red jigs seemed to be the ticket but there actually hasn't been a time when the Crappie were feeding that red and white wasn't the best color. Why is that?
The kids caught a few bass incidentally on their crappie jigs and one cat was caught on plain old night crawler.
Sunday we went for a drive up the canyon to see what we could see my favorite part was the old pioneer orchard at the end of the road. Some of the fruit was coming on and the apricots and plums were awesome.
Monday we rented a boat and headed up to the dam were the crappie fishing was non stop. The fish were little but the kids were having fun. We also caught a couple of cats at the dam. Then we headed downstream to explore the reservoir. We caught a few bass on drop shots and tube jigs and a few more cats and crappie.
The highlight of my day was the last hour of light when the fish just went bonkers on a perch rattling crankbait. For a little while I was catching a bass or crappie on every cast. I even caught a trout near the inlet stream.
Tuesday morning my son and I got up early to do some serious bass fishing for a couple of hours. The bass did not disappoint. We caught 20 or so in the 12-17" range before the other kids even got out of bed. The thing about oxbow is the bass are there if you don't get distracted by the crappie.[cool] Most of the bass were caught on a pumkin tube jig.
We took the kids back to the dam for more wild crappie action until the day got hot and they wanted to go back to camp and rest until evening.
We spent the last night concentrating on cats from camp. We caught 7 although four of them were really little. My son did have a thrill for a moment when a really large cat took the bait at about 11:30PM and ran down stream. He happened to be using my bass rod instead of my cat rod and he could not turn the fish at all finaly the cat rapped around a rock. We tried to get it off the rock but eventually broke off.
The guys who were doing really well for the cats were using huge mormon crickets taken off the road on the way in. I wish I would have known they were going to be good as I squished thousands of them as I drove in. The only problem was they were about 20miles away from camp.
BFT member Snakeriver was also in camp with his family. It was really good to meet you and fun to watch your kids doing well with the fish. I will let you report on how you did.
Ok I have gone on long enough. Overall it was a wonderful family trip. I didn't get pics of the bigger bass because my wife was using the camera in camp when we went on our "serious bass trip."
Windriver
[signature]