Cj reports ?

[Biigfish33]

Is it still fishing well?
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[fish_digger]

The perch are ready willing and able. I fished it last week and did well.
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[BobberSlaughter]

Any size to the perch? I fished a couple years ago and they where dinks!
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[fish_digger]

Smallest ~8", Largest 11"+. Dinks no longer.
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[Biigfish33]

Ended up fishing it about a week ago, did well. Like you mentioned, size of fish is much improved, even from a year ago. Growth rate at cj is pretty impressive.
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[Duck-Slayer]

When perch are not over populated and have room too roam they grow about 2"+/- a year, that's why we have cycle's in the lake's everywhere...... all those 4" from 3 and 4 year's ago are the age class you are catching, there are not many dinks now cause they all get eat'n as quick as they are born.... another reason for cycle's, there is no stable food source for warm water specie fish in Idaho.... no smelt, no minnows persay, shad, shiners, all those prolific bait fish.... anyway enjoy for a year or two than they will be gone again and mostly dinks, but the crappie are on the up swing as well in about a year or two they will be great again, than we will have 200 boat's out there all summer long every day..... I may go camp down at CJ this weekend for a few days... Thanks for the repot's..... I was out there and trolling for trout is good, orange floating rapala with a 1/4oz weight about 2' in front of that with a swivel, water temp was about 42 degree's, the perch should be thinking about spawning pretty quick, probably already have...
Matt
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[dtayboyz]

I'll be there as well. Silver & red champion. I'll kee an eye out. Gonna start where I saw you last. 😀
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[Duck-Slayer]

[quote dtayboyz]I'll be there as well. Silver & red champion. I'll kee an eye out. Gonna start where I saw you last. 😀[/quote]

sounds good, if you see me role on up and say hi!
Matt
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[Biigfish33]

Duck, thanks for the great information. I only started fishing CJ about 3 years ago when the perch population took off and the dinks were everywhere, so it's been interesting seeing them grow and develop. The lakes around here definitely are boom and bust, and what you're saying makes sense. As far as feed goes, because of the lack of a sustainable food source for perch and crappie, that's also pretty much dependent on the cycles of those fish. For instance, about 1/3 of the perch I caught had 3-4 inch crappie stuck in their mouth. If they had a sustainable food source their they could consistently feed on fish that size - instead they eat what they can when it is available, i.e. Small crappie or themselves. Good luck if you end up camping this weekend!
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[dtayboyz]

The biomass in CJ is amazing, what we need is some water coming down the snake. Maybe this year. I've been fishing there since the 70s and there always big perch around if you go looking. The spawn in the burneau was very successful a few years ago and thats what we have been catching, we caught alot of 13 inch perch that year. Ice fishing at strike is a very rare treat. The smallies are finally getting over 6 lbs, sure wish people would quit eating them.
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[Duck-Slayer]

Ended up not camping down at CJ due too the weather report for Sun. and Mon., My family and I did manage too get there Sat. afternoon, got there about 12:30, left at 4 with 42 perch in the livewell, most of those came in the last hour we were there, did some looking around at new spots and water temps, they are getting close too spewing eggs, beautiful day out on the lake.....
Matt
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[1idahoguy]

Saturday was most definitely a beautiful day to be outside. I almost took my boys to CJ - sounds like I missed out on a good day's fishing down there.

Regarding perch, does their behavior change before vs after spawning? Do you target them differently pre/post?
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[dtayboyz]

We caught 3 smallies at 4 lbs. lots of good perch and a few crappy. Spent most of the day at 30 ft dropshotting. Narrows 35 degrees, Main pool 42 and up by cove arm 45. Supposed to be 60 next week. Crappy are in the center of the narrows at 45 ft.
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[Biigfish33]

Nice work on the smallies! Beautiful fish!
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[SBennett]

Any walleye in CJ?
My sister and parents live in MH and I've been threatening myself to drag my boat up on one of my next visits.
Having never fished it before I assume a good way to start finding the perch is to just put on a crawler harness and bb till a school is located then anchor over them?
Any tips appreciated!
Thank you.
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[dtayboyz]

There are some bucket bio walleye, but I've been fishing there since the 70s and have yet to see one. I fish 6-10 tournaments there every season and don't know anyone who has caught one. Can't go wrong in the narrows for panfish. Perch crappie bluegill smallmouth and largemouth trolling will get you trout and there are some large channel cat. Last week there were 8 boats up river anchored fishing for sturgeon, don't know if they were successful. Pm me when you go, I'll share info. 😀
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[SBennett]

Thank you.
I will do some studying and learn how to get to a launch and figure out where the narrows are.
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