Fishing Forum

Any fishing reports on Brownlee or Oxbow? Have the Smallies started to spawn yet? With this cold weather I'm sure it's set things back a little.
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Fishing for smallies is still tuff! Water temp is around 51 degrees so as the weather get warmer they should start to come in. Fish at this time are all over the place. If you get into a bunch you will have some fun, but you could also find zip! Upper end of Brownlee is very muddy, I would fish around Woodhead and up to the Power river. A few nice crappie are starting to show, but most are smaller than what I like to keep. Good luck Grizz
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The warmest water I saw at Brownlee last weekend was 53 in the morning and 57 during the middle of the day. The bass fishing was slow, but I'm not really and expert. Caught some crappie but they were too small to keep. Still a good time.
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Thanks for the update. Looking at the AccuWeather 15 day forecast it looks like it is going to warm up a little as we get into the week. We are headin up from SLC on the 24th for our annual 5-7 day Smallmouth fix. We have been doing this since 2005 and have yet to have a bad trip. A bad day would be less than 75-100 fish in the boat, and that's not exaggerating. We mainly fish Brownlee/Oxbow but are going to give Hells Canyon a try this year to shake things up a little.
It takes us about 5-6 hours pulling the boat to get up there but well worth the trip. If not for a little old man that we ran into in the Sportsmans Wharehouse down her in SLC overhearing a conversation and politely telling us that if we wanted to realy catch Smallmouth to try Brownlee/Oxbow. Well we just happend to be headin up to Oregon for a few days of fishing and we decided to take his advice and give it a try. We have never went back to Oregon yet and don't plan too either. You have a great fishery up there!!!!!
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Looks like we're heading up from Provo for May 20th to the 24th. When you fish Oxbow, where do you typically launch and what areas of the reservoir do you hit it?

And regarding Brownlee, what areas are typically best for you this time of year? Thanks!
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Been up there all week, bass fishing for us have been spotty. We will catch a bunch real quick then they disappear. Then several hours later same thing. We haven't tried for nothing else, strictly bass so far. We even caught a 16" largemouth. Lipless cranks in green or red have been the most productive. We did get a bunch with a white spinnerbait. Jigging for us was slow, picked up only a couple.

So tomorrow we will start off cranking again and then may even go after some trout. We did catch a nice one on a crankbait Thursday by the dam. I'll post more next week when I get back.
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We have fished all over the lake. We have caught fish pretty much every where. We throw everything from top water, dropshot, jigs, and swim baits. We have yet to find anything in those techniques that has failed to catch fish. A particular color might slow you down but one of those techniques has always worked, if not all of them at the same time. Last year we threw white or pearl colored Zoom Super Flukes and had a blast. Between that and the top water, that seemed to last all day you could not have asked for better fishing.
When we fish Oxbow we always put in at the ramp that is just down from the dam. The only think that you need to watch for when you put in there is the current. Other than that it is a very good ramp.
EZOP any advice on fishing Hells Canyon?
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If you have fished Oxbow, Hells Canyon fishes pretty much the same. My favorite is the turbines as long as they are running good water thru. The fish are very current oriented. The more current the better the bite. You need baits that can get down into the current. Heavy spinnerbaits, big cranks and weighted plastics.

Just past Hells Cyn Campground is the big island. Jerkbaits work best there amongst the rocks around the island. The further you go toward the dam the less the bass are affected by the current. I like to fish a Watermelon seed Zoom super fluke. Tube baits work good also in various colors. If the bite is on, you'll end up with a sore arm. 50 to 100 fish a day is not uncommon.

I'll be down there May 12th thru the 18th. And then back down May 26th thru the 1st of June fishing bass tourneys.
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Grizz, don't be afraid of the muddy water. During my tourney I caught my biggest and most bass using a red lipless crank in the muddy water out of Fox Creek area.

The other members in my club fished the clear water and didn't catch much and a couple of them didn't catch any. That muddy water will warm up quicker then the clear water and the bite will turn on quicker too.

Needless to say that muddy water won me the tourney. [cool]
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