we made it up and fished for 6 days. Every day seem to have wind, rain, sun clouds or a combination of all of them. We managed fish every day, between storms.
Fishing is slow compared to other years, but really nice crappie. Most of the fish we caught were just off the rocks in 20-25 foot of water. Bass and Crappie. caught a few smaller bass in shallower water. i would say if the water levels and the weather mellowed out, it will be really hot fishing in 2 weeks.
the cleaning station was really busy most of the time. not a lot of time to take a lot pics. and the wind was usually bad enough if you left the trolling motor for more than a split second, you were in the rocks, so not much time for boat pics either.
We did do our part and took a couple of limits of 12-14inch smallmouth out to eat.
As usual the facilities were awesome, the camp hosts were great. The C and D loops filled up and emptied daily. Thursday night, we had some friends come up late in the afternoon and there was only 2 spots open. Friday and Sat nights were packed. After the monsoon and wind storm Sat night, the place was a ghost town Sunday by 11:00 am.
Water is coming up 1-2 foot a day. posting a pic of an island just below our camp. the first shot is Tuesday night. the second pic of the island is Wed night. it was completely gone by Thursday afternoon.
back in Utah now. great trip back to Idaho, lots of good friends and a great time.
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nice crappie ! looks like you had a great time. kind of
about the smallmouths fate..........[:/] but it's all good ! the family pic was great as well looks like everyone had a blast !
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Those are some awesome crappie.
Windriver
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Glad you made it and caught some fish, I got stuck working a few extra days and decided not to go. But I'll get 2 weeks the first of June to tear that place up.
It looks like the fish cleaning stations were loaded with cleaned fish.
What was the average crappie size?
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Hula.. thanks. it was a good time. it was a reunion of sorts from a bunch of us that used to fish up there together years ago. Utah, Arizona, Nampa, Boise, Meridian, Eagle were all represented!
we have this debate constantly on the UT board. My personal take is.. if it is a legal fish, caught legally, then it is every fisherman's right to choose. I appreciate your kindness in your response. some guys on the board get down right nasty when you keep a bass.
if we catch a big fat female that is obviously loaded with eggs, we let her go. if it looks slimmer, we keep it. Or if it gets hooked deep and is bleeding. that happens a lot in the wind, you don't always get a good quick hook set. We did return several keepers. As a general rule, we try to return anything over 15 inches and try to just keep the 12-14 in range for frying.
I would like to hear your thoughts on it, as well as some of the other Idaho guys. Lots of people think the smaller 12-14inchers need to come out. Some people give you a scowl if you even think about. I am not a biologist, just a fisherman that loves to fish and eat fish. So if anyone wants to KINDLY give their opinions on what is best for the fishery, i would love to hear it and learn.
thanks again Hulapopper...
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EZOP... we looked for you. my wife pointed out every black boat she seen. [laugh]
maybe next time. I would say the crappie were 11-12 inches for the most part. some smaller. I think your timing will be right on.
One thing i forgot to mention. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! as most of you already know.. there is a lot of debris in the water. Just have to say it. lots of big stuff. brownlee creek had a big nasyt tree/root ball floating around and Sat evening, there was a big nasty right out from the camp grounds..
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[quote ripnlip]My personal take is.. if it is a legal fish, caught legally, then it is every fisherman's right to choose.
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Team Quill 100% agree's with this. And I'm a guy who may have kept 30 crappie in the last 5 years, but only because I'm to lazy to fillet fish.
But I do plan on keeping a bunch this year for several reasons.
The fish are a little bigger, I got a new fillet knife and fish tacos are yummy.
Sorry we missed you ripnlip, we always have a good time at Woodhead.
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some people claim the bass aren't fit to eat. after 60+ years of fishing all over the country i have to say i've never found that to be the case. i too think that the 12-14 inchers are good eating size. i also agree that the gravid females get handled gently and retured to the spawn. and lastly, any trophy sized fish would be released after suitable pictures....i've never had a fish sent to the taxidermist...prefer pics and memories. just my 2-cents worh on the subect.
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[quote ripnlip]... I am not a biologist, just a fisherman that loves to fish and eat fish. So if anyone wants to KINDLY give their opinions on what is best for the fishery, i would love to hear it and learn.[/quote]
Im always interested in this topic as well. As a general rule we don't keep many bass... never prego females and never anything over around 15"... I think we kept about 4 smallies last year and that was all.. we only kept those because we didn't have enough crappie to make a meal. My family loves to eat fish... Trout, Crappie, Tuna, Salmon, Steelhead etc.. getting a c chance to eat our catch once in a while really makes the fishing that much more special for my kids and my stomach. 99% of the time if we want to meat fish we target crappie...
Curious what others think...
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Great catching! Did you catch any catfish??
Keep the fish that are legal to eat and don't feel guilty about it. The regulations are set they way they are for a moderation of both harvest and release. Too much catch and release isn't good for some fisheries, as is too much indiscriminate harvest not good either. I think it is great that you choose to let the larger bass and the prego females go.
I mostly eat panfish and usually catch and release trout and bass, but I am not opposed to others eating them.
If you are going to eat them then the 12-14inch bass are better tasting, and they probably have less than half of the mercury content as the older buggers!!!!
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Excellent report and pics. I love seeing those crappie and smallmouth. I am not a biologist either but I have spent considerable time reading about the angler impact on fish.
My personal opinion is that legal fish caught legally can be kept or returned at the discretion of the angler. You'll get no grief from me. However, ripnlip and I probably grew up within spitting distance of each other and were raised eating fish. We fished for fun AND food but never broke the rules. We would keep plenty of white bass, yellow bass, crappie, largemouth bass, and any sunfish you can name (Texas has just about all of them I think!) but never more than a limit or more than we could eat.
The debate on the UT board rages on and I feel bad for anglers who post pictures of legally caught and kept bass who are then crucified for keeping the rules. I had a great Pelican Lake trip through the ice last year and kept half a limit of largemouth one of which was 17 inches long. I didn't post my pics or report because I feared the backlash from the community. One interesting note is that the current Utah Fishing Guidebook for 2011 asks anglers to keep a limit of smaller largemouth/smallmouth so we can thin herd a bit. We have lots of small bass because no one will keep any. There is only so much food to go around!
In my ever so humble opinion, largemouth that are 12-14 inches are absolute candy. Same goes for smallies. If I catch something larger that is deep hooked, it will go in my basket. I say if you stick to the rules and keep what you can consume, you are good.
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Make this one more vote for 12-14" smallmouth to eat. I fish the Snake River usually over 100 times per year. My wife and I enjoy a fish meal now and then. I usually keep around 10-20 smallies each year. That's a very small percentage of the 1500-2000 I catch each year.
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1500-2000 I catch each year.
Putting the waders on right now...[
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[quote flygoddess]
1500-2000 I catch each year.
Putting the waders on right now...[
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I've reported some of these figures here before, but:
2010: 1885 smallmouth, 335 largemouth (Lake Lowell)
2009: 1752 smallmouth, 211 largemouth (LL)
2008: 1914 smallmouth, 340 largemouth (LL)
2007: 1310 smallmouth, 521 largemouth (LL)
I keep detailed records of my fishing trips, and can give you water temp, air temps, moon, CFS and Stage of the river, etc. I did the same when I was fly fishing from the Beaverkill in NY to the Blue River in OR. (I haven't done any trout fishing for years, as I'm getting too old to wade). I guess I'm rather obsessive that way, or whatever they call it.
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we took catfish poles and gear, but never had a chance to target them. probably should have. There were several really nice fish in the cleaning station "pile". there were several really large cat carcasses as well.
For Brownlee, my favorite time to catfish is when they ball up, a little later in the spring or early summer. casting a worm right in the middle of the ball is way fun...
Coming from the south, i used to catch and eat a ton of catfish. But i have really never been able to make the cats out of the snake taste worth a darn. i have tried every trick in the book and all the "all you have to do is soak.." remedies.
On the other hand, here in Utah, the cats are awesome. Utah Lake is right downt he street and we target, catch and eat a lot of cats from there. They taste super. here are a couple of pics from UL. no we dont keep the big ones. it was just braggin'. PCB's must taste better than Mecury?!!
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[quote ripnlip]we took catfish poles and gear, but never had a chance to target them. probably should have. There were several really nice fish in the cleaning station "pile". there were several really large cat carcasses as well.
For Brownlee, my favorite time to catfish is when they ball up, a little later in the spring or early summer. casting a worm right in the middle of the ball is way fun...
Coming from the south, i used to catch and eat a ton of catfish. But i have really never been able to make the cats out of the snake taste worth a darn. i have tried every trick in the book and all the "all you have to do is soak.." remedies.
On the other hand, here in Utah, the cats are awesome. Utah Lake is right downt he street and we target, catch and eat a lot of cats from there. They taste super. here are a couple of pics from UL. no we dont keep the big ones. it was just braggin'. PCB's must taste better than Mecury?!![/quote]
I used to catch great tasting cats and trout out of Salem Pond, not terribly far from Utah Lake. Granted, that was almost 20 years ago, so it may have changed by now.
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We are leaving Ogden Tuesday morning at 0400 so we should be there by about 1400-1500. Pulling a boat is a slow go sometimes. It looks like the weather should settle down for a few days I hope!! We went up there this same time last year and were blown off Oxbow and went through two flash floods on Brownlee. We still managed to catch fish, but by far our slowest trip in four years. I did hear that our favorite Largmouth reservoir is fishing pretty good right now.
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Make sure you have your boat checked. Ron
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Ya we'll make sure to do that. Last year there was a checking station on US-95 so hopefully it is still there. We did purchase the evasive species sticker so we are go to go with that.
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