Fishing Forum

I finally got a chance to get over to Brownlee for a Catfish trip. Jacob my son and I took off on Friday afternoon. We got there about 5:00 pm in the heat of the day. We got our spot again we call it spider beach. I was happy about that because it is easy to launch the pontoons there. We quickly unloaded the pontoons and headed for the “honey hole”. We ripped lips until about 11:00 pm that night. Jacob was on Fire with a fly, yep fly fishing for cats. He caught two fish for every one I got. he used a fly bobber style about 3 foot under the bobber.






Friday night was miserable with the spiders and packrats in camp. If the fishing wasn’t so good I would never go back. We got up late thanks to me doing battle with the packrats at 3:00 am. We didn’t get on the water until 8:00. We decided to troll to the “honey hole” to see what would bite. We hooked up with several Catfish trolling spinner jigs.





We were right in the middle of the river when I marked a sharp drop off from 50 foot to 70 feet. The fish finder also showed fish on the drop off I marked it with the GPS. We stopped and hit it. It didn’t take long to find them. They were hungry and ready for a fight. The fish we found there were bigger that what we were getting. I quickly caught 8 fish in the 24” + range. I am adding a picture of a double hook up bendo






After a bit we headed for the “honeyhole” and Jacob opened a can of whupass on them with his fly’s. At one point a rattlesnake decided to try to climb on my boat. I had to use a fishing rod to whip him back. He decided to go back to land and leave me alone.






Up to this trip or best catfishing trip ever was last year. We caught 38 cats in 18 hours of fishing. Well this year we were at 40 cats in 10 hours on this trip. When we got to 40 I asked Jacob if he wanted to try our luck at finding something else. We decided to troll for a while. I tied on a couple of crank baits and Jacob tried some bass stuff. Well for the next two hours we caught more cats. We finished up with 50 cats in 12 hours of fishing.
It was an amazing trip for a couple of cat hunters. Ron





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Love the report and pic of the rattler. That must have been a little intense. You guys certainly know your cat places. I didn't get over there this year and I'm a little bummed.

Windriver
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Sweet report! I got my first cat on a fly this week. Was only about 8" but fun to catch and a real surprise. I was trolling for trout and picked him up.
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wow outstanding trip ! not to pry were you fishing the lower or upper part of the reservoir ?

very nice fish. i love it when they hit crankbaits. what fly was your son using.......a chicken liver fly ? lol.....[sly]
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Sounds like a lot of fun with the wild life!! Spiders, and snakes, and rats.... OH MY!
Those cats look great. You two are the master catsers!
No crappie?

I too have to ask as a general indication only --- Up toward the dam or back towards Steck???

Thanks for sharing. Great pictures and new hats too!
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We were about half way between the cemetery and Steck. The fly he was using was a black wooly bugger with gold wound into it. He also had another dark fly with blue in it. Both were deadly. I am shocked that you saw I have a new sombrero. It is a LOT bigger than my other one but it does catch more wind.[bob] FOr about an hour the wind came up and it got more than a little rough. My hat kept flipping up so I had to take a picture to see how bad it looked. [blush]
Ron



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Thanks for the details, Ron.

I hate to mention it, but there is a UFO behind you about to land. Oh, that's your hat in the up position! [angelic][laugh][laugh]

Hey you ought to see what I wear to keep the sun off. -- Long sleeve SPF shirt, SPF fingerless gloves, buff face and neck SPF guard, sunglasses,and wide brimmed hat. It isn't as wide as yours though. Yours looks like it probably does a better job of blocking the sun than mine does. Don't worry about it. It does its job and looks good too. Obviously the cats like it! [cool]
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That hat is a Colombia XL. I found it in Stanley Id it was on the clearance rack. I think because no one would ware such a big hat. It is a very well made hat and the straw is very soft. It doesn't break when you bend it a little.
Here is a true story. I went fishing back the first part of june. My Daughter was going to get married the 25th. I got my forehead burned through the holes in my hat. My wife saw I had these red spots on my face and freaked out. Everything turned out good and I didn't look too horrible at the wedding. She got me the hat to keep me from having very odd tan lines.[laugh]
Ron
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Wow! That's a great trip: A new hat, 40 cats, spiders, pack rats and rattlesnakes all in one weekend. That ought to do you for a while. At least a few days.
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Excellent post, thanks for sharing.

We drove out Rock Creek rd. for the first time a couple of weeks ago fishing off the bank. Not sure where the cemetery is on the map, we were 3-5 miles north of Conner Creek, only across on the Idaho side. Fishing was slow. Glad to read a good report from Brownlee.
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Heck Phil we didn't get just 40 we got 50. That make the next record harder to get.[sly]
Ron
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The fishing was slow for the guys on the bank on the Oregon side too.
The cats are feeding heavily on young crappie right now. Huge schools of crappie can be seen on sonar. We watched the cats pounding the 1" long crappie. The cats have so much food right now I could see it being tough if a guy is stuck on the bank. Ron
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Wow! Nice work Ron- next time I'm up there in the boat, I should coordinate it on a time that you're up there yanking them with your barbie poles haha
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Quote:Heck Phil we didn't get just 40 we got 50.

I guess that just proves that old geezers not only forget, but we can't read.

I also wear a straw hat during the summer. Mine doesn't produce spots on my face, but it does leave a ring around my bald head.
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Ouch!
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