Fishing Forum

Fished CJ from around 3 PM to a little after midnight.

Well, first some bad news. Kiss the eddy next to the generator house and the spots near the spillway concrete walls goodbye. They're putting up fences below the dam to keep people away from the power plant and base of the spillway. I took some pictures so you can see where they're building the fences.

On the upside, after I fished below the dam for an hour or so I moved to Cottonwood to look for crappie. I did manage to catch a couple, but they are not there in force yet. Biggest one was a little over 11". The smallies were very cooperative though. I landed 8 and lost 3. Biggest one was around 3 pounds. Most were between 14" and 16". They're very fat and healthy. A couple of them coughed up baby perch when I landed them. Caught them on crappie sized black hair jigs I tied myself. I forgot my phone in the car so no pics of the fish, but it was a good day.

Sucks losing such popular and productive spots though.
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Great to hear about your success. Good fishing reports always get my blood flowing.
Bummer about the fencing dont fish there much anymore but I know a lot of people without the ability to get out on the main lake do. Great camping and family fishing spot. Makes you wonder why?
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i'm guessing those smallies are getting ready too spawn, the water there should be getting close too being warm enough I would guess with the sunshine the last few days, I know the river is getting there, it was 46 degrees the about 7 days ago,

I am surprised it took this long for them too put the fence up, this just gives the bank fisherman more of a reason too get a "boat"....[]

Matt
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I left out of cottonwood at 4:30pm. Where abouts were you fishing. I only saw 3 other boats.
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I don't have a boat, so I was fishing off the jetty that forms the canal leading to the boat slip area. I drive a gray Versa and use a bright blue camp chair. Anyone from the board is welcome to come say hello.

I caught one smallmouth around 12" right after I got there, but they didn't start hitting really well until around 6:00 and I figured out what they wanted. It slowed down after dark, but I managed to land two and lost one before packing it in for the night.
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