Fishing Forum

Was wondering if anyone had any recent reports for crappie at cj? I was thinking of trying cottonwood in my boat in the am. Haven't been in a while and am hopeful for light winds tomorrow...
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From what I understand the bite is on right now there. I will be there tomorrow bright and early to find out for myself. If you want to stop by and say hi. Look for the red f150 with all the rods sticking out of the back.
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Made it down to cottonwoods this morn… stout morning breeze and no jacket sent me looking for a windbreak …… made it into the narrows and got onto a few. But the bite was light … had a good mix of keeper crappie and perch by noon… Afternoon the bite picked up… water temps hit 62 and the crappie went nuts. Hammering the jigs finally. Threw back as many as kept… medium cooler full of keepers,3 slabs… 1 nice smallmouth. The perch came and went and were mostly keepers… now 2 hours of fillet work…
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Thanks for the info! I have definitely got to get over to that body of water and give it a shot... Again I find myself a little envious! Does most of the fishing consist of vertical jigging for the perch and crappies? Anchored or drifting?
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Yea cj is a remarkable fishery. You can target 9 different game fish species and they grow fast. I like to anchor and fish vertically myself. Mainly because it's so easy and casting is hard workhttp://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/data/500/20150512_225207.jpg
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Nice job....
Matt
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Anyone hit CJ recently? Any Luck? Thinking about going out there this weekend.
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I heard it slowed down for crappie.. I haven't been fishing for a while but I am about to hit a reservoir that I fished twice this spring with no luck so I am hoping the crappie are on by now..
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thanks for the reply, well ill probably try it out sunday. if i do ill post a report. good luck with with the crappie chasing!
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Went looking for the crappies yesterday at cj and they were tough.. We couldn't find the active schools. We didn't even catch a single one.. I think we were fishing over them but they were not biting.. Finally around noon we found some perch and ended up doing pretty well with about 35 good keepers. The fillets are bigger than the crappies and it was nice filleting them since they are all spawned out. Without tipping your jig with worm it was very difficult to hook them.. Also a lot of bass showing up, one around 2 lbs. and even a small largemouth.. http://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/data/500/perch5.jpg
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Made it out today. Found a few areas with lots of perch and seemed to be biting plain jigs but my buddy and I wanted to find crappie. Had the same luck as you until we made it up the snake river arm. Found a huge school suspended in 55 feet of water about 20 feet down. Once the wind allowed us to anchor we were able to catch a few but the bite was light and with the size of the school we marked it would seem the fishing would have been better. Post spawn crappie and the ones that were willing to bite were only 9 inches. I agree with your perch filleting assessment, really nice to clean without eggs! The size of the perch was better than this spring as and well. They tasted great tonight!
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Nice bunch of fish you guys are catching.

It's good to see CJ producing nice perch as well as bass and crappie.
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Heading over to Boise area tonight and may get the chance to sneak away for a bit to chase some fish tomorrow or Saturday. Is there enough decent shore fishing access over there to make the trip over to CJ for a while and have a good chance at picking up some fish? I'm guessing a spinning rod with small jigs/bait would be the best tool for the job?

Thanks!
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You may have some shore luck around the cottonwood campground docks, the coves or even the air force docks at cj.. or you may even try Lake Lowell, I got this bruiser this morning and let it go, It was twice the size in weight of any Crappie Ive got this season.. slow fishing but there are some real slabs in there+ a lot of 2 lb+ Largemouths smacking the crappie jigs...http://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/data/500/bigun.jpg
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Thanks for the info! My in-laws actually only live a couple miles away from Lowell... may have to give it a try.

Paul
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