Paddock Valley Res. Question

[BBART]

Hi, I'm new to the forum having just found it. It's a wealth of information that the most up to date I've found. Thanks to all that post.

My wife and I both enjoy all types of fishing, but spend most of our time chasing bass. One of our favorite places is Paddock Valley Reservoir in east of Payette. Hard to get to but it was great fishing. HOWEVER, we made two trips there last year and never got a bite. We sort of figured maybe it had gone dry at the end of 2010??

Anyways, its a long and hard trip in from Boise and I was wondering if anyone's been there this year or had luck late last year before I try it again.

Thanks,

Bart

PS -- fished Lake Lowell in our boat on Saturday. My wife hooked a couple bass, landed one. We were trying to fish in 12 inches of water where we could actually see the fish, but at mid-day they were spooky and we were like a bull in a china closet trying to get past the brush.
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[cpierce]

Welcome to the forum. Nice to here from some more Idaho Southwesterners. I am in SE Idaho, so I don't know much about Paddock or the other areas. But like yours there have been some nice reports of the bass getting started in Lowell.
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[Kodiak1]

Bart,
Welcome to the site! Now, about Paddock. I have had a love/hate relationship with that place. At times, great crappie fishing, but if you tried to drag your boat up there, it would most always get destroyed. I even had a relatively new boat trailer crack in two. The fishing pretty much got destroyed in the 2001-2005 drought, when it got drawn down significantly. I vaguely remember a Statesman article years ago talking about how some of the ranchers in that area would like the fishing to go away. If so, they have done a pretty good job of it. I know there was an attempt to plant crappie back in there, but there have not been any good reports on this site that I can remember in recent years. My advice....save your car and go elsewhere! Again, welcome, and hope to hear lots of reports from you in the future. Mike
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[Erawk]

Welcome to BFT!
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[Bassnbob]

Welcome aboard!!

Good to see another Boise area member.
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[BBART]

Thanks all for the welcome!

@ Kodiak1 -- The fishery in Paddock rebounded in a great way from the 2001-05 drought. DF&G planted back to crappie and bass. They also played around a bit with some trout plantings and had a collection box there for the heads that had tags in the nose. In 07 you couldn't keep the 8 inch bass off your lure. In 08 they were about 10-11 inches by end of summer with a few larger once in awhile. In 2009 you could expect to boat 30-40 bass with a couple of lines in the water -- maybe more on a good day (we catch and release everything). Some nice 14-16 inch fish were fairly common. Then it just seemed to me to crash with two trips in and not a strike. The last time we spent some time wandering around and it looked like someone had cleaned a mess of crappie early in the year, but again, we couldn't get a nibble on anything

Yes, the road is requires a slow, careful crawl in some spots. I've got a fairly light aluminum we take in but the road still can jiggle the fillings out of your teeth. As to the ranchers, in some ways I don't blame them as many folks dumped trash and weren't very good stewards of the shoreline. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the owners one day -- her largest concern was fire. They own the lands surrounding the reservoir -- not the stuff irrigated by the water.

There is an agreement with the irrigators and the DF&G I believe to leave a "conservation pool" at the damn. But the water gets so algae filled and hot I think the oxygen levels crash and kill everything.

We used to make a half dozen trips in a year cause it was so great. On a hot July night the top water action could be fantastic about sun down. I miss that.

Thanks again the the welcome and update.
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[BBART]

Bumping back to the top. Really interested in any reports about Paddock this year or last Fall.

Thanks,

bob
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