CJ STRIKE

[2dogs]

Surely there must be someone out there that could share some information about the beautiful weekend at CJ and the where-abouts of some crappie so don't make me beg for it.[:p]
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[PERRY04]

Well. . . you didnt miss much if you didnt get to go out to CJ this weekend, besides of course catching some rays. . . not so much on the fish tho.
We didnt catch a single crappie the entire day but we didnt focus on them for more than an hour. after we realized we werent going to catch the hundreds of crappie we thought we were we focused our efforts to bass and had fun catching bass for the better part of the day. only caught a few worth mentioning, most were around 7-9inches. best was probably around 13 or so. still had fun but no crappie. someone said it had something to do with the moon cycle. .. . hope others did better than i did.
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[Mojo1]

Spanked the (slab) crappie today, as well as a bunch of big bass. Couldn't buy a sturgeon though. Fished the upper Snake River Arm, from Cove Arm up. Did well along the shore where the water is dumping in from Crane Falls. Marked fish at 12', set the slip bobbers, and game on.
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[idahoron]

Saturday was slow for us. We got 17 fish total, I got 7 big crappie 12" +- and 3 Perch that were over 12" no trout or bass. The crappie and perch were so deep " 30 plus feet" that they were coming up dead with their eyes bugged out. I was fishing in 45 feet of water. I would set the slip bobber to be just off the bottom and I would jig up about 1 to 2 feet and back down. I got them on the way up most of the time. Some were a little higher earlier in the day. Ron
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[Untangler]

What colors were working best for the crappie? I was at Cove Arm early last week and it was slow. I only caught four and nobody else was catching much.
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[Mojo1]

Honestly it didn't much matter. Yellow, chartreuse, white, red, orange, and combinations of those colors. I didn't use nibbles. The key was the slip bobber and finding the depth of the fish using your fish finder. We caught a few by Cove Arm, but we did better up the lake a ways...
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[idahoron]

That was the same for us. I used my FF to locate them and then used a slip bobber to keep it in the zone.
I like a tiny perch looking jig, and my son Jacob was using about all colors. The other guy with us had 4 jigs on one line and got hit on all of them at one time or the other.
Another thing I saw was the bites sometimes would not take the bobber down so I had to keep a close eye on things to set the hooks. The seemed to nibble not BITE
This is my first year using a slip bobber I am sold. I have used them for crappie and catfish. They are the neatest thing since sliced bread. Ron
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[STEELHEADKID]

Why ron those float tubes are pretty neat all pimped out like that!
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[idahoron]

Pimped and stylin!!! I need to mout spinners somewhere.
Jacob likes his toon pretty well. If I can back up to a launch site I like my pontoon REAL well. If I have to pack any distance at all I take the tube. I LOVE my fish finder on both. This picture shows he toon better. Ron
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[duksnfish]

Ok so of all the campgrounds that have amenities, which one comes with the highest reccomendations and do any of them have a fish cleaning station? Drinking water and rv dump is most what I want with a fish station if they have it. So far, i dont see one on any of the info ive looked at but one gonna be built. I dont mind driving the boat a ways to get to the crappie but would be nice if one could get a descent campsite near some good slabs. thanks.
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[drowning_flys]

we always stay below the dam in the park or in the Idaho power campground its free and there are quite a few trees for some shade plus you can sturgeon fish right from the trailer. then just take the boats up to launch on the reservoir. there is also a rv dump Between these two spots .
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[Mojo1]

[quote duksnfish]Ok so of all the campgrounds that have amenities, which one comes with the highest reccomendations and do any of them have a fish cleaning station? Drinking water and rv dump is most what I want with a fish station if they have it. So far, i dont see one on any of the info ive looked at but one gonna be built. I dont mind driving the boat a ways to get to the crappie but would be nice if one could get a descent campsite near some good slabs. thanks.[/quote]

The new (improved) Northside park has a fish cleaning station at the ramp. It should be operatioal this weekend. There is very good camping right there or below the dam, and slabs available not too far away.
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[duksnfish]

Cool thanks guys, ive gone to Brownlee before but a long drive from idaho falls area so thought we might give it a try some time in May and just trying to get a feel for the area and what it has. I saw IP was doing a lot of repairs and new construction so wanted to ask. Thanks again.
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