Brownlee Bass and Crappie

[cimfl]

My brother and I wish to make a trip over on the second weekend of this month. I was hoping to see if any reports have been coming out of the area yet. We were also wondering if there are any boat rental places that you folks are aware of....pontoons are nice, but they get old on some bigger bodies of water. Thanks in advance I-Fishers!

[xtrema44]

A couple of friends and head down to oxbow at the end of the month. We do real well on crappie & bass and catfish at night. We fish there because it's pretty packed at Brownlee.
I don't know about boat rentals but I do know a boat makes it nice to get to the fish. GOOD LUCK....

[cimfl]

I found boat rentals, thanks. It looks like its a muddy murky mess right now, they are having a lot of runoff...maybe toward the end of the month??

[retaliate]

Don't know about boat rentals, as for fishing, late april thru May is a good bet most year's, Crappie is usually excellent, Bass, & Catfish good to excellent. For some reason not many report's have been comming in this year, last year we fished the last week of April, & did well, & I plan on the end of April again in 07, GOOD LUCK!

[fef]

Left for Farwell Bend last Tuesday after work.Got to camp ground at 10 PM and went to bed. Got up at 6 and walked down to boat ramp and discovered that it was roped off and closed. Brownlee is not a lake right now, it's a full blown river. I've fished out of Hellers bar at Hells Canyon in October and the water at Huntington is running about twice as fast now as Hell's Canyon in October.

We drove 20 miles down the canyon and the scenery was amazing, it looked like after St. Hellens blew up. The rocks in the canyon stop at low water line (when the lakes full) and every thing else is silted in, grey/brown UGLY mud, dried and cracked like a desert.

The folks at the General Store/Liquor Store/Beauty Parlor/RV Storage had a meeting with Idaho Power and were told that work on the dam would not be complete until May 20 and only then would they start holding water. THIS IS REALY HURING THE LOCAL ECONOMY as there was only a hand full of campers at Farwell Bend and no fishermen in the canyon last Wednesday (4/26).

Now that I've rained on your parade the good news.

We left Farwell Bend by noon Wednesday and drove to Owahee. By 7 PM we had 75 crappie in the basket ready to fillet. We never left the camp ground and fished off of the bank.

The fish seamed to be holding 2 to 10 feet off of the bank, we fished red and white jigs with Berkley Crappie Nuggets 3 feet below our bobbers. We fished 3 days and brought hone 300 to 400 crappie filleted and ready for the pan.

The camp ground was almost empty Wednesday and Thursday but turned away campers Friday night and Saturday so if you go I'd advised getting there before Friday and not before Monday.

Fish were alot smaller than Brownlee but after driving that far we were VERY happy to get them.

Good luck, have a good time. WE DID.

[retaliate]

Thanks for the report :cheers:, I guess I picked a good year not to go to Brownlee. :shrug:

[Mojo]

fef,
The reason the water is low is not because they are working on the dam. They are working on the dam because they had to drain Brownlee or there would be a catastrophe when the runoff hits. We still have over 150% of average snowpack in the mountains around here. A week of high 70's and a little rain and the dams would start spilling with all the gates open. We are already seeing severe flooding all over Idaho. If they didn't drain the reservoirs this spring, towns like Lewiston and the Dalles would be flooded as well.

I'd wait till June if I was planning a trip to Brownlee. It may fill faster than that (I hope). You might PM Crappie Chaser, he is the expert on Brownlee. He'll know what's going on.

[shalom]

They are working on the dam . Talk to Idaho Power . There was an Idaho power worker that was posting . He gave some interesting insides to the work that is being done .

[Grifgav]

Work should be completed on the dam by mid-May and should come up 1-2' a day thereafter till it hits full pool. Recent moderate weather is keeping the snow melt manageable (so far). Just as a side note, DO NOT try and anchor below Brownlie dam right now, especially not from your boat's stern......three fellow idahoans are lucky to be able to pass that info on, as they sunk their boat in 70' of water down there last week.

[BuKuBass]

Bert:
"they sunk their boat in 70' of water down there last week."

Not to make light of their misfortune but...

Ahh more structure.

[Crappie Chaser]

What I have heard is that Idaho Power is using the low-water opportunity to sandblast and paint the spillway gates as required by FERC as part of their re-licensing compliance. The real issue is high water. Flow rates at Hell's Canyon have been around 80,000 cubic feet per second. Over 90,000 cfs and flooding damage is possible.
If this were only about painting the gates that would speak poorly about the re-licensing agreement. At a time of the year when the businesses in Richland make up to 50% of their yearly income, the town resembles a ghost town. The motel has had to cancel or turn away over 100 room reservations. The restaurants are empty except for locals. I have had to send back deposits or re-schedule my charters thru mid-May and will probably have to extend that thru all of May. I'm deep in the hole from the expense of 5 sports shows and my guide insurance. I was featured in the April issue of Western Outdoors magazine,I have a TV shoot on my boat scheduled in May, fishermen are calling every day and I can't take them out. This better be about more than painting the gates to satisfy the Feds.

[shalom]

BuKaBass ,
Perhaps they got there boat back ? I hope that they got it back .
Crappie Chaser ,
I am sorry to hear about your having to cancel so many trips . I remember those days and they are not good memorys . I have heard rumors that the Brownlee will be close to full pool by the Crappie tourament . Time will tell .

[retaliate]

Hopefully! Brownlee will be full in time for the spawn, the last thing we need is fish to spawn in low water, & then get flooded by too much water. :bowdown: from what I've read Crappie start buliding their nest's when the water temp reaches 58 deg., don't know about Catfish, or Bass, but they seem to spawn a little later than Crappie?

[B-RUN STEELIE]

Its cooking for sure. I know some guys who put in at Hells canyon and where at Pittsburg before the shuttle.

[Grifgav]

The work on the gates wasn't just paint, it is mechanical repairs that needed to be done. Brownlee wouldn't be a whole lot higher right now even if work wasn't being done though, due to the need to make room for (much) higher than normal expected flows as the snowpack melts. It sucks that it is affecting local businesses, but is totally necessary from what I have been able find out talking to the guys that work in the canyon (I was down there doing network maintenance twice in the last couple of weeks). Just an FYI, daily updates on the pool level of brownlee and available boatramps are available here:

http://www.idahopower.com/riversrec/waterlevels/reservoir.asp

as you can see the pool is rising 2+ ft. a day now and is projected to continue to do so. :smile:

[threexkc]

Does anyone know what effect this having on Hells Canyon and Oxbow? I'm planning a trip over there in two weeks. If any of you locals have any input on water levels and clarity on those two pools it would be appreciated.thanks

[Grifgav]

As of the last time I visited the oxbow plant, the water was RIPPING through that area, flows are currently approx. 55,000 cfs through oxbow. Clarity, as you can imagine, isn't great. Reports were that fishing wasn't too bad in some areas, but if you fish the "ponds" near the village at oxbow forget it, they are part of the main river right now. Personally I wouldn't take a boat up there either, but I am a bit chicken.

[fishin]

Just got back yesterday from a week at Woodhead Park. The water is going up everday at a pretty steady rate and I was surprised how much water they were letting out of the dam when we went by on the way out.

Bass fishing was fair. For two people we only limited one day. Most of the catch is undersized. Crappie fishing was sloooow. Would pick up a couple every day but could not find any schools of fish.

Water is moving through Oxbow. Lot of people on both reserviors.

[Mr. Sturgeon14]

the water is still pretty turbid and for the most part unfishable we were going for a trip to brownlee the 2nd weekend of may buit had to switch to june 3rd. the water will be in perfect condition by then. Last year was a [petunias!] with all the rain but i hope this year will be better

[Hunt'nFish]

Its cooking for sure. I know some guys who put in at Hells canyon and where at Pittsburg before the shuttle.


:bigshock: YIKES, that's normally a 3 day float.....2 if you really push it.

Crappy Chaser, can you guide on the Hells Pool? I know it's another 30-40min drive but hey, some fish'n is better than no fish'n. Talk to Scotty down at the HC Store and he can put you in contact w/ Craze down the road at the RV park for boat storage.

Grifgrav, thanks for that Idaho Power link. Lots of good info there. Looks like Oxbow is currently flowing 4-5x normal summer flows.
Thanks,
Hunt'nFish

[Crappie Chaser]

I don't spend enough time on the other pools to feel qualified enough to take peoples money for trips down there. I feel that if someone makes the effort to travel all the way over here to fish with me they deserve my best. In fact,if conditions are such that I don't think we will do very well I tell them ahead of time so they have the option of re-scheduling. Unless the weather just won't let us fish my boat always comes in with fish. If we don't catch at least enough for a fish dinner the next trip is free.

[Grifgav]

Most ramps are now available, or will be by the end of this weekend, graphic below if I can figure out how to upload it.
http://www.idahopower.com/images/riversrec/BrownleeRamp/brownleeRamp2051.gif

-32 from full pool now, -29 by Sunday.