going to phillippi/lepage park on sunday

[Mr. Sturgeon14]

i was wondering if any one has any recent reports for bass catfish walley and whatever else is in there? what has been working etc.? thanks for your help and pm's welcome

[Mr. Sturgeon14]

oh and i just recently heard there are largemouth bass in the john day river is this true? i have fished this river for years and never caught a single largemouth.

[dragon67]

Yes there is. 1bigfish and I were fishing across from the park,(Phillippi), and he caught a nice lm, I am not sure what its weight was, I want to say around 5lbs. There are alot of slow areas where lm are hanging out at, once you go by those areas you will know what I am talking about. Nice grass and non current water. I am sure that senko and spinners along the grass might do the trick. Good luck, and if you are up at the second boat dock at Phillippi part, as you look the walk up the ramp to you right, if you fish along the rocks there you might pick up some good size crappie, I know I have. But I usually fish there earlier in the year so I don't know if they have moved out by then. I am sure there will still be little sized crappie underneath the dock.

[1bigfish]

Yes there are lmb in the JD. That being said, I would not target them for two reasons. Number one: I don't think there are all that many. Number 2: If you target them you would be fishing outside of the current and that means you will catch less smb. Besides, which would you rather fight a 3lb lmb in the weeds or a 3lb smb in current? I personally will take the smb in current.

But yes there are lmb in the CR so it only stands to reason that they are in the lower JD. Personally I can only remember two that I have seen caught and I have been fishing there at least once a year for 6 years now. Not real good odds. The one I got was on a spinner while fishing for smb. By the way the one I got was more like 4lbs, but still a very nice fish.

Dragon67 is right about the crappie. I watch him year after year go up there and teach people how to catch the crappie by the docks. Those who listen to what he says are rewarded with 15 to 17inch crappie. Those who don't catch the 8inch ones that are under the docks. PM him if you want all the details on how he is able to catch the larger ones because I am the wrong person for crappie fish advice. All my years of bass fishing has led to me setting the hook so hard that when I fish crappie all I get is a pair of lips. :smile:

[Mr. Sturgeon14]

well we went wasnt that bad when we got there a little breez and did some fishing caught a few blue gill and a few bass and when we fished for cats all we got were damb bull heads and had a nice something but didnt have the greatest bank spot. today it was 25 mph winds with 40 mph gusts so we beat it and half way back to lepage we had to pull over to bail out the boat because we had a 14 foot aluminum boat with no top no nothing.the rollers out on the water were about 3 to 4 foot in the middle and a foot on the shore so we took it slow and still got drenched and that sucked.