raptorschild
05-20-2008, 07:10 PM
Here is my belated report:
Many thanks to crappie chaser and 1Bigfish, retaliate, Cimfl, mr. sturgeon, and everyone else that helped out with where to camp, where to fish, and things to do in this beautiful part of the state of Oregon.
Just brought me, my girlfriend, my 16 ft aluminum boat, a tent and lots of food and drink. Dry ice was my best friend on this trip. Kept food and drink cool all weekend despite temps in the mid 90's.
Got in after a late start from tri cities at 1:00 am. We stayed in Tent spot #1 at Hewitt Park. I thought the facilities were great for camping. Nice shaded areas in all tent sites were great, and bathrooms/showers right next door were convenient. Loved the fire pits/grills, and picnic tables.
wanted to fish for cats from the bank upon arrival but i was just too tired. Got up about 5:30 and out on the water by 6:30. the launch the first day was barely in the water, and by the end of the trip...even the big boats had no problem launching. The powder was spewing muddy water, so we went down river about 2 miles where we came upon an incredible amount of boats already fishing. we were pretty much going for Bass. I tried everything under the sun, but the go-to bait ended up being a simple 4 inch yamamoto grub in a copper color with gold, and silver flakes.
forgot the camera the first day, and of course that was the best bassin. We didnt catch many....about 10 bass, but they were almost all about 14" long, and fat..fat...fat! very healthy fish. I was suprised how fat.
The crappy would take the smaller bass gear, but if you put a jig on...you could catch em almost every cast. Unfortunately they were only about 8" long.
I fished crappy jigs quite a bit hoping to catch some bass and cats as incidentals, but it never worked...:(....all i caught were crappy! can't complain i guess.
the 2nd day: So many boats it was unbelievable. Felt like everywhere i wanted to fish, must have been hit hard at least 2 or 3 times. I tried fishing some of the water that had less obvious structure. That worked a little and we picked up some more decent size bass doing that. didnt fish long on saturday due to the heat, and the insane amount of boats due to the crappy tournament, and nice weather, boat launch working..etc..etc..
We went to Richland...picked up some ice cream cones....AMAZING!....and took a site seeing drive over to halfway and over to check out woodhead. Saw lots of fish along the banks of Oxbow but didnt fish. Finally got to woodhead, and that camp ground looks great, but I'm definatley not sure that i would go the extra 45 minutes to camp there unless i had a 5th wheel or camper with hook-ups. The tent camping at Hewitt I think looked possibly even better than woodhead just for simplicity, the ability to make a reservation, the shade, and bathrooms close.
In total spent only about 4 hours fishing for cats and caught 4 on worms, and 1 Northern Pike Minnow about 16 inches long. A group accross the river from us were slaying 6-8 lb cats on crappy meat. I was going to try some cut bait, but just wasnt all that into it from being exhausted from the heat ealier in the day.
All in all.....great trip...the numbers of Bass were very poor, and the crappy size left much to be desired, but hey....Thats fishin. We ate lots of junk food, saw much beautiful country, lots of chukars, and my girlfriend outfished me for the 3rd time in a row.....(i've only taken her fishing 3 times):whistle:
Next year i will not come down if the water is this low again, or if the weather is radical. I havent heard 1bigfish's report, but I didnt hear of anyone doing particullary well on Bass, and it was probably because of the ridiculous heat, or the crazy amount of water filling the reservoir....and that powder river runoff was COLD......My legs would go numb quickly when getting in the water to launch.
Anyway....I'll definatley be back next year, but will plan my trip later around the snowpack and weather patterns.
Many thanks to crappie chaser and 1Bigfish, retaliate, Cimfl, mr. sturgeon, and everyone else that helped out with where to camp, where to fish, and things to do in this beautiful part of the state of Oregon.
Just brought me, my girlfriend, my 16 ft aluminum boat, a tent and lots of food and drink. Dry ice was my best friend on this trip. Kept food and drink cool all weekend despite temps in the mid 90's.
Got in after a late start from tri cities at 1:00 am. We stayed in Tent spot #1 at Hewitt Park. I thought the facilities were great for camping. Nice shaded areas in all tent sites were great, and bathrooms/showers right next door were convenient. Loved the fire pits/grills, and picnic tables.
wanted to fish for cats from the bank upon arrival but i was just too tired. Got up about 5:30 and out on the water by 6:30. the launch the first day was barely in the water, and by the end of the trip...even the big boats had no problem launching. The powder was spewing muddy water, so we went down river about 2 miles where we came upon an incredible amount of boats already fishing. we were pretty much going for Bass. I tried everything under the sun, but the go-to bait ended up being a simple 4 inch yamamoto grub in a copper color with gold, and silver flakes.
forgot the camera the first day, and of course that was the best bassin. We didnt catch many....about 10 bass, but they were almost all about 14" long, and fat..fat...fat! very healthy fish. I was suprised how fat.
The crappy would take the smaller bass gear, but if you put a jig on...you could catch em almost every cast. Unfortunately they were only about 8" long.
I fished crappy jigs quite a bit hoping to catch some bass and cats as incidentals, but it never worked...:(....all i caught were crappy! can't complain i guess.
the 2nd day: So many boats it was unbelievable. Felt like everywhere i wanted to fish, must have been hit hard at least 2 or 3 times. I tried fishing some of the water that had less obvious structure. That worked a little and we picked up some more decent size bass doing that. didnt fish long on saturday due to the heat, and the insane amount of boats due to the crappy tournament, and nice weather, boat launch working..etc..etc..
We went to Richland...picked up some ice cream cones....AMAZING!....and took a site seeing drive over to halfway and over to check out woodhead. Saw lots of fish along the banks of Oxbow but didnt fish. Finally got to woodhead, and that camp ground looks great, but I'm definatley not sure that i would go the extra 45 minutes to camp there unless i had a 5th wheel or camper with hook-ups. The tent camping at Hewitt I think looked possibly even better than woodhead just for simplicity, the ability to make a reservation, the shade, and bathrooms close.
In total spent only about 4 hours fishing for cats and caught 4 on worms, and 1 Northern Pike Minnow about 16 inches long. A group accross the river from us were slaying 6-8 lb cats on crappy meat. I was going to try some cut bait, but just wasnt all that into it from being exhausted from the heat ealier in the day.
All in all.....great trip...the numbers of Bass were very poor, and the crappy size left much to be desired, but hey....Thats fishin. We ate lots of junk food, saw much beautiful country, lots of chukars, and my girlfriend outfished me for the 3rd time in a row.....(i've only taken her fishing 3 times):whistle:
Next year i will not come down if the water is this low again, or if the weather is radical. I havent heard 1bigfish's report, but I didnt hear of anyone doing particullary well on Bass, and it was probably because of the ridiculous heat, or the crazy amount of water filling the reservoir....and that powder river runoff was COLD......My legs would go numb quickly when getting in the water to launch.
Anyway....I'll definatley be back next year, but will plan my trip later around the snowpack and weather patterns.