Brownlee bank fishing Idaho-side report

[FelonFinder]

Did some fishing on the bank around Woodhead park. As everyone else says, the crappie will make you work. Got a few, but the bass were hot. Hard to keep them off the crappie jigs. Crappie hit power bait grubs and Mepps #3 gold. Boat guys were trolling Rapala type lures for crappie. Got a few cats but catfishing was a little slower than normal. I had my family and kids to contend with so fishing was moved to second priority. The cats were into crawlers. Using a glow bobber at night to bust the cruising cats 20 yards of the bank was effective. No Oregon license so didn't mess with that side. Generally I would say that the camping was better than the fishing. The boat guys also commented fishing was tough, although no one really knew why. Still fun, and Woodhead is a very nice facility. :applause:

[shalom]

Woodhead is one of my favorite places to camp . I allso like to camp at Hewett park because the Powder River fishing is so good and normally better .

[Hunt'nFish]

Good report PaleRider. Any day out with family camping is worth it, even if the fishing is off.

As far as fishing goes.. sometimes you can "learn" more on the off days than the hot ones. Anyone can catch fish when their hot, but it's the days when it's not and you do finally find a pattern or technique that works, that you truely have learned something.
Sounds like you had a good time, & that's what counts.
Tracker

[TheKing]

Thanks for the report. I am taking my 6 year old boy over the week of the 26th. never been there before. Is banking fishing OK or not worth it? He does not like the boat and likes to fish and explore off the bank.

[FelonFinder]

Well King, bank fishing is worth it to me but then again I love to fish. I fished 3 hours for 2 crappie and felt satisfied that I was keeping up with the trollers. :smile: Of course I got a lot of bass but I was trying for crappie.

The problem with the bank is, while there is plenty to explore, it doesn't all fish the same. The campsite we went to (tent #13 site) is very nice but the bankfishing there was poorer than downstream 2 miles. But given more time more fish would have come home with me. It is hard for kids to fish there though. You sorta have to let them use worms and then the bass swallow the hook and you have a disaster. I guess Brownlee has some good blue gill fishing but I don't know where. If I did, I'd put the kids on that.

Also kids have a hard time fishing in the dark. The cats bit at night but it's hard to fish and spend time at the campground with your family. I missed some good hits trying to serve two masters, as it were.

I think my kids enjoyed the campsite as much as anything. We had the whole tent campground to ourselves so it was really nice that way.

Later,

PR

[Mojo]

Sounds like a great trip even if the fishing was a bit slow. :cheers:

[FelonFinder]

Ya, it's fun to work on growing up the boys, and you can see it happening on those kinds of trips.

[TheKing]

Thanks PAle. We love to fish as well. My son will stay out from dawn until dark and then complain about going in. He loves to fish.

[FelonFinder]

Now that's what I'm talking about!! The heat will soon be terrible out there, so get'r dun!!!