Snake River for the 4th??....REPORT

[Hunt'nFish]

I am. Look for the Hunt'nFish Sled on the Hells Pool, Oregon side.
Have a good holiday guys!
Hunt'nFish

[Knot in leader]

Thats a nice sled. You'll have a blast :smile:

[Thecrease]

Originally Posted by Hunt'nFish

I am. Look for the Hunt'nFish Sled on the Hells Pool, Oregon side.
Have a good holiday guys!
Hunt'nFish

Good luck Mike. Wish I was going. I am sure you got some of those special plastics

Clayton

[fishlipper]

Mike,
I will be on the Snake the 7-10, but it will be a different stretch than you. We are going to be on Lake Sacajawea between Ice Harbor dam and Lower Monumental dam. We have never been there before, but we are hoping to find some good fishing. Ever been on that stretch before? We should find tons of smallies, but hopefully we will find some big ones. Good luck and bring back lots of pics and we will do the same.

[Dan360]

I lived near Clarkston for a few years and the stretch between Lewiston/Clarkston downstream to the dam is great for smallies. I would actually fish from the Wawawaii launch where the WSU rowing team has their boats. Fish that launch and a couple of miles to either side and you'll be into some big fish. I fished the north end the most with tubes and grubs in 20 to 30 feet of water and did great. Also a great stretch for crankbaits because of the boulders. The water gets really deep, so there are plenty of rock ledges right up on shore to fish. Good Luck! Stay out of the ********* if you're throwing a lipless crankbait!

[1bigfish]

Good luck Mike. With I could join you.

[team doyle]

mike and chet,
you guys each have a great run out east!

power to you,
joe

[Geoff Pace]

Hey Mike don't forget to let chance kiss his fish before you release them!
Have fun with the family!
& if you get a chance to swing that vest by I'll need it for my tuna trip.
Thanks,Geoff

[AlseaAssassin]

I wish!!! Have a great trip. Just got back from the South Fork of the Snake out of Idaho Falls, that river never ceasses to amaze me!! Can't wait for my Hell's Canyon trip in September.

[Hunt'nFish]

Well I'm back......MAN WAS IT HOT!! 113F at Pine Ck Store and hotter in the canyon.
Frequent cold beverages and dips in the water were required.
9days of fun and sun is about as much as a guy can take, but we had a steady stream on family & friends rotating through.

<<<<<Will post pics later...so check back for updates.>>>>

Fishing....well the fishing was good and bad. Hells Pool was a tough fish. Oxbow Pool was much better as far as quality of fish. Differance in regs and slot limit probably helps. Did get one nice one on Oxbow pool that went a hair under 19" and 3-10. Lots of 16' fish as well. Sure is fun to have one pool that has lots of big fish to C&R. All told I must've caught a thousand bass....ok, ok a good 500-700 anyways. Easy to stack up 100 fish days fishing 2-3hrs in the morning and a couple hrs mid day and another 2hrs before dark.

Didn't do much for catfishing but did pick up some incidental kittys slow rolling a little white spinner bait near shore. Had one 2.5-3' monster cat follow it back to the boat but just wouldn't commit. Would've liked to have caught him. Majority of fish caught were deeper lounging fish. Most seemed to have full bellys of small fish and just seemed un-aggressive. Once the fry grow up a bit the near shore fry bite will pick up with hungry fish trolling the shore line looking for late season fry. Did catch some fish that squirted eggs so the nesting season seems to have covered 3-4 moon phases. only had on bass show evidence of crayfish.....typically i see a LOT of crayfish evidence. Not so this year. Water temp rise was late this year and there are plenty of small fry coming on constantly. Plenty of food for them....survival rate will be significantly lower this year.

Trolling a white spinnerbait or white Shad rap over lounging area's seemed most productive. Working a Senko from shore to 15' seemed to also work...most hook up were off shore deep in the rocks. Carolina rigging Power Lizards produce well mid day down deep. Morning & evening topwater bite non existant....that sucked, I was really looking forward to put some new found "The Crease" jerk bait knowledge to work there.
Carp on worms were fun for the kids at camp.

Firework show in Halfway was ok, & enjoyed, but not what I've seen in the past. They need more help with the $$. There would'nt have been a show had it not been for one local's generous $1500 donation.

All in all, a great trip. Only had to scuffle with drunk neighbors once. Sure is amazing how tough they are when drunk. Should'a seen the look on face when I told him I have a mind to pull him over my knee and paddle his a$s. Hated to be the party pooper, but wake boat speakers spewing foul rap crap full tilt and all the usual foul mouth yelling at 2am gets old. Been there done that, but man... we least had respect for our neighbors to turn it down at midnight. Scary thing was half them in that camp could've clean MY clock. They were polite after that.....man I must be getting old. Years past I'd have joined'em!

One regret was not tossing out the sturgeon rod.
Hunt'nFish

PS:
Geoff, Chance's tonge is raw from "kissing" fish but he still has not gotten his fill as of yet.

Clayton, Box of special plastics was NOT left behind this time. Never did give the Robo a fair shakey...probably should've. Hard to get me off my smokes.

Dan, We need to settle up on a tent. Will call ya.

[Thecrease]

Great report! Too bad the topwater did not pan out. Me suspects in the fall it will though. I will be there to take advantage of it.

[1bigfish]

Glad that you had a safe and fun trip. I bet you thought you could cool off once you got back home.

So you never got the sturgeon rod out, well I guess that is the problem with fishing the Snake, there is just too much to fish for and not enough time.

[Fish mojo]

You should have stopped off at Boardman for a little eye fishin on the way back Mike. Tournament was last weekend. Fishing wasn't red hot, but the weather was. We had 109 degrees on Thursday, followed by 106, 102 and 100. Great weather!! Winds were calm above Patterson Point and breezy at Boardman/Crow Butte.

Pre fishing was good, walleye in nearly every spot. Then they disappear on tourney weekend. My team scratched out 11.5 pounds total. Winners had over 40#.

Went out night fishing one night and had shad slamming my magnum fatfish.

Mark

[Hunt'nFish]

Trust me Mark....I was drooling on the road from Boardmand to the Dalles. It was flat as a pancake w/ a mind west breeze on Monday and it was kill'n me.

I DID stop at 3Mile and toss a senko a bit while the family & dog cooled down.
Funny no boats out either...found that odd. JD Dam was spilling a ton of water and level was up 2ft & flow ripping. Must've been 15 walleye boats on trailers at the Rufus gravel bar. TheDalles Dam was also spilling a ton of water with the Bonnie pool 2-3ft low. Suspect they were dumping water to feed Bonneville turbines. Not sure why they would spill it rather than run it through the turbines???? or maybe they were and still needed to dump more to feed Booneville. JD River, Dechutes, & HoodRiver were all running milky....glacier melt but I don't think they are enought to warrent spilling water and the smolt flush has been done for while now.

So I suspect the hot weather put power needs on full tilt and the flow picked up and fish moved between prefish and tourney. I know I'd certainly wait until the hot weather passes and flow drops back down before I went back up.
Hunt'nFish

[Geoff Pace]

Thanks for the post, & it sounds like you had a blast. Although it would have been fun I'm glad I didn't have to go, to hot for me!!!!
Looks like Dad & I get to do our TUNA trip saterday, can't wait!!
Give me a call some time, Geoff

[Hunt'nFish]

TUNA! huh....COOL! Trying to decide myself. 125 line and 50m out is a long $$ run.
Will give ya a call and get your vest back.
Hunt'nFish

[AtItAgain]

Mike,

Sounds like you had a good trip. You need to get that fishing in now because early goose season is just around the corner.

Anyway, thanks for the post.

[fishlipper]

Mike,
Nice report. Sounds like you got into a few more on the numbers side, but you did fish a lot more than we did. I think we averaged about 3hrs a day. Thanks for the nice words on my post. Hope to catch you on the river some time.

Chet

Originally Posted by AtItAgain

Mike,

Sounds like you had a good trip. You need to get that fishing in now because early goose season is just around the corner.

Anyway, thanks for the post.

[cimfl]

Good fun over there Mike! Too hot for me though, whew! Glad to have met you over there on our earlier trip. Keep up the fishing!