Crappie Pro Tour: Prineville

[birdhunter]

Coot22 and I arrive at Prineville Reservoir Friday afternoon for a relaxing weekend of
fishing, fishing, some water skiing, and then more fishing. After setting up camp we
proceeded to flail away at the lake w/ bobbers and jigs in our quest for the elusive
crappie. We didn't have to work too hard. That first night we each caught around 100
crappie without ever having to move more than 20 feet along the bank. Just casting a red and white jig about 3 feet below a bobber next to the dock. In addition to that we caught a huge pea-mouth chub and a 12" bullhead, all on crappie jigs.

Now most of these fish were teeny tiny, only 6-8", but we did find a few that were 10" +.
Those ones went into the frying pan. I made the mistake once before of keeping all the
crappie I caught on a trip to the Snake. 53 5" fish too one hour to catch and the rest of the day to fillet.

The next day we rented a smaller boat from the marina and fished most of the lake from
the dam to the marina. Catch total were 200 + crappie apiece as well as some nice
smallies and a few more bullhead. Toward the end of the day I snapped my ultra-light
rod right after landing a 16" smallie. It was then we decided to forgo the panfish, rig up the big rods and troll for the monster trout we had seen pictures of at the marina.

Typically when you troll a wedding ring spinner behind a ford fender, you would expect to eventually catch a trout. We never did. Instead we caught crappie. Lots of them. They hit everything we tried to troll and seemed to be at ever depth. They hit dick nites, crocs, and worms. The 5" fish seemed to particularly love a 3" rapala. In addition to the crappie we picked up the odd ********* and bullhead (while trolling!!!) and never
touched a trout.

Tried some more trolling the next morning and ended up with plenty more crappie and
another squawdad. Coot22 finally managed to catch a quality bass after days of trying.
He'd throw top-waters all day long and then I'd come along w/ my trusty crappie jig and
bobber down!!!

So bottom line is, if you want crappie, and I mean lots of crappie, go to Prineville
Reservoir. There are plenty left there as we only took back 6 and between the two of us
probably caught well over 600 of the buggers. I can safely say that I am crappied out. If I never see another tiny crappie again for then rest of my life, I won't be dissapointed. They tore though a dozen of my jigs so I need to pick up some more, but the color that really seemed to produce was red and white. After you found out what depth they were at, all you had to do is set the bobber at it and keep casting and retrieving. If we didn't have a crappie hit within 10 seconds of the bobber landing in the water, we usually would reel in and cast somewhere else. It was that crazy. Good luck and happy fishing.

[sinker]

I love to catch crappie's. They're really good to eat but a pain to clean.
Why are the best tasting fish the biggest pain to clean??
I used to have good luck on a local lake up here in the late spring using a fly a few feet behind a clear bobber. Reel it in slow enough so that the bobber doesn't cause any ripples or anything. slllooooowwwwww
Used to catch quite a few good sized ones. People used to brag about catching palm sized crappies. We'd pitch those ones back, weren't worth messing with. We'd come back into the dock with a stringer full of 10-12" crappies and people would be amazed, they were used to "good sized: being palm sized. LOL

[ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: sinker ]

[sinker]

The local lakes I was referring to were Kapowsin and Harts up here in Pierce county,WA.

[birdhunter]

Yeah sinker I hear you. Everyone there was keeping these little teeny fish. I wouldn't want to be the one to clean all of them. Especially w/ a fillet knife as dull as the one we had. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] So which local lake is this? I have a hunch, but don't want to say anything if you want to keep it on the DL.

I also wanted to just say that Fishermans Marine in OC did a great job handling my broken rod. It was a little N. River (the store brand) and they took one look at it and replaced it. Simple as that. No receipt, no drawn out sob story about how it broke, nothing. I've had trouble getting things from them before, but today they renewed my faith in the chain. Great job.

I should also say that up until it snapped, I'd never had any trouble w/ that rod. It's a 5'6" North River light action. Beautiful little ultralight that retails for about 40 bucks. I'd only had it for about a year but I put a ton of use and abuse into it. It's landed 30" sturgeon, catfish, tons of crappie, 2 lb trout, big bass and plenty of other hard fighting fish just about every weekend of the year. It was a great rod and hopefully the replacement will live up to its predecessor.