Brownlee/Owyhee Memorial Day Weeken

[Snapset]

My wife and I headed east for some fishing EARLY friday morning. We got to Owyhee reservoir About 11 a.m. and fished for crappie while I waited for my brother, who lives in Caldwell, to meet us for some flyfishing. My crappie fishing technique hasn't progressed past the red and white bobber stage, so I caught a half dozen and then went down to the river to flyfish for browns. I hooked one big fish on the only #18 soft hackle I had. I should have had some midge emerger patterns as the trout were just sipping.

The campgrounds at Owyhee were full so we spent the night at a gravel bar along the river and the next morning headed for Farewell Bend. We were surprised to get a campsite in the park, and I headed out for some catfishing. I caught about a 4 lb catfish, and tried my hand at crappie fishing in some submerged bushes across the river. No luck there. As I was coming in with the boat, I saw a guy catching crappie every cast, while others were getting nothing. He wasn't using a bobber, so I asked him why he was outfishing everybody else 10/1. He explained that the crappie were picking up the jig as it settled to the bottom, and showed me how he was controlling the line. Sure enough, I tried it, and it worked. I had my flyrod with me, so I tried his technique qith a beadhead bugger, and it worked fine then, too.

The next day we ran up by Huntington, and it was literally a fish every cast. If you missed the first one, a second would pick it up. Against my better judgement, I caught a bucketful, and spent 3 hours fileting the buggers. Monday I was out catfishing in the boat with my wife, and I was still fileting crappie from the night before. In fact, I missed all the bites on my pole while my wife caught all the catfish (4). I did get all the crappie fileted though.

A guy came in with a huge stringer of catfish monday morning and said he had to quit at 30. These were all the bigger size, I would guess about 8 lbs each. He must have really known what he was doing.

We had to head home Monday evening, but we drove up the reservoir and stopped to fish at several places before the road climbs up towards Richland, and every place I stopped the crappie were there. I was catching about 10 white crappie for every black crappie, so I decided I would just keep the bigger black crappie that day. I brought home 25 black crappie for about 3 hours fishing.
Also caught some bluegill and smallmouth.

[1bigfish]

Great report Snapset. I totally get what you are saying about the fileting crappie cutting into your fishing time.

[OBT]

I made the trip home as well. I am from Nyssa. My dad and I went to Owyhee on Sunday and caught 150 fish in about 3 and a half hours. Every cast. Although I think we spent more time cleaning and filleting the little buggers.

[Hunt'nFish]

Sounds like a great trip Snapset!
I'd have like to seen some pics of crappie on the fly though...shame on you for not giving us that pleasure.

I have yet to even go for bass on the fly rod yet....even though I keep talking about it over & over.
Hunt'nFish

[Don Fischer]

When I lived in Montana there was a small hidden lake outside Big Fork that had a great bass population and few fished for them. Then I did fly fish and I can tell you, if you have never had a big bass erupt from the water for a flyrood popper you haven't lived. I was going thru an old tackle box a week or so ago and found a couple of those old frog color poppers. Awful tempting to get another fly rod!

[asain life]

I fish thier twice a year with my brother in law,..Its a blast. I tye my own jigs,..I use duck feather in the back with some flash abou and then some chennile body,..the jig falls in a circle motion if tyed right. Instead of going thur the hassel of filleting them,.Try this. Better to eat too. Rub some salt on both sides of the crappie,..bbq about 5 minutes on both sides,. to where its kind of brown. tear of top fin,.. and pull the skin off,..and just eat the meat right of the bones,.Make some dipping sauce,.and get some lettuce and put the meat inside and wrap and eat..alot eaiser and the meat is almost sweater tasting, because the oils stay in the fish while bbq. Try it, you will thank me.