Owyhee dry creek arm ???

[Snapset]

I and a couple of my kids are heading east Sunday afternoon, and I would like to combine some crappie/catfishing with antelope scouting. The Drycreek arm is an ideal location for a base camp, but I have never been there, so I am asking for advice from some of the experts.Here are my questions:
1.) Does the road turn to gumbo if it rains?
2.) Is there a decent campground?
3.) If there is a campground, does it have water, and restrooms?
4.) Is there enough of a boatramp to launch my drifter?
5.) How is the fishing in the arm? Is it as rocky as the rest of the reservoir?

Any answers you might wish to share to these questions will determine if we use Dry Creek as base camp, and any more info on the fishing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and I will give a report when we return in 12 days.
For what its worth, we fished Brownlee a couple weeks ago and the crappie were non-stop incredible. If you want details let me know. We also fished at the state park on the other side of Owyhee, and caught some crappie and bass. The Owyhee crappie were bigger than the Brownlee crappie.

[codeman]

hey, the fishing in the dry creek arm can be outstanding. In mid may we fished it two consecutive weekends and caught thousands of crappie, especially under the docks. by now I would expect them to be heading towards deeper water along the rock walls. yes, the road can turn nasty with wet weather, at least in places. I think all of the roads in the owhyees will do that. There is a small campground called twin springs about 4 miles before dry creek that has a restroom and i think water. there are no facilities at the reservoir. The last 3 or 4 miles is pretty rough, you will need high clearance. There is no boat launches down there either, so it would have to be hand lauched. There are lots of antelope out there!! we always see several on the way in. Were you lucky enough to draw a rifle tag or are you a bow hunter?? Anyways, i hope this helps. Dry creek is one of my favorite places.

[retaliate]

Or if you have/can borrow a Boat, you can motor to Dry Cr arm from Owyhee st park, it's about 10 miles. Good Luck!

[Snapset]

Codeman & Retaliate, thanks for the responses and info. I am not certain I will draw a tag, but with 10 points, I think it is likely I will be rifle hunting there. I will probably spend the first night at twin springs campground, and see if I want to camp there the rest of the week. Probably depends on if I can get my drifter in the water (it has a 10 hp motor on it). I will definitely be scouting from the area, but I may end up on the other side, or up at Brownlee. I have always wanted to go to Leslie Gulch, but I don't know if that is a good place to camp from.

About the high clearance, does that mean a stock 4x full size truck with a drift boat trailer can make it, or does that mean like Birch creek road down into the canyon, where you could walk faster?

[chukardave1]

Leslie Gulch has restrooms, not sure if there is potable water but there might be I never have looked closely for that. There is a boat launch but it may be out of the water. Even if it is you could still get a drift boat launched from there without too much trouble. Road to Leslie Gulch would hold up pretty well in the rain and is not in that bad of shape. Unless massive thunderstorms have created really bad ruts you could drive a sedan down to the reservoir at Leslie Gulch.

[Snapset]

Thanks Chukardave1. I called the Vale BLM and they said there are several spots on the Dry Creek road which are impassable due to recent rains. I also found out I drew the antelope tag. Because of the weather, I think we will go to Leslie Gulch instead of Dry Creek this trip. To keep from needing to set up camp at midnight, we will probably stop and spend the night somewhere between Chickahominy and Jordan Valley.

Thanks again to everyone for all the information.
Report in a week or so.