Crappie Madness Brownlee June 2009 (pic heavy)

[fishonjon]

Spent the last week at Brownlee for the wife's birthday . Weather was perfect, at least as far as we were concerned (no scorching hot, unbearable days). Rained lightly several times (warm though so you weren't uncomfortable getting a little wet), a couple windy afternoons, and one night of lightning flashes all around us. Probably in the 70's every day, except Thursday and Saturday got warmer - not many clouds those days. Rolled in with a lot of stuff...


Crappies were plentiful, at least for us. Here's the catch from just an hour or so on the day we arrived.


Here's a picture of our first day's catch - after an hour of fishing.


If you knew what you were doing and knew where to go, you could just boat-load them.


Lots of people in camp weren't catching many at all (less than 10 for 4 hours of fishing) so on the third day we let two boats follow us to our slot and helped them with their technique, which resulted in them boating hundreds. Picture of our camping neighbor, John, with his catch.



These are two boys from camp, David and Brandon, that we took out and helped fill a bucket - they spent more than 2 hours cleaning them, but loved it!


Another guy, Jim, I took out and helped him with technique and filling his bucket also.


Check out this beautiful water with reflection. What a gorgeous place!


Can't ask for a more beautiful sunset, huh?


The mosquitoes down there were BAD!! I think my wife and I have at least 30 bites each - didn't seem like any amount of DEET would keep them off. They were driving our dog, Skye, nuts, so in order to keep them off her, she had don the latest Grundens "mosquito wear" - guaranteed to keep them from penetrating!


All in all, a fantasic birthday, vacation and crappie fishing week. The management at Hewitt-Holcomb park were awesome and the grounds were just park like and beautiful! Not to mention all the great people we met (Larry's group with David and Brandon, John and Diane, Jim, Serena and the boys, Paul and Kelly and the gang) - made some good friends there. Already looking forward to our next Brownlee trip!

[Birdnut]

Glad you both had a good time John,sounds like a great trip. Don't know if you remember me but you and your wife showed me the pond down by St. Paul last year.Thanks, Chris

[Mr6lbR]

Now that looks like an awesome trip. Nice work gettin on those crappies. And helping others. I gotta make a trip there soon!

[Twothirteen]

That looks like waaaay too much fun..

[dragon67]

What no catfish??? All those crappie to use as bait. The crappie fishing was like that for us when we were there in May, except you could catch a bucket full from the bank or where ever you went. I am glad you had a good time it is a great place to go.

[rodholder1]

Wow looks like a great time and good on ya for helping the others. It stinks to be in a camp and see a guy wack em and you can't. Looks like you made a lot of happy Friends. Guys like you will keep this site and fishing fun for everyone, great post and pics.

[ling killer]

WOW, i bet u made thos kids day

Pricless,

thats so cool, way to go. especially helping out others U r a true ifisher

great report

[littlefish]

That looks like alot of fun
I was going to go last week end but has other pressing issue
Going to try this week end, would crappie still be biting? this would be my second year going over there so I don't have much expirience.

Thanks

[fishonjon]

(Birdnut) I do remember you. (dragon67) 80 in 6 days. picks on june role call brownlee. (rodholder1) It feels good for one day. After that it stinks. (littlefish) Crappie always bite you just half to find the biters.

[retaliate]

Nice pile(s) of Crappie, looks like the Crappie are 1/4" bigger than when we were there in early may, looking forward to next May, good timing on the weather, Ive seen it 100 deg before in June.

[KRTGrumpy]

No way, that's unreal. Nice catch. Did you spend more time cleaning than fishing... It would take me a week to clean all of those.

[fishonjon]

Originally Posted by KRTGrumpy

No way, that's unreal. Nice catch. Did you spend more time cleaning than fishing... It would take me a week to clean all of those.

yes one hour fishing / two hours cleaning

[luckyr]

Nice job Jon. Someday you will have to tell me your secret on convincing my wife seven days in a tent being a good way to celebrate her birthday.My wife thinks she is camping if she is in a three star hotel.

[WoodyinMosier]

Sounds like a great time, love the picture of your dog. I thinking of taking off Wednesday for Brownlee, although never had much luck at Brownlee. Really nice of you to take kids out and show a guy where the fish are. Caught lots of fish at Owyhee but just too far anymore.

[fishingforever]

hello john nice fish.
i will be heading over this comming weekend 26-28th. any help on the technique you use would be greatly appreciated. we will probably be fishing for cats to but i would love to get into the crappie mostly.
thanks for any help.

[Big Unit]

Great pics!!! I love that area!

One hour fishing does not equal two hours filleting for me.....as in I hate cleaning them!!!

My dad uses an electric knife and it's a quick job....did I say I hate filleting them?

Great job all around with the other people!!

BU

[fishN-4-Alimit]

Originally Posted by Big Unit

Great pics!!! I love that area!

One hour fishing does not equal two hours filleting for me.....as in I hate cleaning them!!!

My dad uses an electric knife and it's a quick job....did I say I hate filleting them?

Great job all around with the other people!!

BU

I would like to know how many crappie could your dad fillet on a single charge of his electric knife. Also what model is he using?
I am thinking about getting one and I want the battery opperated one but only if it lasts for a good while.

Thanks

Steve

[TEXAS RIG]

I have the rapala with 3 batteries and I can clean about 75 crappie at 2 a minute using all 3 batteries. I would get a electric if I were you.

Originally Posted by fishN-4-Alimit

I would like to know how many crappie could your dad fillet on a single charge of his electric knife. Also what model is he using?
I am thinking about getting one and I want the battery opperated one but only if it lasts for a good while.

Thanks

Steve

[fishN-4-Alimit]

Those are some great pictures.
The crappie look very fat compared to what I have been catching. I would like to get over that way to check out the fishing some day when I can spend a whole week away from home.
Do you ever hook into any bass while fishing for those crappie?
I found that to be common for me when I am fishing for crappie I always get some bass.

Good job and thanks for the post.
Love seeing killer days on the lake.

[Hunt'nFish]

Awesome pics and great Post! I've failed in the picture taking dept this year.
I know what you mean by Crappietunnel Syndrome from filleting all those, my wrist is feeling the pain as well.

Fish'n4-a-limit, sure bass will hit a crappie jig.
Hunt'nFish

[fishonjon]

Originally Posted by fishingforever

hello john nice fish.
i will be heading over this comming weekend 26-28th. any help on the technique you use would be greatly appreciated. we will probably be fishing for cats to but i would love to get into the crappie mostly.
thanks for any help.

We mainly fish structure, either steep drop offs or shade. We're using 4 lb test on the mighty might rods - about 3 feet long with a tip not much bigger than your line. We're using 2 micro mini jigs, with the tails cut off, white on top, chartreuse on the bottom.

Find the fish on your fish finder, throw into them with the jigs, let it drop until it almost hits the bottom. If they don't grab it, then slowly, slowly, slowly grind it up to the top.

Once we found the biters, it was just non stop. We left the school every day... Try a small strip of fresh crappie on your jig - you'll catch even bigger crappies!

Make sure though, that you DO NOT tie to or get on any of the floating docks there - if you do not have permission you can get a whopping fine (or possibly get arrested!).

Good luck and let me know how you do!

fishonjon

[Rank Amateur]

Originally Posted by fishN-4-Alimit

I would like to know how many crappie could your dad fillet on a single charge of his electric knife. Also what model is he using?
I am thinking about getting one and I want the battery opperated one but only if it lasts for a good while.

Thanks

Steve

We use the American Angler 12 volt (cigarette plug-in) electric knives. Work pretty good. With a generator in camp though we are thinking of going to standard electric knives.

I was going to get some video of the crappie filleting process, but just didn't get it done. I guess we averaged around 36 seconds per fish (of coarse this included drinking time for one beer). We figured 100 crappie per 5 gallon bucket and 1 hour filleting. I can probably do a crappie in 20 seconds if I push it. Takes another person to cut out the ribs and wash.

Yep, I was getting some wrist discomfort after doing about 1,000 fish in a week.

[Mad Mikey]

Awesome post. There's "dialed" and then there's "DIALED".

Looks like you boyz put the hurt on em'.

[joemomma]

That is very cool! Great report, and way to go on helping neighbors! Nice pic of the dog!

[fishingforever]

Originally Posted by fishonjon

We mainly fish structure, either steep drop offs or shade. We're using 4 lb test on the mighty might rods - about 3 feet long with a tip not much bigger than your line. We're using 2 micro mini jigs, with the tails cut off, white on top, chartreuse on the bottom.

Find the fish on your fish finder, throw into them with the jigs, let it drop until it almost hits the bottom. If they don't grab it, then slowly, slowly, slowly grind it up to the top.

Once we found the biters, it was just non stop. We left the school every day... Try a small strip of fresh crappie on your jig - you'll catch even bigger crappies!

Make sure though, that you DO NOT tie to or get on any of the floating docks there - if you do not have permission you can get a whopping fine (or possibly get arrested!).

Good luck and let me know how you do!

fishonjon

[fishingforever]

thanks for the pointers john, and i will be sure to stay away from the floating houses. i have seen in the past the sheriff stopping to check the people that are there tied up.

and i will let you know how we do.

your pointers are perfect.

Thanks again.

[Big Unit]

Originally Posted by fishN-4-Alimit

I would like to know how many crappie could your dad fillet on a single charge of his electric knife. Also what model is he using?
I am thinking about getting one and I want the battery opperated one but only if it lasts for a good while.

Thanks

Steve

He says 2-2 1/2 crappies per minute. THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!! I love eating crappie, but need a quick efficient way to fillet them!

BU

[dakotakid23]

Originally Posted by fishonjon

Spent the last week at Brownlee for the wife's birthday . Weather was perfect, at least as far as we were concerned (no scorching hot, unbearable days). Rained lightly several times (warm though so you weren't uncomfortable getting a little wet), a couple windy afternoons, and one night of lightning flashes all around us. Probably in the 70's every day, except Thursday and Saturday got warmer - not many clouds those days. Rolled in with a lot of stuff...


Crappies were plentiful, at least for us. Here's the catch from just an hour or so on the day we arrived.


Here's a picture of our first day's catch - after an hour of fishing.


If you knew what you were doing and knew where to go, you could just boat-load them.


Lots of people in camp weren't catching many at all (less than 10 for 4 hours of fishing) so on the third day we let two boats follow us to our slot and helped them with their technique, which resulted in them boating hundreds. Picture of our camping neighbor, John, with his catch.



These are two boys from camp, David and Brandon, that we took out and helped fill a bucket - they spent more than 2 hours cleaning them, but loved it!


Another guy, Jim, I took out and helped him with technique and filling his bucket also.


Check out this beautiful water with reflection. What a gorgeous place!


Can't ask for a more beautiful sunset, huh?


The mosquitoes down there were BAD!! I think my wife and I have at least 30 bites each - didn't seem like any amount of DEET would keep them off. They were driving our dog, Skye, nuts, so in order to keep them off her, she had don the latest Grundens "mosquito wear" - guaranteed to keep them from penetrating!


All in all, a fantasic birthday, vacation and crappie fishing week. The management at Hewitt-Holcomb park were awesome and the grounds were just park like and beautiful! Not to mention all the great people we met (Larry's group with David and Brandon, John and Diane, Jim, Serena and the boys, Paul and Kelly and the gang) - made some good friends there. Already looking forward to our next Brownlee trip!

[dakotakid23]

Hey John, enjoyed meeting you and the wife over in Brownlee last week. I dont check this very often so it may be a bit before I reply. Thanks for running us around and hopefully you guys didnt get to wet. My boat got chowdered up a bit from the wind we had on Tuesday night and then on the drive home was in a blast of wind coming from the west as we went down the gorge. Whats new about that I guess. I am glad those Mormom crickets were the ticket for the cats or maybe I shouldnt have mentioned that. Take care J&D

Originally Posted by fishonjon

Spent the last week at Brownlee for the wife's birthday . Weather was perfect, at least as far as we were concerned (no scorching hot, unbearable days). Rained lightly several times (warm though so you weren't uncomfortable getting a little wet), a couple windy afternoons, and one night of lightning flashes all around us. Probably in the 70's every day, except Thursday and Saturday got warmer - not many clouds those days. Rolled in with a lot of stuff...


Crappies were plentiful, at least for us. Here's the catch from just an hour or so on the day we arrived.


Here's a picture of our first day's catch - after an hour of fishing.


If you knew what you were doing and knew where to go, you could just boat-load them.


Lots of people in camp weren't catching many at all (less than 10 for 4 hours of fishing) so on the third day we let two boats follow us to our slot and helped them with their technique, which resulted in them boating hundreds. Picture of our camping neighbor, John, with his catch.



These are two boys from camp, David and Brandon, that we took out and helped fill a bucket - they spent more than 2 hours cleaning them, but loved it!


Another guy, Jim, I took out and helped him with technique and filling his bucket also.


Check out this beautiful water with reflection. What a gorgeous place!


Can't ask for a more beautiful sunset, huh?


The mosquitoes down there were BAD!! I think my wife and I have at least 30 bites each - didn't seem like any amount of DEET would keep them off. They were driving our dog, Skye, nuts, so in order to keep them off her, she had don the latest Grundens "mosquito wear" - guaranteed to keep them from penetrating!


All in all, a fantasic birthday, vacation and crappie fishing week. The management at Hewitt-Holcomb park were awesome and the grounds were just park like and beautiful! Not to mention all the great people we met (Larry's group with David and Brandon, John and Diane, Jim, Serena and the boys, Paul and Kelly and the gang) - made some good friends there. Already looking forward to our next Brownlee trip!

[Thunnus]

Great picture of your dog, I love it!