Crane Prairie this weekend

[bassdad54]

Heading out later today for CP.Our club(Mid Valley Bass) having small club tourney there.Will give a report when I get back.Will be there over weekend and hope to get a fish or two.Havent been there for couple year so looking forward to it.Rock Creek Campground.Doesnt look like there will be very many boats from club but will be fun.

[jcft2007]

Sounds like fun, fun, fun!!!

Personally, I'll be Dorena Lake hopefully doing some catching too!! I'm with Central Valley Bass Club having our club tourney during Sat. night.

Same here, I'll post a report when I return!!

TO ALL YOU FELLOW IFISHERS, THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!!

Joel

[High Life]

cant wait to head on over!if only work didnt get in the way we would be on our way now.should be a good tournament either way.see ya over there larry!

Cory

[bassin'87]

Looking forward to it! Was there practicing on the 4th of july weekend caught a couple fish over 5lbs hopefully we can fill the boat with a few more of these guys this weekend. See ya guys there!

[MXRacer105]

Originally Posted by bassin'87

Looking forward to it! Was there practicing on the 4th of july weekend caught a couple fish over 5lbs hopefully we can fill the boat with a few more of these guys this weekend. See ya guys there!

That is a nice picture..... nice fish too

[wackywormiii]

Originally Posted by MXRacer105

That is a nice picture..... nice fish too

how was the tournament?

[High Life]

It was very tough fishing both days. Three clubs fished there and the biggest weight from Rogue Valley was 15.08 with the biggest fish being a 4 pounder.We ended up winning our club with 15.16 and big fish was 3.6 for us. We caught a bunch of little fish (9-13 inches). It sounds like CP has definetely gone downhill since the "good ol' days".

[Midnghtshdow]

Originally Posted by High Life

It was very tough fishing both days. Three clubs fished there and the biggest weight from Rogue Valley was 15.08 with the biggest fish being a 4 pounder.We ended up winning our club with 15.16 and big fish was 3.6 for us. We caught a bunch of little fish (9-13 inches). It sounds like CP has definetely gone downhill since the "good ol' days".

Hey i had never really herd of this lake till now, so i look it up and found a site saying a long time ago it used to be one of the top lakes for bass but they did not want it too be so they stopped planting it with other fish and the bass population died off. That sucks... reminds me of duck lake. So what did ya catch em on? did u fish the part where all the trees are stickin out of the water? I saw that on the web site looked cool.

[wackywormiii]

Originally Posted by High Life

It was very tough fishing both days. Three clubs fished there and the biggest weight from Rogue Valley was 15.08 with the biggest fish being a 4 pounder.We ended up winning our club with 15.16 and big fish was 3.6 for us. We caught a bunch of little fish (9-13 inches). It sounds like CP has definetely gone downhill since the "good ol' days".

congats on the win. wish i could of came had to work and justin blackmoore got married so no partner. where did you catch them and on what? never fished craine going next weekend just too try for fun. any pointers you can give?

[Bryan Stone]

Most of our fish came on white spinnerbaits early in the morning.The big fish i actually saw crushing through the big snags and pitched a senko in front of him and twitched it twice and he came up and grabbed it,that definetely got my heart racing watching that.

Wackywormiii-is this the other justin from the club?i would try throwing spinnerbaits in the morning and then pitching the wood laydowns with jigs/texas rig plastics.also in the back of the lake there are some decent coves to fish.watch out for the snags just under the surface and be prepared to get some scratches on your boat fishing the snags sticking out of the water.it can get pretty tight in there

Cory

[High Life]

haha sorry guys didnt know bryan was still signed in when i typed the report

[Midnghtshdow]

Nice, Is it a really clear lake?

[wackywormiii]

Originally Posted by Bryan Stone

Most of our fish came on white spinnerbaits early in the morning.The big fish i actually saw crushing through the big snags and pitched a senko in front of him and twitched it twice and he came up and grabbed it,that definetely got my heart racing watching that.

Wackywormiii-is this the other justin from the club?i would try throwing spinnerbaits in the morning and then pitching the wood laydowns with jigs/texas rig plastics.also in the back of the lake there are some decent coves to fish.watch out for the snags just under the surface and be prepared to get some scratches on your boat fishing the snags sticking out of the water.it can get pretty tight in there

Cory

yes it is i am justin howerton. thanks for the info i will try it out. pretty excited to fish ther. If you ever need a partner to fish for fun or anything let me know sometimes its hard to find a guy to fish with, well atleast for me. thanks again

[bassdad54]

Hello
Like Cory was saying it was tough.Water was stained green .Worse that I ever seen it.I absolutely could not pick a a fish.Was using the same things that people were catching fish with.This was the first time I ever was skunked in the club at Crane.Alot more smaller fish being brought in.Water temps were 69 in morning 71 by afternoon.Bug hatches were thick in areas.The weights from the weigh ins were weights that should have been starting for 1 day instead of 2.I fished areas where I always have picked up fish but not this time.Still had great time.Glad to see the new guys(Cory& Casey) pick up some fish that can be caught thou.The weather was great and really not to windy.I tied off to stick ups when it got a little windy in afternoon.(Sorry Justin that we couldnt hook up for the troll motor, give me call I still have it)The water clarity should clear up and the bite should be alot better when it does.

[ommedia]

Whichever site you picked this information up on is dead wrong.

Although I'm an avid warm water fisherman, Crane Prairie was once THE PREMIER trout fishery in the Northwest. Bass were illegally introduced in the late 80's. Them crappie, bluegill, and finally the 3-spine stickle back.

Bass aren't dying off because of a lack of trout food, but more, the reservoir has a lack of natural food source.

The stickle back alone has pretty much ruined the lake. It competes directly with the fry of trout (and bass) for a food source.

The reservoir, in the 90's was thought to eventually produce a state record bass (because the assumption that big trout producing waters would produce big bass), but it will probably never will do that because the food source is depleting, the reservoir is a high elevation body of water, and it's shallow, thus water temps fluctuate (both producing oxygen and food source issues). Bass just can't seem to get over the 7-8 lb range there (much)....and most fish are 2lbs. The lake used to have great bug hatches, now the warm water fish have changed all of that.

You can still catch great numbers of bass on good days, and the reservoir has the visual appeal of a great bass producer...but as a trout producing "reservoir" it's ruined. And it really can't be fixed.

Congratuations to the fly anglers and the bass fisherman...With a 1 trout bag limit and only a 5 bass bag limit....you have taken Crane Prairie.

We catch a lot of bass on top water earlier in late June, and then most on slow plastics this time of year. This time of year, on a high water years, you can pull some nice hens off their brush beds by pitching plastic.

Originally Posted by Midnghtshdow

Hey i had never really herd of this lake till now, so i look it up and found a site saying a long time ago it used to be one of the top lakes for bass but they did not want it too be so they stopped planting it with other fish and the bass population died off. That sucks... reminds me of duck lake. So what did ya catch em on? did u fish the part where all the trees are stickin out of the water? I saw that on the web site looked cool.

[Bass all day]

Originally Posted by jcft2007

Sounds like fun, fun, fun!!!

Personally, I'll be Dorena Lake hopefully doing some catching too!! I'm with Central Valley Bass Club having our club tourney during Sat. night.

Same here, I'll post a report when I return!!

TO ALL YOU FELLOW IFISHERS, THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!!

Joel

Hey Joel,

I'm with CRB Columbia River Bassmasters and we have a day and night tournmant next Sat. and I was wondering if you had any advice you might want to pass on. I have never fished this lake before. Also, what is the water clarity like? Any help will be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Kevin

[bassin'87]

The tournament we had there in mid july the water was really stained brownish green with only a foot visibility. It made it tough, most fish came early on a white spinnerbait and a few on senkos. Talked to a guy who said the fish were hitting really well at the far north end of the lake on topwater frogs early and he also said he saw another guy pulling fish out left and right up there on a shakey head. hope this helps good luck.

[Basshound]

Originally Posted by Bass all day

Hey Joel,

I'm with CRB Columbia River Bassmasters and we have a day and night tournmant next Sat. and I was wondering if you had any advice you might want to pass on. I have never fished this lake before. Also, what is the water clarity like? Any help will be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Kevin

how can they do a night tourney at craine? I thought the lake was off limits at night.

[Midnghtshdow]

I had a tourney there the 26Th of july. The fishing was pretty good. Me and my partner had never been there before. We caught most of our fish on Sinko's and white spinner baits IN 5-6 of water!!!!! They are post spawn and all the fish that were mostly caught were in 5-6ft water. The point right off from rocky point was a good producer. Dead stick a chigger craw there and twitch it every once and a will and you will get em. Also I Found pads there in the timber saw HUGE fish sitting in them in the late afternoon but were so skiddish you could not get em to bite. The pads are pretty much strait across from rocky point camp ground way on the other side of the lake. When you get there in the morning throw spinners and a bomber citrus shad as you go along in 5-6FT!!!! Look for weeds by the trees and that is where alot were caught and it had to be a little windy! And hold on cause they average to 3-10lbs On guy did that and he had a huge bag but lost a 8-10lbr on the citrus shad at the boat cause he had no net and he was trying to lip it. Also one team did drop shoting a sinko and did ok. good luck and dont plan on your motor running too well cause of the high elevation.

[Bass all day]

Originally Posted by Basshound

how can they do a night tourney at craine? I thought the lake was off limits at night.

Sorry....I meant Dorena Lake.