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Brownlee Crappie/Catfish Report

30K views 117 replies 34 participants last post by  eastern_elk_hunter 
#1 ·
It’s that wonderful time of year again where we pack up and head out for sleepless nights of fishing at Brownlee. My favorite time of year. If anyone has any info and could share some updates on the fishing, many of us would highly appreciate it.
 
#67 ·
I am wanting to plan a trip come first of June or last week of may,with Baker county lifting the camping closure, does anyone know if Hewitt park open , would like to bring down my travel trailor and get a boat limit slip if possible. I've tried calling the number on website getting zero answers .
 
#69 ·
Headed over this weekend.
Day use at Hewitt Park is open as well as the boat ramp in Hewitt and Holcomb.
Camping will open in Holcomb on May 15th.
Fished Friday evening from the bank and caught a few crappie as well as bass. Nothing of size or numbers on the bank but was fun.
Fished all day on the Powdered River arm on Saturday. Was pretty slow, caught mostly bass. The bass seemed to be hungry since the crappie spawn still hasn't happened yet. Headed in to a cove and tied up so we could eat some lunch. Started fishing from the back of the boat and caught some nice sized bass. 2 bass @ 16.5 inches, 2.8 lbs then caught a couple crappie.
Headed back out and my husband caught a 13.5 inch crappie. I then caught a 12 inch perch! Caught some more bass (I think 15-16 total) and additional crappie. We wore ourselves out in the heat so headed in. Sat in the shade and had a drink then finished out the evening on the bank. Caught 18 crappie ranging from 7 - 10 inches..
Looks like the crappie spawn is a week or so away.
 
#73 ·
That's great! I'll be taking my dad and a couple of his friends up there the week after. Hope to hear a fishing report from you.


One of my dad's friends has his 14' boat stored in Richland. They went up there last Friday and fished on the Snake, several miles from the Powder River. They were able to locate and get into a mess of crappies. Most were 10"-14" with a couple of them right at 16"!
 
#75 ·
The following sites are expected to open on Friday according to Idaho Power.

Hells Canyon area: Hells Canyon Park boat launch, Copperfield boat launch, Oxbow boat launch, Old Carter’s Landing, McCormick Park boat launch, Oxbow and Hells Canyon Reservoir dispersed campsites

C.J. Strike: North Park boat launch and day-use area, Jack’s Creek boat launch and dispersed campsites
Hagerman area: Bliss Park, Malad Fountain Park, Lower Salmon raft launch, Lower Salmon Falls Park, Lower Salmon boat launch

Other areas: Swan Falls downstream campsites (downstream boat launch remains closed), Milner whitewater put-in, American Falls Park.

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#77 ·
Fished Brownlee Friday night, Sat. Am. The clearest I have seen Powder River arm water. 12 ft. Plus. Many fish. Size is the problem. Probably got 6 crappies over 12 in. Lots of dinks. Fish early and late. High sun with clear water not good for crappies. Interesting to see small crappies mixed in with keepers. Small bass are everywhere. Pests. Water rising slowly and plenty of people. Thorny says big trout are showing up as side catch and several 16 inch crappies were caught last week. PS Baker County just recorded first Coronavirus case.
 
#80 ·
Nice catching strawberry. I stopped by on the way home from Idaho on Sunday at farewell bend. Couple cats but gave up after a short while. Too much debris in the high water and constantly cleaning your gear off. Then the dog went chasing spawning carp in the flooded bushes that turned out to be cockle burs and after an hour cutting the burs out with scissors I was ready to hit the road.

Thought of stopping at le page on the John day but it was chocolate mud and with the wind and rain we just drove on home.


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#81 ·
Nice work! Always good to get out. There was a good amount of debris where I was, too. One big floating tree.

Haha I can only imagine how much of a handful that would be. My golden got into those a few times...not fun. She always looked pretty funny after the trim, though!

We headed back Monday around 10:00. Was raining from Pendleton until about Hood river or so. I did notice the JD being very very muddy.
 
#82 ·
Spent two days fishing cats out of Richland with little success. 7-8 keepers for two full days fishing. Moved up to Huntington today, fished a few miles below the tressel and had great fishing. 30 fish in the boat by noon.

Bank was crawling with Mormon crickets but the fish parts I was using for bait were working great so I didn’t try the crickets. Nice fish, average about 4lbs.

-Scott
 
#85 ·
#4 baithook on 18" leader with 2oz weight on slider on the mainline. Steelhead rods are my favorite but anything from Kokanee to salmon rods work. Did haul in one at 15# that I would not have landed with the Kokanee rod.

I mostly use Kokanee parts for bait. The fatty bellies are best but wads of guts work well too if you can keep them on the hook. Always catch a couple chub or pike minnow while catfishing, those turn into bait as well.

-Scott
 
#86 ·
Anybody got a look at Carters Landing in regard to camping opportunities? My Dad and I are a little hesitant to travel over since all the fancy campgrounds are full in the area.
 
#88 ·
I didn't when I was there, Rank. That's the one with basically a dirt launch, right? I have definitely did some "Rough it" Camping out there before the graveyard area was shut down. My dad anymore wants to stay at a motel...I can't blame him lol. Getting old aint for sissys!

I did drive up to Oxbow dam and relax at that little rock beach off the bridge there. Was cool watching two guys in a boat catch fish after fishing and fighting them down stream. I believe they were Steelhead? Not sure.
 
#89 ·
Graveyard area can be auto accessed by permission only, but the guy is picky whom he will allow, I talked to the guy a couple years ago, he indicated he would allow us access, but res was too low to launch a boat so we ended up going to Owyhee res, didn't see anybody in there that day, even without permission one could launch at Morgan cr & access/camp by boat as long as you fish/camp below the high water line, it's not trespassing, of course that would be alot of work for us aging baby boomers, but we may camp there again sometime in the future if/when Crappie fishing improves...if I can talk the wife into it, as we really miss our spot, there is a good size spring there 4' to 6' below the high water line & flat spots for a tent just below the high water line, no trees/shade tho.
 
#90 ·
Wife and I got back from our week at brownlee we had a great time did some exploring looking for new areas, we mostly targeted the larger crappie we had success everyday not a lot of numbers but we averaged 12 keepers a day , but only kept crappie that was over 12 inches ( I do this cause I don't want to clean fish all night) our biggest was 14.75 inches (my wife) my biggest was 14.25 inches we caught quite a few in the 12.5-13.5 inch range, our technique was trolling Rock cliffs with plugs , most fish was suspended 30ft, in 45-60 feet of water. Last day we tagged cats, got 20 good eating size fish , released a few bigger cats ... here is a few of the pics we took in one of the pics you can see the the plug that was our best performer.
 
#92 ·
Nice work! Those are some slabs! Spending a week out there sounds mighty nice. Especially if you had a trailer to stay in.

I am itching to get back out there again! I've never been very good at targeting the deep crappie...I am used to throwing a mini jig out...counting to 8 or so and catching a crappie lol. Maybe it's a patience thing... ;)

Tried trolling my last trip...no idea what I am really doing lol.
 
#93 ·
Strawberry..... I am soft these days my travel trailor makes trips so much more fun lol. Trolling for those deep fish is just like zone trolling for suspended salmon , I put 2 oz on my bow rods and 3/4 oz on back rods change speeds alot to give action to plug. Keep gear in the zone.....
 
#95 ·
PNW, those are some fantastic crappie. I have had some success trolling the mini plugs. I haven't run them off the downrigger yet, but I plan to do so next trip. I found I was getting a lot of smallmouth bycatch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm still learning this technique. Next trip I'll try some larger plugs to see if I can find the larger smallmouth, and also to see if larger plugs might mean larger crappie. Thanks for a great informative post.
 
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