2023 crappie report thread

willametteriveroutlaw said:

Today was the first trip of the season, complete bust because we just couldn’t find them at cj..

The only bright spot was out of the 5 we caught, one was 16.5“, I’ll post pictures once my friend sends them to me.


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Where is cj????

It is an impound on the Snake River Southwest of Boise.

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Thanks for the report. Those little rascals can be elusive at times.

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It’s been tough, we’re in a down cycle for whites and the blacks are on the spawn and pretty hard to find.

I’m going to hit brown Lee next week and check it out.

I was feeling pretty bad about myself, but a couple of my guide buddies quit running crappie trips there because it’s been so bad.


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willametteriveroutlaw said:

It’s been tough, we’re in a down cycle for whites and the blacks are on the spawn and pretty hard to find.

I’m going to hit brown Lee next week and check it out.

I was feeling pretty bad about myself, but a couple of my guide buddies quit running crappie trips there because it’s been so bad.


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Catching is going downhill fast, in the ocean, rivers, lakes, reservoir's, the numbers are just sickening.

sasquatch72 said:

Catching is going downhill fast, in the ocean, rivers, lakes, reservoir's, the numbers are just sickening.

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It’s just boom and bust with crappie populations and the lake was pretty blown out from the Bruneau run off.

Uncle G said:

Brownlee today. Covered a lot of water today to catch 4 but they are nice fish. View attachment 1009395 View attachment 1009397

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Nice work! Anchor or troll? Pretty deep?

I'm not set up to troll. Could not locate a school on structure. Anchored on a couple spots for a few small bluegill, a cat, two 5" black crappie and lots of bass. In the morning worked the 10-15' deep range, cast, retrieve and drop and jig. In the afternoon with the wind I covered the same depths with a controlled drift.
Lots of scattered fish in the channel off Hewitt Park. Trollers weren't having any luck, the bite was just off. Marked a huge school of fish off a structure 34' deep in 80' of water. They just would not bite. Possibly juvenile crappie. Water rising rapidly, a little turbid but not bad. Water temps from 51-57. It would be on fire if we had a stable water level.

I just got an interesting, reputable report from Owyhee this afternoon. It was just one catch so take it for what it's worth. This catch was not a lot of fish but very big crappie. Came with a picture. The same Idaho source said the same about CJ Strike as WRO. Not good.

sasquatch72 said:

Where is cj????

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CJ Strike Reservoir in Idaho

Uncle G said:

I just got an interesting, reputable report from Owyhee this afternoon. It was just one catch so take it for what it's worth. This catch was not a lot of fish but very big crappie. Came with a picture. The same Idaho source said the same about CJ Strike as WRO. Not good.

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This just made my heart sink. Already booked 2 camping trips to Owyee this summer. Will keep my fingers crossed. Thinking they must be there somewhere..................

crappiegirl said:

This just made my heart sink. Already booked 2 camping trips to Owyee this summer. Will keep my fingers crossed. Thinking they must be there somewhere..................

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Yes, they're there somewhere. I didn't get any details about the day, weather ,shore,boat, fishing time, etc so I'd see it as encouraging. You'll find them and possibly some big slabs.

crappiegirl said:

This just made my heart sink. Already booked 2 camping trips to Owyee this summer. Will keep my fingers crossed. Thinking they must be there somewhere..................

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It’s picking back up, I’ll be out next week once the boat is out of the shop.


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Hello Ifisher's! Just got back from owyhee and here's the report for over the weekend. The only hot bite was in between 6pm-10pm this whole weekend. I didn't bring a boat so the fishing was all done by bank out of McCormack campground. Water is really high but we managed to fill 2 120qt coolers in between 6 fishermans. Talk to some guys there fishing the bass tournament and they said crappies were everywhere.

What was the size range?

9 to 10in average

Goodtime503 said:

9 to 10in average

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Thanks for the report, I was trying to decide whether to take the wife to Owyhee or Brownlee for some crappie.

I knew alot of people that went to Brownlee this weekend and the report was slow slow slow. The few that some caught were big slabs but if you're after action definitely owhyee.