Ive been lucky and got to fish quite a bit the last 9 months
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My grandaughters first slab.
Some folks fish to live. I live to fish
Ive been lucky and got to fish quite a bit the last 9 months
So my trip to lake Lemon was a little rough. I left my minnows by the garage and got a late start due to the fog and when I got on the water I got us on some fish fairly quickly and then about 10 thousand boaters took over. Rough day. Caught a couple keepers but nothing to post about. On the other hand GREAT SLABS guys thanks for updating the thread. It keeps motivation high through the work day!
I do fish Brownlee at times. There are some nice slabs in there but a very small population. Market fishing and radical drops in the water level have decimated the crappie population. There are some smaller fish shopwing up this year. That's a great sign. We tried to get a 25 fish limit on Brownlee to deter the market fishing but ODFW refused because they never wanted to enforce it. I contacted the Army Corp of Engeneers to try to convince them to hold the water up till after the crappie spawn. I was told they were requiredby law to draw down the reservoir acording to a formula. I suggested they rewrite the formula but I just as well hollered down a well.The problem with crappie fishing in Oregon is there are limited places to fish. Most of the good lakes are in Eastern Oregon.With the inflated price of gas it's kinda out of most folks reach. The willamete river has a fair population closer to my area but I wouldn't eat them out of it. I'm too old fashioned not to eat what I keep.
Thanks for the help. I truely hope Brownlee improves in the coming years. There are a lot of hard working folks that depend on that fishery for their lively hood. I dont mean market fishermen either. Guides and store owners, motel and gas stations ect ect.
Thanks Again
John![]()
Some folks fish to live. I live to fish
Crappie cannot be sold here in Louisiana but I know they can in some other states. You cannot even sell crappie that was legally bought in another state here in Louisiana. I remember several years ago a seafood company in Shreveport bought a bunch of crappie from another state thinking it was legal to sell them here. Wildlife and Fisheries promptly confiscated the whole shipment.
What's happening at Brownlee is illegal, black market selling of Oregon/Idaho crappie. Nothing legal about it. ODFW and IDFG are both reluctant to put a limit on Snake River crappie. When the crappie population is strong there are two cultures that exploit the fishery. They actually have a shuttle that hauls the fish away while the others keep fishing day and night. This is during the spawn. The selling takes place in major cities 300-400 miles from where the fish were caught. The selling takes place in neighborhoods and small fish markets. To buy them you have to be " in the know", kind of like buying anything illegal. Without a limit LEO's have nothing to enforce and once the fish are transported out of the area to the big cities it's out of sight out of mind.