what do you guys think is the best crappie water in the state for numbers of fish and or size?
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what do you guys think is the best crappie water in the state for numbers of fish and or size?
My vote goes to the Snake River for size and numbers.
i have heard that the snake is really good. how do you fish that place? is there a lot of good shore fishing?
It can be tuff trying to figure them out but once you do......SLAB heaven. No joke, the schools can have thousands of fish in them during the pre-spawn. You can't miss them on depthfinder because your screen will have a thick black line running down the middle of it for 30-50 yards. Look for creek mouths or channel ledges outside of the creeks. Crankbaits work best but if you find a good bank spot you'll knock them dead on jigs. There's not really any cover out there so every dock you run into will be loaded with crappie as well. The main river current is strong so crappie only have two places to go...into the coves and creeks....or deep in the main channel and tucked up behind humps or points. So when you find them it's pretty easy to hook 200 fish a day with most of them going 10-12" and few over 15". There are white, black, and hybrids out there. There's also flathead/blue/white/ & channel cats, bluegill, perch, smallmouth, walleye, shad, and steelhead.
Here are some numbers from a one year study of the Snake River sections in Washington: The catch of resident sport fish was dominated by three species. Crappie were the most abundant sport fish caught (34,072).......Smallmouth bass ranked second among fish caught overall (25,042 fish)............Anglers caught an estimated 18,156 channel catfish and harvested 73% (13,278) of those caught.
I'll send you a PM for locations.
When is prime time over there? I have spring break in mid april, and that sounds like the place to be!
That's the thing I love about the Snake. It gets cold mountain runoff until June. The water is only in the mid to high 50's during May so the fish don't spawn until June lol. They'll be schooled up and heavy into pre-spawn by Memorial Day weekend. About a week or two after that they'll spawn. I'd say the 1st or 2nd week of June is the peak. It's perfect because you can catch the spawn west of the moutains in May then go out there from the end of May through June and have another spawn to fish.
For Spring Break Moses Lake, Upper Goose, or Silver Lake would be pretty good bets. I know the walleye, perch, and crappie will be biting good out on Moses by then and the walleye, bass and catfish will be biting on Goose. I wouldn't bother with the Snake until at least the last weekend of May.
thanks a lot for the pm. the snake is so big, its kinda hard to know where to fish. sounds like its a good place to get some big slabs :D .
I think that we might have to make a group trip over there....
^sounds good to me
Sounds like the begining of a good plan to me. Better bring two big coolers. One for the crappie and the other for catfish. This time I'm spooling up 40lb Power Pro so I don't get broke off in a brushpile by another #$@* flathead:D.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kokanee King
you can get flatheads over there! those things are huge! it sounds like that place has everything. does it get crowded?
Nah, it dosen't get crowded at all. You'll be lucky to see six boats on the water over the course of a weekend lol. There are flatheads, white channel cats, channel cats, yellow bullheads, and blue cats out there.
thats good to hear because my least favorite thing to have when fishing is crowds, i don't know why but it is. i really hope to make it over there whether by myself or with a group possibly from this forum. anyone have any suggestions for dates that would work to go over there? i am pretty flexible
Yeah I will be up for it that is for sure, I would love to get some big cats, or any cats, have a nice fish fry with some Craps and some cats!
Yeah, it gets real ugly real quick when the jetskiers start up during the summer. It's to the point now that I won't even bother going to Lake Sammy on sunny days lol. The Snake is nothing like that at all thank god. Peace and quite is an understatement.
No doubt, we need to make a trip out to the Snake. I think I'm going to make about four trips out there this year plus a few to Moses for crappie and walleye. So far I've planned to be out there the first weekend of June for sure. If the the spawn is on I'll also try to make it back out there the following weekend as well. Those cats fight like the devil. You'll swear it's 4lb smallie on the line.
If I get caught up on work I'm heading to Moses and Goose Lakes on April 7th or 14th.
I would be interested in a Snake river trip as well. SK, you mentioned the water is fast over there. What kind of boat can a person get by with? Does a person need a sled? Are there multiple takeouts where a person could use a one-man pontoon boat? And what general vicinity are you talking about? PM if you wish. Thanks.
A trip sounds good to me as well.
I get out of school on April 7th and have no school for the next week so Im thinking about heading over to the potholes/moses area. Hopefully spring will come out of hiding by then......
my spring break is around that time to. i think i will be heading to moses/potholes next week sometime. i hope the perch are still under the bridge like they were last time i went a month ago :D . do you guys think there would any crappie under the bridges this time of year? i got one last time i went and saw one kid get a big slab.
If the sun comes out they should be under the bridge hugged on the pilings trying to get warmed up. Sometimes you pick up a few by casting out into the lake while standing on top of the bridge and working you jig right off the bottom. There's a rock ledge out there that they'll feed on early in the year. The east end of the bridge (the side close to Holiday Inn) is where that drop-off is. If you can't buy a bite there I'd head over to the Alder Fill and fish on the down current side. IN the evening they'll be just below the surface, maybe 2-3' down. During the day they'll they'll hug the current seam. Nice walleye out in the main current there as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by crappieking14
If all else falls drive back to the first spillway that dumps water from Moses into Potholes and fish the current on the Moses Lake side for trout. They stack up in there around this time. A worm with a small split shot up the line drifted through there will get you bit everytime. Walleye will will be in there as well right at the base of the spillway. The second spillway will have walleye and trout in it right now as well. Good luck if you make out there.
i heard a story from a local one time about a couple guys doing that in the same place and getting a lot of slabs.Quote:
Originally Posted by SlabKing
on another note, i think i might finally get rid of my boat and get a new one :D . someone is comeing over to look at it today. hopefully he will buy it so i can have a new one for spring break!