Tag: Snake River Fishing report

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Fantastic Crappie and Sturgeon fishing at CJ Strike!

The absolute lights out winter crappie and perch fishing continues at CJ Strike Reservoir. Located only an hour south of Boise, Idaho this is a truly special place for anglers in southern idaho who are looking for a local get away close to home. One of the best things about CJ Strike is the diversity of this fishery. On any day we can target Crappie, Perch, Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, Channel Catfish, huge White Sturgeon, and the ever present fantastic Rainbow Trout Fishery.

Lately our boats have been focusing on the Crappie, Perch, and white sturgeon. We had 2 boats out last Saturday and between them they took 200 crappie and caught and released 12 sturgeon, with the largest fish going 9’1”.

We have been finding all our crappie suspended over deep water. Most of the crappie schools tend to be suspend from 30-50 feet over both deep water flats, and deep water humps. On the flats the fish tend to be moving around a lot, and the schools come and go very quickly, but on the humps fish are tending to hold in the same area all day. This makes these bunches of fish very accessible.

We have also noticed that schools of fish that are more related to the bottom tend to have a bunch more perch in them and provide some awesome mixed bag fishing.

Currently we are finding fish in all parts of the reservoir. Most people relate the narrows as the epicenter of the crappie and perch fishing on CJ Strike, but we have been finding huge piles of fish up the Snake Arm as well. CJ is a huge place, so if fishing around other boats is not your cup of tea then get out and explore. You will be greatly rewarded. Below is a video of Brett giving a quick rundown on how he is targeting these large schools of fish.

We have boats available most days to get you out fishing, and the best thing about CJ is that it’s a year round fishery, so if your more in warm weather adventures make sure to get you spring and summer trips lined up now before we get super busy.

If your ready to book, or just want to talk to us about a trip, please give our office a call at 208-669-1569 or click the green book online button at the top of the page. We can’t wait to get you out on the water.

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Sturgeon Fishing and Relaxing on the River

Snake River Sturgeon

The past few weeks have seen us transition from our intense up at 2am, fishing at daylight spring Chinook routine to a much more laid back approach sturgeon fishing, bass fishing, and enjoying the beauty of the lower end of Hell’s Canyon.  We have been having a blast catching fish ranging from 4-9 foot sturgeon and averaging 50 + bass/ day.  The month of June is a time of year we look forward to every year, when we wind down a little and enjoy the river around us a little more.  While we may start our days a little later and take in the scenery more often we are still fishing hard!  The huge white Sturgeon of Hell’s Canyon will test your strength to the core.  For those of you who have ever done battle with an 8 foot prehistoric giant of a fish you know what I am talking about!  Many people walk away from our Sturgeon trips saying that it was one of the best times they have ever had fishing!  We invite you to enjoy a day on the water with us and let us show you how special of a place we call home and what its flagship fish have to offer.  For the rest of the month of June we are offering Catch and Release Sturgeon trips in Hell’s Canyon.  Give us a call or check out the rest of our website for more information on these great trips.  This is the perfect outing for family’s and people just looking to take in some sun and enjoy a relaxing day on the water.

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Snake River Sturgeon
Snake River Sturgeon

Snake River Sturgeon
Snake River Sturgeon

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Snake River Sturgeon and Bass Fishing Report 5/30/16

Snake River Sturgeon

We had the great fortune yesterday to spend a wonderful day on the Snake River near Heller Bar chasing oversize catch and release sturgeon and small mouth bass.  Both the sturgeon and bass fishing can be fantastic this time of year and spending warm late spring days in the canyon is a real treat.  We landed a total of 4 sturgeon with one being a very nice 6 foot fish that gave everyone in the family a chance to try to pull him in.  We also put a whacking on the prolific bass in the area.  I think our total for the day was close to 50 fish landed.  Most of these bass are on the smaller side ranging from 6-12 inches, but the action is non stop.

The Sturgeon and Bass fishing will remain very good for the next few months and we will be out chasing them.  We also offer a chance at keeper sturgeon on the Columbia River in the Hanford Reach.  If you are looking for a fantastic dedicated sturgeon trip I really recommend fishing this area with us.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Free Newsletter!  We have decided to give away one free trip every month of the year to people signed up to receive our newsletter.  All you have to do to win is be in our system and read our newsletter!

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Snake River Spring Chinook Report for 5/23/16

Snake River Spring Chinook

The Snake River in the Clarkston area continued to fish well for us this past Sunday/ Monday opening.  On Monday we had a group of four customers and had a great day catching Snake River Spring Chinook.  We hooked a total of 7 fish and landed 4 of them, and when the tally came in at the end of the day we had close to 10-11 bites.  This has been a great fishery this year and with the addition of a 2 fish limit the last two weeks we have been very happy.

Our success came while anchor fishing bait wrapped plugs such as the T-50 Flat Fish from Yakima Bait Company.  I prefer this style of plug when I am fishing on anchor in places that require lead or divers to fish the bottom.  My plug fishing set up this week consisted of a 6 foot 50# mono leader and a 4 foot dropper.  All this is attached to 50# high visibility braided line such as Power Pro or TUFF Line.  Our lead weights of choice were 4 oz cannon ball type sinkers.  We have been having the most success wrapping our plugs with our own tuna concoctions, and the recipe for our success can be found in a previous blog.

In addition to catching fish on plugs, we also had some good action fishing herring and a flasher on anchor.  Our method for this is similar to the way we fish plugs, but with a few minor changes.  Our most successful system was the same mainline and dropper length for our plug set up, but we add a 24 inch bumper between our mainline and flasher.  Our most successful flasher was a Green and Chrome Leo flasher.  I think this flasher was a major reason for our success as the flows this week were almost too slow to spin a herring, but with the slow roll of the Leo flasher we were able to impart that great herring action on our baits.  To get your own supply of Leo Flashers make sure you head over to Moneymakerfishing.com and check out their supply!

Hopefully we get one more Snake River opening, as I think the fishing will be similar to this past week.  We should know for sure if we are going to be able to fish by the end of the day Thursday.  I do have openings this weekend for both Snake River Spring Chinook ( if we get to fish) and Snake River Sturgeon / Bass Fishing.  This time of year yields the best sturgeon fishing of the year and is a great way to spend a day at the entrance to Hell’s Canyon.  Also if anyone is interested in keeper sturgeon fishing we offer trips on the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia River.  Catch rates here are high and we often land 10-20 fish per day and average about a keeper per boat.

 

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Snake River Spring Chinook!

This report is for both Sunday the 15th and Monday the 16th of May. We fished out of Clarkston for both days of the Snake River Spring Chinook opener in this area and fishing was absolutely fantastic!

Sunday morning we started off trolling herring and Brad’s Super Baits behind Short Bus and Fish Flash type flashers. We had a fantastic morning bite and had 3 keepers in the boat by 7am. After the initial morning bite things kind of slowed down for us and we hooked and lost a few other fish. All our bites while trolling came very near the bottom with heavy lead ( 10-12 0z.). Our best producer was the Seahawk brads cut plug, but cut plug herring dyed blue and chartreuse was a close second.

Around noon we decided to change things up and join the hog line above us. This was the best decision I made all day! In just a few hours we had 15 or so bites and landed 2 more nice keeper Chinook. We ended our full day trip around 3pm and dropped my first set of customers off. I had two guys jump in with me for the evening and we returned to our anchor spot. In 3 hours we had another 12-15 bites and landed 5 Chinook with 3 of them being keepers.

Monday morning I started with the same program from the night before. We anchored up in the Hog line and started hooking fish almost immediately. Again we had 12-15 bites hooked 9 of them, lost 3 at the boat, landed 3 of which 2 were keepers. I only had one customer with me yesterday so we were done and limited by 10am with a great day of action.

While on anchor I had the most success fishing tuna wrapped Kwickfish and Brads Killerfish in the 15 size. I added Garlic Super Dipping Sauce, and Anis/Krill Super Dipping sauce to two separate batches of tuna, and we had great success with both concoctions. I change my bait wraps every 15 mins, and feel that this is a major factor in my success.

I have some openings this upcoming weekend if we get another opener for the Snake. Friday/Saturday is open at Ice Harbor, and Sunday/Monday is open at Clarkston. The Snake currently has a two fish limit so this is a great opportunity that we don’t often see. Give me a call at 208-861-0654 and lets get your trip set up.

Don’t forget to enter to win a free fishing trip with us!

 

 

 
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Hells Canyon Sturgeon Fishing

We snuck out yesterday for an early Sturgeon fishing trip on the Snake River out of Heller Bar. With our steelhead season behind us we have been switched over to targeting catch and release sturgeon. The weather was a little unsettled, but the fish were cooperative. We landed a small 3 foot fish and one monster 8 footer.  We also had a few other bites, but considering we only fished for a few hours I think we did fantastic.

Our bait of choice is salmon bellies and scraps from salmon season.  We find this to be the most consistent bait, but we often fish other baits such as squid, roll mop herring, worms, or any fresh cut bait we can get our hands on.

Catch and release sturgeon fishing will be great from now through the end of June.  On our sturgeon trips we average multiple fish landed per day with the fish ranging from 3-11 feet in length.  We also offer sturgeon trips with the possiblity of keepers on the Hanford reach during this same time frame. These trips are a great experience that all should see. The power of these large sturgeon is amazing. FB_IMG_1457844190662

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Hell’s Canyon Steelhead Fishing

Here is a video shot earlier this month fishing the Snake River out of Heller Bar! We had a fantastic time chasing fish in the canyon all by our selves. We fish steelhead in this area starting the 10th of October – the end of February. We fill our fall season very quickly so if anyone is interested in fishing with us please book your trips early to ensure you get the best seats available.

A big thank you to the guys at http://northwestfishingreports.com for filming and editing the video.  If you are looking for current fishing reports for almost any area in the northwest you can most likely find them here.

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2/15/16 Snake River Steelhead Report

Snake River Steelhead

The Snake River out of Heller Bar continues to fish well. Yesterday we had a great day on the river with only 2 customers going 6-10 on Steelhead and also landing a 3 foot sturgeon on steelhead gear.

We found most of our fish just upstream from Heller Bar as the Grand Ronde is flowing very high and muddy, and has made the Snake River downstream from the Grand Ronde muddy and not fishable.

We had almost all our bites drifting my Jones Sport Fishing shrimp cure in the bright red color in combination with a chartreuse cheater or corkie.

I am not really sure how much longer we can expect good fishing in this area, but I’m expecting it to fish well through at least this next weekend, we might se good fishing later on, but water conditions will dictate that. After that we often have great success switching over to catch and release trophy sturgeon fishing.

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