gudspelr

Welcome to Idaho . Wish I would've seen this earlier.... I just started chasing bass last year and have been to CJ several times this year, mostly started out chasing crappie, perch, and trout up there. I threw all kinds of stuff early in the year for smallies, but just couldn't connect. Once it warmed up a bit, I've had more luck. Where are you putting in and do you know the different areas of the reservoir? I put in at the main Strike boat launch by the dam. As you look straight out there are the narrows. If you motor through there, it opens up into the Bruneau arm. I haven't really fished there very much, but I know of some guys who do and catch bass in there. From the launch, if you look to the left (away from the dam/spillway), it's the Snake river arm. You can go a long ways up there. As you get into that arm, there is a little island that has buoys marking the REALLY shallow area around it. All kinds of rocks and stuff and you can catch some all around there. All along the bank from that island is also good fishing. I've had the most luck so far on the Ned rig. Various colors, they don't seem to be very picky. A few weeks ago I went with a friend and we started in the narrows for perch and crappie, then over by the spillway for trout. Got nothing, so we went way up the Snake side to a place to try for crappie, but the school wasn't there. It was a ways into the day and we started slowly back and fished the shore along the way with a Ned rig and we ended up with around 30. Most were little dinks, but I got about a 15" and my buddy landed a fat 18" that puked up some crawdad claws. Hope that helps. Jeremy