Fathers Day at CJ strike in IDAHO

[BADFISH]

Okay so I have my 2 day license set up for saturday and sunday. have the gear out, priming the wife and kids...I guess we will be in the area of the dam and spillway. any tips for getting the fossils? I have also heard the trout/bass/perch fishing is really good while you wait for Sturgeon can you fish all the area by shore?

On the other side of this is travel questions. how long does it take to get there from SLC mainly, we plan on leaving friday afternoon at approx 2pm i have heard it is about 5 hours so i should arrive there before 7 i think. are there any areas of concern (construction, roads, cutoffs) I my want to know? I will go up I 84 to just before mountain home then cutoff the main highway and get onto state route 51 i think...i cant remember it is on my map...

anyhow, I hope to get some good pictures of some relics so i will post up what i get. luck is not an option, i have to figure out the pattern and hook some fish. they have been bad there, it time to send in the badfish.
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[Lundman]

You might check in a the Black Sands Resort - they can usually tell you the current trout, crappie, perch, bass fishing report. They can also point you towards the free camping or pay camping spots.

The resort has a nice beach for swimming or shore fishing if you want to relax.

I don't know how old your kids are but anytime around the swift water is time to be extra careful.

Be prepared to lose rigs - tie your weight on with at least 20 lb. test and go with short leaders - 24" or less.

If its your first time gator fishing then take time and watch the others - see the angle thay cast upstream and watch how there rig bounces before it finally catches on the bottom. Another important thing to watch is see how they retreive their rig - I usually yank hard and reel like mad. Ya have to get it up out of the rocks for any chance get yoru outfit back.

Sometime ya gotta just put in your time ... Good Luck
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[Kent]

I was up there last Friday. First time I have visited the area below the dam. We didn't fish, but we spent over a half hour talking with a man there who had been fishing that area for at least 30 years. He was willing to talk and we picked his brain and got some extremely valuable information. He has landed fish over 10 feet long there and the evening before he lost a large fish that rubbed him off on the bottom. That is a big problem with fishing for sturgeon from shore, because you can't follow them with the boat and you can't keep them up off of the bottom. The sturgeon there are used to eating fresh fish that has come through the turbines. You want to match-the-hatch with various types of fish and other usual sturgeon baits. He said the best bait was fresh trout innards. Best fishing times for the sturgeon is early and late, but they catch a few all day long. They have a really nice camping, picnic area right where you fish. It has flush toilets and the area has a nice lawn, picnic tables and trees. And welcome to Idaho -- it is free![] Plan on using at least 8 ounce pyramid sinkers. In order to have any chance of landing the sturgeon in that area you want to use 50 or 60 pound test line. This is the line of choice these days and can be purchased at Sportsman's Warehouses in the area (there is a store in Twin Falls -- take the second exit and head south a couple miles).

[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0030769120000a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_RESULTS_NYR&returnPage=search-results2.jsp&No=162&nyr=1&Ne=2510&Ntt=fishing+line&noImage=0&QueryText=fishing+line&Ntk=Products&Ntx=matchall&trueNum=543&N=4831"]Line used in that area:[/url]

If you fish in the camping area you are casting from a bank that is about 25 feet above the water. You can easily go down the bank to land a fish. They were using a nifty rod holder that one drives into the ground with a sledge hammer. The holder firmly holds the rod and has a bungy cord on it to absorb the shock of a hard bite. They also sell these at Sportsman's Warehouses in the area.
The water is swift and if you have small kids watch them carefully. Travel time between 4 and 4 1/2 hours. You can catch trout, perch, bass and who knows what else easily from the shore, but not sure that I would recommend trying to sturgeon fish and fish for the other fish at the same time, but it might be possible if you take your sturgeon rod down by the river (this is assuming you have a two-rod permit). I have additional information that I am willing to share with you if you will PM your telephone number to me.
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[BADFISH]

South western Idaho is GREAT!!! we camped (for free) right at the base of the C.J. Strike Dam in an area run by the Idaho Power Company. We were 30 yard down stream from the turbines that chop fish up!!! the scenery is grand, the water is flowing, and the STURGEON are biting!!!

We arrived about 8 pm on Friday night, my buddy was kind enough to take my tent up with him that morning and set it up for me. part of our party from Boise arrived Wednesday afternoon and got good spots for us, the fishing was on!! as we unloaded the Jeep and made our beds for the night ( wife and 2 kids along this time) we hear FISH ON!! the guys next to us battled a 10 footer that long line released itself after an hour of playing. what a jump though, i have never seen ten feet of fish jump clean out of the water!!! the closest thing i can relate it to is watching the jumping Great Whites in discovery channel in africa!!!

dinner time, eat watch poles. kids to bed its about 9:30 10 pm now sit have a cold one wait for midnight so my tags are acative. stroke of midnight, get out the rods and go to the waters edge to catch more crappie for bait. took 10 minutes and we had over 30 hooked, kept 10 for cutbait, go to bed at 2.

saturday morning wake around 6 am, freinds dad is already on pole watch, he sees me sets another line in the water....good on him, i reward him with cup of hot coffee, camp coffee is the best.

as the rest of camp is waking around 8 in the morning, I get hit, FISH ON!!! get on the fight belt, and a bad fish attitude to set the hook....ZOWIE what a fight, battle rages, i get 40 feet of line in he takes 60 peels my reel like a soft banana!! line gets some slack in it and BAM 10 footer JUMPS 40 feet off shore little ole me is tugging on him from, half out of water and head shakin....man o man what a fish...just as I get down to the final 20 feet of line he reaches up and unties the hook from the line, knot slips line goes slack....I am grateful to have even battled a fish like that, what a fight. most work i have EVER done in one hour period.

morning continues, take kids out to the edge with the "light gear" using just crappie jigs and a bit of sweetener of the crawler orientation the kids have a blast fish on every cast, crappie, perch, smallies..nothing big, but plenty for the kids to keep busy. they start to keep track of the casts that they DONT get a fish on...my 9 year old had 6 casts with no fish in 3 hours on that shore, i took my 4 year old down with me and let her reel em in she caught 40 or so before she got bored and wanted a snack so up the bank we go...this is all of a 20 foot path from camp to the waters edge. older kids play tag and football on the grassy area in the center of the campgrounds fun for all...my wife even got in on the action and swindled a few bass off their rocks!!

just making lunch when we hear FISH ON in our camp again. we have watched several people all around us on both sides of the river land fish all day long. battle for 30 minutes leads to another long line release with no jump or anything this time, who knows what it was.

slows down for the afternoon until around 9 pm or so then as we are checking bait i reel in the "short" pole it was 8 feet long. it tugs back....hhmm...so i get a bit of a fight out of a 4 or 5 pound pikeminnow/squawfish/sucker man they are cool looking kinda I had never seen one, wife takes some pictures of that before we send him back good times. nothing for the rest of saturday night except good company and miller time around the fire.

sunday morning arrives as promised, get up about 7 or so, i rested more for the drive home. break camp after a good breakfast of egg bacon cheese english muffin samiches. as I load up the car we get FISH ON, now this is my buddies turn, he was the other sturgeon virgin there and he slammed one all the way home he took his time and fought well for about 45 minutes then landed a great looking 4 and a half to 5 foot sturgeon. way to go!! they are really neat looking fish up close, got some pictures of the unhook, kiss, and release. perfect end to a great trip.

stopped in twin falls had dinner around 4 pm at a great little mexican food place just past chilis and it was good price too four people had dinner there for 23 bucks...drove home to arrive around 8:30pm in SLC had a WONDERFUL fathers day with my girls and wife in Idaho. I have about 300 pictures on the digital to go through after I get them on my computer, when i do i will post some up.

anyone know how to resize a pic in XP for the proper limit here or does it do it automatically?

anyway, thats my story and I am sticking to it!!
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[BADFISH]

thanks for the tips, we always have the kids wear a life jacket around water weather its on a lake, stream, river anyplace, you never know. and up there the kids were not allowed to go to the edge without their parent with them. I am a big time lover of life jackets on the kids.

We ended up joining a group with my freinds dad that is there almost every weekend they all live in mountain home, boise, and the other towns in the area so these guys are here all the time, they have been fishing this spot for almost 25 years so we had great "guides" with us. their knowledge of it all made it so much more fun becasue we did not waste time trying to figure out what we needed to do. they had the gear and all that set up for us when we arrived.

I think i may need to get a sturgeon pole though..... I would love to go up there with just my kids and wife to camp out for a few days, we both decided we need longer time there than just the 2 days we were up this time.
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[BADFISH]

That guys name wasnt KIM was it? if so that was my freinds dad. he was in the second camp spot from the turbines, chuck was in the first. they are pals. what a co y dink. we ended up using 80 pound test mono one pole had 90 on it, he used a 12 oz ball sinker on a tube type slide so the line was free, swivel connected i think 70 pound nylon line to the hook big 0/8 circle barbless. two whole crappie sliced from mid body through tail hooked trought head and again trough meat of body. hide hook in "guts pouch" of fish. we also used crappie cut bait on regular poles with no weight for lots of fish if you just drift it through the current 6 feet off shore, as you know the basin drops off on a "shelf" 15 feet out and its water about 6 feet deep close in just drifting that meat down got all kinds of action for the older kids one even caught a carp that sucked it up, he was probably around 10 or 15 pounds, made that kid hoot and holler though.
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[Kent]

Sounds like a great trip. It is an amazing area, and really nice how they have it fixed up. I never got the guy's name, but the guy we spoke to fishes with 50 pound line.
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[Lundman]

Glad you got your "Big FIsh Fix"......

Sorry to tell you the rest of the summer catching trout, perch, bass, and most Utah fishies will be a little less exciting...

That's why you need to make it a yearly or twice yearly outing. [fishin]
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