C.J. Strike Dam report

[StacyR]

Went out all night last night and fished from the dam. Caught one fish. Only saw one crappie caught. A couple of other people got pikeminnows. Very slow. Was I disappointed? Not really. Check out my one fish:


Would you believe he hit a 1/32nd ounce crappie jig? It took me about half an hour to bring him in on my ultralight rod.

Got him up over the side using a crab ring I ordered from Cabela's a few days ago after I got tired of losing fish off the dam because of the distance to the water. It also doubles as a crawdad lift screen (that's how I got the dads). I'd say it's paid for itself the very first outing. [cool]
[signature]

[Wyo-J]

That was a nice catch last night. You fought that thing forever.
[signature]

[jigs]

whats this crab ring do you have a pic i would love to see it i have been looking for something easy and cheap to catch a few, but havnt looked into it that hard. great fish did you get a lenght on him?
[signature]

[StacyR]

The length on the cat was 25". Didn't get a weight on him, but I looked at a chart and found a channel cat that size would be about 7 pounds. I guessed around 15, but it might have been because it fought so hard on that light pole.

The crab ring I got from Cabela's, though I had to order it from their web site and had it shipped to the store, since they don't carry them in stock. It's listed under Promar Crab Traps on their web page.

It cost about $25. It's intended for crabbing, but works great for getting large fish up onto piers. You lower the net until the top is about two feet under the surface, then steer the fish over it and pull up on the rope. That's how I used to land salmon while fishing from Dash Point when I lived near Seattle.

I hooked the cat on the side closest to the floodgates, so there was no way to walk him to the rock pile. I was using 20 pound Sufix braid, but the leader was only 6 pound test, and was all torn up from rubbing against the side of the dam while fighting the fish. I doubt that I would have gotten him up onto the walkway without the crab ring.

As far as catching dads with it, there's easier ways. You have to pull the crab ring about every half hour or so, since there's no way to prevent them from leaving once they've eaten their fill of the bait. You can get a crawdad trap for a lot less, or make them yourself from plans online.
[signature]

[windriver]

I am going to get one of those crab rings because I have seen them used at Ririe for crawfish. People put bait in the middle wait a while and then pull them up. This works well in a place that is too deep to net the crayfish and yet shallow enough you can see when the crawfish are on the net with a light.

Windriver

[jigs]

what does one use for bait for the crawdaddys we use to use chicken in texas. but what works the best.

i can only imagine trying to steer a fish into something like that.
[signature]

[StacyR]

In my experience, any oily fish works best for crawdad bait. I haven't had as much luck with bacon or chicken. This trip I used a pikeminnow I caught last time and kept in the freezer. Salmon heads and even canned tuna also work well.

As far as using it to land fish, it's not that hard if the fish is tired out and swimming at the surface. The top ring is very large, 32" in this case. Just use the rod to guide the fish over the net and then pull up on the rope, trapping the fish inside the net. It does help if you have someone else with you to handle the net, though. In this situation, I probably wouldn't have gotten the fish without it.

If you're not going to use it to land fish, they have smaller, cheaper cotton ones that work just as well for crawdads.
[signature]

[jigs]

how large is it side to side, also the smaller ones if you know. would it fit inside a 10 inch ice fishing hole? the reason i ask is we lost some 5 lb trout last year because we couldnt get them threw the hole and we were saying we needed some kind of net to put in that would close around the fish to bring them out and that sounds like it may work.
[signature]

[StacyR]

The small ones I've seen are probably around 12". I think they would be too flimsy to land a 5 pound trout anyway.

Maybe a small gaff would work better. Something you could reach down through the hole and slip under the fish's jaw, provided that catch and release wasn't a concern.

It's legal to use a gaff while ice fishing in Idaho, as long as you don't use it in waters where there is a length restriction for that species.

Edit: I was looking around online and found this:

http://www.fishelevator.com/

Never used it, but the videos look convincing.
[signature]

[Ktrout]

I have used the crab nets to land stingrays off of piers and they work great. Good idea about using them in freshwater.

Regarding getting trout through an ice hole, you might try to make or find a longer lip gripper. Tubedude posted a picture of one he made a while back. There are larger, and more expensive saltwater lip grippers that might work through the ice to help land larger trout. You might also try a glove that is long enough to go up to your shoulder so you can stick your arm in the cold water. The glove also helps with putting your hand in a trout since the largers ones will have some teeth. Just a thought.
[signature]