Crowley - Perching June 2016

[shinbob]

Took a few days off to go up to Crowley with my boat – first time ever having my own boat up there, and only the third time I’ve ever fished Crowley. Got a slip for my boat – love the convenience of not having to launch and load each day! Was looking forward to some great perch fishing, and was not disappointed, although I can’t really say it was WFO.

The perch are definitely up in the shallows, although I did have trouble finding them at first. I checked all the places people recommended – Crooked Creek, Hilton, McGee, Green Banks, all produced nothing. McGee in particular was mentioned as a hot spot in a report I saw online, and it definitely looked very perchy, but I just wasn’t able to locate a school there. It is a huge area though, and maybe I was just in the wrong places. Finally was able to find them at Leighton Springs, in about 5-10 feet of water. Based on Smitty’s reports, I tried out his 2” sierra slammers in brown/green (not sure what the official color name is), and those were definitely the hot bait in the beginning. Only problem was that the Crowley Lake tackle shop only had one pack remaining, and the perch chewed through them pretty quickly (plus I lost one, with the jighead, on a bad knot).

Switched over to 2” Berkley Power Grubs in white/tan – while they seemed to work just fine as well (as long as I could find where the perch were), the sierra slammers definitely produced the larger perch. It was a noticeable pattern – those little swimbaits produced perch that were upwards of 1.5lbs, while the grubs tended to result in perch on the smaller side of that mark.




Also tried my luck at the trout – first using midges and nightcrawlers with no luck (but I really get bored with bait-and-wait, so I only tried for 2-3 hours on the first day), then tried trolling. Was able to catch a few cutthroats on the troll – all on Tasmanian Devils in a frog pattern, on leadcore at 4 colors in ~30 FOW. The most consistent area for me was right in front of these guys:



I always thought those were petrified trees, but Wikipedia tells me they’re some kind of mineral pattern generated from snow melting through volcanic ash. Either way, they’re really cool looking.

By the way, I would never have guessed in a million years how effective those Tasmanians are for trout – they don’t look like they should work, but for some reason the Crowley trout really like them. And the Crowley Lake Tackle Shop must be the world’s #1 retailer for them – they have an entire aisle dedicated to them, literally hundreds of different colors and sizes.



But just couldn’t resist going back to the perch. Was averaging about 20 per day for the first two days - I tried to release all the obviously pregnant females, and of all the fish I cleaned, only 1 had eggs still in them, so hopefully I didn’t make too much of a dent in the population (which people tell me is down from years past). Then with my fish taco quota met and my freezer full, switched to catch-and-release.



Overall a great trip on a great lake, lots of fun, SO much better having my own boat there, with a real trolling motor, fish finder, and three big group 27 batteries, instead of those tin can rentals I’ve used in the past. Hope to repeat next year, but next time I’ll probably try a little later in June to see if the Perch are more active then.

[billy b]

NICE REPORT ... thx MUCH for sharing and the photos

How recently have you heard from Smitty?

[marinate]

Hi shinbob, thanks for the perch report. I've been dying to get out to Crowley for the perch bite; in fact I was pushing to go this weekend but it didn't work out. Those fish on your boat was awesome and got me excited about the bite. I have never been to Crowley but have been dreamin of the perch fishing ever since I read Jared Smith's article in Fish Taco Chronicle magazine six years ago! Anyway, I plan to join my son's boy scout troop first week of July for a fishing/camping outing at Crowley. I really want to get into some perch while I'm there so was wondering if you could share any tips. For instance, were you just casting and slow retrieving? using a slip bobber technique? Type of line? What lb test? depth you were spotting fish? I will be in a kayak with trolling motor so any comments on that would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
Marinate

[shinbob]

NICE REPORT ... thx MUCH for sharing and the photos

How recently have you heard from Smitty?

Thanks Billy B -- haven't contacted him directly, I was actually referring to his perch post from last year at this time.

[shinbob]

I really want to get into some perch while I'm there so was wondering if you could share any tips. For instance, were you just casting and slow retrieving? using a slip bobber technique? Type of line? What lb test? depth you were spotting fish? I will be in a kayak with trolling motor so any comments on that would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
Marinate

I'm no expert, this was my first time focusing on the Perch at Crowley, I've previously only caught them there as by-catch when targeting trout. But what was working for me was the mentioned swimbaits or berkley power grubs, on a 1/16 oz ball head jig, no bobber. Just cast out and retrieve slowly, just over the tops of the weedbeds in 5-10 feet of water, or along the weed lines if you can find them. Perch don't seem to be really line-shy, I just used my bright white nanofil with no leader. Some people swear by crappie nibbles, I didn't try them, it seems to be more of a reaction bite, but I guess they can't hurt. I'll try them next time to see if it makes a difference. Most important thing is to MOVE constantly -- if you're not getting bit in a few casts, move spots until you find them. I may be back there in a few weeks with my kayak, if I do go, I'll PM you how it went.

Oh, and make sure your hooks are razor sharp. I lost a LOT of nice fish because I was fishing ultra-light gear and couldn't get a good hookset, and I forgot my hook hone at home. The bigger ones especially have pretty tough mouths, more so than LMB or crappie. They are really well armored fish in general, make sure to bring your filet knife sharpener also.

[seal]

I was there for the week also targeting trout. The trout were on and off. Sad to say on Friday the bite picked up just in time for the annual tournament, reason it was sad for me is the number of quality browns I saw come up to the scale dead to be weighed, I do not fish in this tournament, miss the catch and release double haul fly fishing tourneys of the past. Did not target crappie but did see that on the slower trout days there were a ton of them being cleaned at the station.

Camping is cool right by the lake and yes being able to dock your boat for is a great benefit, both dry camping and dock rates are fairly reasonable. If camping be aware that Crowley gets very hot and windy, saw many awnings that had their covers blown off.

[Cliffy]

Its nice to have an option when fishing for "carp in a clown suit" (as my bass fishing friend calls trout) and the bite is off.
Haven't been on Crowley in 25yrs (June Lake guy) but did perch fish back then. Maybe this year I'll stop by again. I usually only have my small 12.5 ft boat with me so Crowley may not let me on with it. Haven't looked at the launch regs in years at Crowley.
BTW VERY nice report.
Going to June a couple of weeks.

[shinbob]

Its nice to have an option when fishing for "carp in a clown suit" (as my bass fishing friend calls trout) and the bite is off.
Haven't been on Crowley in 25yrs (June Lake guy) but did perch fish back then. Maybe this year I'll stop by again. I usually only have my small 12.5 ft boat with me so Crowley may not let me on with it. Haven't looked at the launch regs in years at Crowley.
BTW VERY nice report.
Going to June a couple of weeks.

Good luck out there! Can't speak to the offical regulations, you can call the front shack for that, but I definitely saw people out on Crowley with 12'-13' aluminum boats. I actually saw one guy with a car-top pram, must have been only 9 feet or so. Of course the winds can pick up there in the afternoon, I'd hate to have to go all the way from Green Banks to the marina with a 25mph south wind, but as you know June Lake can get pretty windy also, so I'm sure you can handle it.

I'll be at June in a few weeks too, but I'll have my kayak with me this time instead of my boat.

[shinbob]

I was there for the week also targeting trout. The trout were on and off. Sad to say on Friday the bite picked up just in time for the annual tournament, reason it was sad for me is the number of quality browns I saw come up to the scale dead to be weighed, I do not fish in this tournament, miss the catch and release double haul fly fishing tourneys of the past. Did not target crappie but did see that on the slower trout days there were a ton of them being cleaned at the station.

Camping is cool right by the lake and yes being able to dock your boat for is a great benefit, both dry camping and dock rates are fairly reasonable. If camping be aware that Crowley gets very hot and windy, saw many awnings that had their covers blown off.

Yeah, my observations of others on the lake was that the trout fishing was hit-and-miss, especially for the midgers. The only people I was able to see getting fish consistently were the trollers.

The funniest thing for me to see, though, was that there is a "Fleet Mentality" thing going on there. On Monday, just about every boat on the lake was up by the north landing, then the next day they were ALL in McGee by the restroom, then the next day they were ALL by 6-bays, etc... Are they all coordinating with each other? Or just following the guide boats?

They don't do the double haul in the fall anymore?

[marinate]

Thanks for the information, shinbob. I'd love to hear how your kayak fishing goes. And thanks for the tip about the sharp hooks, never thought of doing that.

marinate