Just back from Crescent

[No Wishin Just Fishin]

Fished Monday thru Thursday. People at the dock when we got there were complaining about 2-4 days of fishing without even a bite. Monday, Tuesday, and Wed were slow as we tried everything and our old haunts(been fishing there 50 years) and we only had about 12 bites for 3 days fishing. Yesterday it started to turn on, with 15 in the first two hours. The fish are as small as I have ever seen at Crescent and it will probably be the last trip in my lifetime as Merwin beats the heck out of it.
The guy at the resort said alot of the problem is that the people fishing in May and June were going out 3 and 4 times and bringing in limits everytime. One guy bragged about taking home over 400 kokanee to California after a week at Crescent. He figured that there were between 2500 and 3000 fish taken in those two months and with no LE on the ramps and boat docks, the over limits were blatant and numerous. SAD!!!!

[bfloyd4445]

yep, very sad. I get pissed when i see people doing that sort of thing. Most fish i catch i release. This was my first year fishing Cresent and i have yet to catch a fish there. Caught lots of them in ca. when i was down there visiting but none this year in Oregon

[Tuna On]

As a Division of Wildlife employee and owner of a tackle company, I just want to say that it is up to the angler to help the LE because they can't always be there. I aslo want to say that the angler's can't always do anything. We have to do our best to protect what we love. There are people all over that have over the limit and don't care, but kokanee are sensitive. We can't go out and kill several thousand in a month on a smll lake and expect it to e good the rest of the year and years to come because of off spring. Good Luck and I hope people will wise up. Good Luck Fishing & Have Fun Doing It!

[skookum9]

It's certainly not good to have people violating the laws and taking too many fish. The regs were written to protect and preserve our fishing opportunities. But I feel that it should be added that too many kokes taken out won't make their size get smaller. It should actually cause them to grow larger, faster, as there are fewer of them to eat up their food source. Please do not take this as an excuse for the law breakers, just trying to keep perspectives real. Also, kokanee are somewhat prolific and taking a legal share of them should be helpful to the population. I wonder if the smaller fish that you caught were maybe next years fish and not the ones that are due to spawn this year.

[Tuna On]

You are right skookum9, if those fish are stunted taking them out will actually make the kokanee grow an extra inch or two average. Then the question becomes do you want more kokanee or bigger kokanee? Because you would have to harvest a lot of Kokanee for them to grow.

[bfloyd4445]

As a Division of Wildlife employee and owner of a tackle company, I just want to say that it is up to the angler to help the LE because they can't always be there. I aslo want to say that the angler's can't always do anything. We have to do our best to protect what we love. There are people all over that have over the limit and don't care, but kokanee are sensitive. We can't go out and kill several thousand in a month on a smll lake and expect it to e good the rest of the year and years to come because of off spring. Good Luck and I hope people will wise up. Good Luck Fishing & Have Fun Doing It!

I used to do that but soon found they would not respond to the issue i had with asian fishermen that were using several poles and maybe 8 hooks on each pole. I finbally got pissed and said i would wait there and keep calling them every five minutes untill they sent someone to write up these people. I was put on hold and then someone came on the line and explained to me that they don't write these people tickets because they dont pay the fines and it takes up a lot of the courts time without any return. That was at the peir. Thenb another time my boat was examined and i asked them if they were going to go check those asians on the bank that were keeping all sized fish and the warden said no giving me almost the same answer. I thenn said but if i did what they were doing you would nail me right/ He said yes, cause we know you would pay the fine.
True story from ten years ago. So anymore i don't call.

[maraboo]

these guys should have their tackle & fish seized for blatant violations. if they want it back they have to pay the fine and have their license suspended for 1 calendar year.

[ThatKokaneeKid]

Yea just take thier gear, all of it every single time until they dont have enough money to buy more! Thats the solution

[bfloyd4445]

Yea just take thier gear, all of it every single time until they dont have enough money to buy more! Thats the solution

in california they take all gear, boat car, everything and it didnt change a thing. Sturgeon abalone poaching is so lucrative it dosent even slow some of them down. One warden i was taking a class with told me that he has busted the same guy within two days of impounding his tackle, gear, boat, pickup. He said the only thing that slows them down is jail time and the judges are reluctant to do this for fish and game violations. This conversation took place back in 02 i believe so the situation has likely changed since then. Moved to Oregon in 03

[kokaneekid]

Fished Monday thru Thursday. People at the dock when we got there were complaining about 2-4 days of fishing without even a bite. Monday, Tuesday, and Wed were slow as we tried everything and our old haunts(been fishing there 50 years) and we only had about 12 bites for 3 days fishing. Yesterday it started to turn on, with 15 in the first two hours. The fish are as small as I have ever seen at Crescent and it will probably be the last trip in my lifetime as Merwin beats the heck out of it.
The guy at the resort said alot of the problem is that the people fishing in May and June were going out 3 and 4 times and bringing in limits everytime. One guy bragged about taking home over 400 kokanee to California after a week at Crescent. He figured that there were between 2500 and 3000 fish taken in those two months and with no LE on the ramps and boat docks, the over limits were blatant and numerous. SAD!!!!

It's that time of year that you'll start picking up next years kok's if they are big enough. I fished the tournament at Crescent lake and marked tons of kok's it's hard to believe that the lake has been fished out at this point in time, and the fish we picked up were very very nice for May. My guess is that next year is going to be a great year of fishing at Crescent because of all the immature kok's you were picking up and you just happened to LUCKED out and next years fish liked your gear. I've heard of some really big kok's still coming out of Crescent 16 inches and bigger. Crescent lake can be a very difficult lake to fish and can be hit or miss, all I know is that in May I didn't pick up a fish under 13 inches. They should be 15 to 16 inches by now... Also for someone to say they picked up 400 in a week isn't impossible but with all the cops at crescent it's very unlikely. He probably said that they were all 20 inches and bigger as well. People can come up with some nice fish stories every once in a while. My guess is that the fishing has slowed up, but I'm still getting reports of very nice kok's coming out of Crescent, and I'm thinking about fishing it on my way back from the Wickiup tournament if I do I'll let you know and take some pictures for you....

Fish On kokaneekid