Northwest Fishing Reports

I would like to find a place to take my grandson crappie fishing in the spokane area. nether of us have been

Are you totally sold on crappie? Or can it be crappie/bass/perch?

E

I have fished perch and bass. just dont know where to go for crappie.

i have caught many crappie in liberty lake, and i have heard some good reports out of newman lake as well. depending on when you go, with whom (age) and in what boat, i might recommend one over the other. i'll explain...

if you saw a recent liberty lake post, you saw the author and a few others (myself included) gripe about the lousy "enhanced" launch there. if you go on a weekday and don't have to battle the zoo at the launch, you will have a better experience. also, my best luck for crappie has been at the end of the lake opposite the public launch, and that's why i asked what boat you might be bringing. in my v8 ski boat it's a 2 minute drive, in my 12' aluminum with 6hp on, it's about 15. and maybe with a little tot on board and some boat/jetski traffic, it could be a sketchy trip.

the reports that came out of newman, and the pictures i saw from it, sounded like they were getting into them on the south end, where the public launch is. so, if you are in a smaller boat and/or with younger kids, or just pressed for time, you only have a quick trip to where they were catching them. i haven't caught any crappie there myself, but i haven't fished that lake much.

best of luck to you and the grandson!

My best bet would be Eloika, or Long Lake if you have a boat. Even better would be to go to Lake Coeur D'Alene, but gas and license adds up these days. I also heard Hauser has good crappie fishing, but I've never fished there.

well we hit newman this morning lots of perch and blue gill a fiew bass tried jigs with worms, corn, powerbait magots spinners and plugs. we fished the south end of the lake. no crappies yet. any tips?

I fished there on Friday evening, only got on crappie you can see my post in the reports. The bass/perch/bluegill were bitter better than the crappie, even using the white crappie jigs.

What about the rig to use and should it be tipped with any thing and what size Im thinking of trying some where else.

never fished newman for crappie but liberty produces many of them but just not so big. I hit the back end of the lake, they are a little deeper then they were last month but I fished yesterday and releases couple dozen of then in the 10-15' of water mostly under old docks. they are in the 6-10" zone, I love to fish for them in Idaho lake, like Hayden and Spirit where the get into 14" and over 2lb.

Good luck


p.s. nothing works better then a red and white crappie squid type jig 2-2.5"