HOW:

If you are in a boat trolling for trout it is always a safe bet to use dodgers, flashers, and pop gear followed by wedding rings with worm and corn. One thing that also works well is anchoring and fishing off the bottom with floating bait such as power bait. CJ Strike has a nice sized Trout in it and limiting out on 2lb trout is always a possibility.

If you are fishing from the bank my personal go to for trout is typically a slip bobber and worm tipped with power bait or corn. That said, at CJ Strike I am more prone to bottom fishing with about 2 feet of leader and kind of floating bait. I would bring a variety of colors as I found on my last trip out there that when using pink bubble gum power bait we would catch a mix of 15-19” fish but the rod that had lime green power nuggets caught only 18-20” fish the whole time. Needless to say we all switched to the green by the end of the day. I had heard from someone that gold power bait was working well also, but we didn’t have any and, in the end, the lime green limited everyone out anyways. The most popular spot for bank fishing is right next to the dam at the park with the public boat launch.

For Bass fishing, I would stick with the typical bag of tricks. There is a lot of small coves around the lake and a handful of docks that are always a good place to start looking. CJ Strike does not have much in the way of submerged structures like old bridges that some of reservoirs have. Looking for natural structures isn’t too hard and there is some really nice rocky shorelines that have good amounts small mouth. I typically don’t target small mouth much as there is a 12” min size for them and in a lot of water about 10-11“ is the most common I find in good numbers. That said, CJ strike has some areas loaded with 13”+ smallies and they are a blast to catch. Crank baits, straight worm, or even crappie jigs tipped with trout magnets tossed around the rocks should get you some fun fish. There is a decent stretch of rocky shoreline that is bank accessible down a sandy turn off just before the public boat launch on CJ Strike road.

The Black Sands area offers some good perch and catfishing form the bank. I typically throw out on the bottom with a small corkie and a full night crawler and stay pretty entertained guessing which fish I will reel in next. The Cove Campground also has decent perch fishing just inside or at the mouth of the cove. Here I tend to throw out a green/yellow red eyed jig tipped with a full night crawler. Some days they will be packed in there then the next there won’t be a single fish so its best to have a back up plan.

Perch fishing from the boat is pretty much just a matter of finding them and what depth they are at during that time of the year. The same can also be said about the crappie fishing but sometimes you can find piles of crappie in the narrows but just can’t coax them in to biting. The spring bite can be tremendous with some consistent 11“ fish coming in. If crappie are still hanging out deep(~30ft) jigging them from the boat is a solid approach. If they have came in shallow (12-15'ft) a light bobber and jig is a fun way to fill a bucket of them. You can use bits of worm on the jigs but there is a handful of plastic options that can save you some trouble.