Lake Billy Chinook on Sunday, March 7, 2004
My wife Connie and I fished Lake Billy Chinook on Sunday, March 7, 2004.
We only caught two Bull Trout but one of them was a nice one! It was just a hair under 12 pounds on my Shimano spring
loaded scale. We released him so he can grow bigger. The state record Bull trout is 23.2 pounds. Who
knows? In a few years he may be a state record! The water temperature was 47 degrees in the Metolious arm where
we fished. We also fished 4 hours during the middle of the day on Saturday, March 13th and got skunked.
Jim Johnson
Lake Billy Chinook March 28-April 2nd
Hey Jimmy!
My wife (Connie Johnson) and I just spent 5 days at Lake Billy Chinook!
We only fished an average of three hours a day but caught 5 big fish and some little ones. I caught a 12 1/2, 8 1/2
and a 4. Connie caught the 7 pounder (picture attached) and lost a 10 plus fish at the boat. We were fishing in
a strong wind which is good for the casting I do along the shore line and she hooked a big one. I was in the bow of
the boat running the trolling motor. We don't use a net and I couldn't help her land it. I had to stay on the
trolling motor keeping the boat headed into the wind so we wouldn't be blown into the rocks. Anyhow, she did a good
job of playing the fish out and got it up beside the boat. It rolled over on it's side and that was her opportunity
to grab the fish by the gill plate. She's never done that before. I've alway landed the fish for her. So,
here we are in the howling wind. She has a 10-12 lb. Bull trout to the side of the boat and I'm telling her to "grab
it". She's all excited and trys to pull the fish out of the water by using the line (15 lb). The hook goes straight
and the fish slowly swims off! That was the highlight of the trip! Sometimes, it's more fun to watch someone catch
one than it is to catch it yourself. We were there March 28-April 2nd. I had pictures of all of the bigger fish
but the 12 1/2 picture didn't look so good.
Talk to you later.
Jim Johnson
Crescent Lake 4/29-4/30
Jimmy,
Wanted to let you know how I did this past weekend at Crescent. Fished
Simax Beach Saturday
morning with no luck. Was on the water at 6 a.m.
(probably a little late), and fished about 24 to 30 feet of water.
We
trolled diver lures that dive about 16 to 20 feet deep. I had one takedown
at the top of the beach closest
to the resort, but it was a very lethargic
bite. He never did take it down. Later that day, we stopped in and
had a
beer at the resort and B.S.'d the owners and some locals. They told us to
fish in 10 feet of water trolling
the floating or countdown rapalas in
black/silver. That night, me and my buddy trolled all the way down to the
boy
scout camp hole trolling in 10 to 15 feet of water. At 8:30 p.m. I got
a hard takedown on a black/silver Yo-Zuri
lure. I set the hook and the
fight was on. I thought the fish was a dandy brown, but it turned out to be
my
first ever Mackinaw! She weighed in at 6 lbs and 24" long. She had the
treble hook buried between her upper
and lower jaw and the leader was
wrapped around her head 3 or 4 times. Thank goodness I had on my 15lb. test
P-Line.
I took some pictures (I'll email them to you later) and then spent
about 5 minutes reviving her. It took awhile,
but after gently pushing her
back and forth in the water she swam off into the crystal clear water.
The next
morning my buddy and I fished down in front of the summer cabins
with no luck at all. We trolled the shallows again.
Then at 10 a.m. we
headed across the lake to the boy scout camp. There was a boat there with 3
guys in it that
were gearing up their downriggers. I talked with them and
they were really nice guys. I told them we worked
the summer cabins this
morning and they worked the shallows all along Simax Beach. They hooked up
with 7 fish that morning,
using the same technique! Me and my buddy were
bummed, but at least I'm learning how to fish Crescent lake and how
to fish
in the Spring time. Hopefully I will be able to go back again sometime in
May. I will let you know
how I do. Only saw one Kokanee caught all
weekend. Overall the fishing was pretty slow for most people, but
it looked
like the "veterans" did well. What a beautiful weekend up there and I can't
wait to go back.
Take
care and good luck with your next trip.
R.D.
Crescent Lake 5/15 - 5/16
Saturday: Left my home in Dundee, OR at 4:20 a.m. and got on the water
by 7:30.
In 15 minutes I was hooked up with a 6lb. Mack on a black rapala.
I was trolling along Simax when he just nailed it.
I tried to take a couple
of pictures, but it's pretty difficult to do it when you are by yourself. I
trolled on
down to the Boy Scout camp and hadn't had another hit. I started
to reel in my line then had to stop to correct the
boat. When I started
reeling again, Wham! I got a hit. The nice mack fought for a while and then
surrendered
to the net. It was another nice 6lb laker. After releasing the
fish, I trolled all the way around the lake
until I reached Tandy Bay. I
fished that area with no hits, until I could see a Squall coming over
CowHorn Mtn.
I pulled up my gear and hauled ass for the boat ramp by the
resort. The lake got pretty rough with wind and rain.
I made it to the
beach just in time. That evening I met up with Mike and we fished Simax.
Right off the bat we
both got hits but no hookups. Then I hooked a 3 lb
mack with another rapala. Around 8 p.m., Mike caught his
first Mackinaw,
which was a nice 5lb fish. We took some pics and fished 'till dark with no
more fish.
Sunday:
Was on the water by 5:15 a.m. and caught our first fish by 5:45.
Mike caught it while fishing along Simax, a nice mack
about 5lbs. I lost
two fish that morning before finally landing my best Mackinaw to date: a
27", 7lber.
One of the fish I lost was a Bruiser! I fought him for
probably 5 to 10 minutes. He hammered my lure and started
peeling line.
Once I got him turned around, he stayed right on the bottom in about 60 feet
of water. Slowly but
surely he came in closer to the boat. He then
"camped" on the bottom of the lake and didn't feel like he was gonna
move.
I didn't want to really horse on him, but I kept the line tight and waited
for his next move. Pretty soon,
he gave 3 to 4 big head shakes of the pole.
On the last shake I felt the dreaded slack in the line that every fisherman
fears,
and sure enough he had spit the plug. I figured the fish to go over
10lbs, when comparing his mass and fight compared
to the 3 to 7 lbers we had
been catching. I would have liked to seen that one. Mike also caught our
first
ever Brown on Crescent out in front of the Boy Scout Camp. It was a
small brown of about 2.5lbs, but at least we
had finally caught a brown.
All in all, we hooked up with 11 fish on Sunday, and only landed 4 of them.
We fished until
11 a.m. and then I had to head for home.
Water temperature was around 46 to 48 degrees. Nobody was catching
Kokanee
yet, but the Mack fishing seemed excellent. We had a great time in the bar
and the new owners at the resort
are sure nice people. Steve, the
bartender, gives some good fishing advice, also! My next fishing trip will be to
Wickiup the first weekend in June.
Will let you know how I do.
Take care, Jimmy.
R.D.
Crane Prairie June 9
Met up with Rick Arnold at 6:30 and we were fishing by
7:00 in the waters around Cow Meadow. We were
casting and retrieving
Kastmasters as I've done in years past in this area successfully for
Brook trout. There was
no sign of fish until about 9:00 and then we
started to see some surface activity, which is a good sign. Sure
enough,
it was not long before Rick hooked up with a nice brook of 3
lbs. In the next couple hours we landed 7 more brookies in
the 2-3
pound range, and at around noon Rick hooked into the kind of fish we
were after-a gorgeous brook of 22 inches,
5 3/4 lbs. The bite slowed
for a while and then at about 2:00 I hooked another nice fish that came
unbuttoned right
at the boat. It was not as big as Rick's, but could
easily have gone 5 lb. We then decided to pack it up and try Paulina
for the evening browns, but the big ones didn't cooperate. It was a
long drive back to Portland, but well worth it
for a great day of brook
trout action.
Take care, Dan Mcallister
Fourth of July weekend on Suttle Lake
Jimmy,
Fourth of July weekend on Suttle Lake proved to be our most successful trip ever. About 100 yards
in front of the restaurant I hooked this 22 inch 6 1/2 pound brown trout. It was a beautiful day that was capped off
with this magnificent looking brown, and boy was it good eating. Even my girlfriend was willing to pose with this beauty,
little did she know, some of its insides were slopping on her hand!!!
Keep Fishing,
Zack Byerly
East Lake July 31
I am so glad to be writing a report for the trophy hunter. It all began with
a simple camping trip with
the family and a friend of mine, named Richard
Messer from California. Richard has seen some pictures of my friends and
myself
holding some big fish and wanted to try to catch one of those
monsters. I explained to him that this is not the best time
of year but what
the hell. Fishing on this trip was secondary because we were also visiting
another friend of mine who
had just recently bought some land down in the
city of Cresent area, (A little to far to drive to East Lake). But we did
it
anyway. We arrived at East Lake on Saturday July 31 at approx. 10:00 A.M.,
after a night of camping in the rain and
hail, luckily it was only a passing
through weather thing. We got on the water and low and behold to my chagrin
I had
forgotten my fish finder back at the campsite, one hour away, (What a
bone head). We decided to go on a little boat ride
with the family and flat
line. How boring that was. Skunked. There sure was a lot of people on the
water though. There
were at least 35 to 50 types of water devices in the
water, from boats to float tubes and even a large inflatable play
structure
that stood approx. 5'. We were only on the water approx. 4.5 hours that
first day and looked forward to tomorrow.
Sunday came and we were on the water by 9:00 A.M. with fish finder and
all of the rest of the necessary equipment. We flat
lined again and did not
even have a hit. So we decided to go to the down rigger because of all of
the nice fish that
were showing up on the screen at the 30 to 60 ft. level.
So we hooked it all up set it at 45 ft. and 15 min. later. Fish
ON! What a
great feeling to catch your first fish on your new down rigger, (The one you
have had and have been using
since Nov. 03 to no avail, I was beginning to
wonder.) It was a nice 2 1/2 lbs. and beautiful in color. Not what we were
looking
for but we will take it. After taking some pictures and weighing it
we released the fish, (Always practicing C.P.R.
Catch, Photograph, and
Release ), It was back to business. We made the turn at the Red Slide and 50
yds. later we had
us another one. This one was not as big, 1 /34 lbs., but
it did put up a good fight. While the excitement was going on,
we did
experience some small mishap with the down rigger ball catching on something
at the bottom of the lake.
After 25 to 30 min. playing with that we managed
to make a full recovery of all items. We continued down towards the cliffs
with
Johnny law close behind the whole way. We did not have another bite
after that and called it quits. Not a great day, but
an eventful one and a
milepost in the whole fishing with a down rigger thing. As Richard said,
"Definitely an advantage!".
All in all there were a lot of fish showing up
on the screen and I would have loved to take some more cracks at them but
time
did not allow. I will be back and ready to put in some more time.
Hopefully with better results. Chasing the trophies.
Thanks
for keeping the site up. You will hear more from me later.
Your friend Max
Upper Deschutes River August 28th
I went to central Or this weekend, and I didn't bring my boat-felt
pretty strange. I took 2 friends
and met up with my local Bend friend
who has been getting a lot of good fish from the Deschutes above
Wickiup. I was
casting the blue sided Excallibur most of the time and
the browns seemed to like it. I caught 8 browns(largest 18 in),
and
each of my buds only got one each. The bad part is that I BROKE OFF two
quality fish. The water is clear and the
river was small so Saturday I
was using 6 pound line. I came onto a deep cut bend that looked really
fishy so I worked
it hard and after about 30 casts I was about to give
up when a brown well over 20 inches followed my lure in. Two casts
later he slammed it and jumped clear out of the water less then 10 feet
away. It was a nice hookjaw 5-6 pounds with
great color. He ran deep
and wrapped around a snag and broke off less then a minute later. He
then jumped and rolled
several more times to throw the lure and he did.
I watched him swim away and my lure float down the river. That was when
I switched up to 8 pound line. Later that day, just before dark I was
fishing a nice hole just up from Sheep Bridge
(along with several other
fishermen) and got hit hard again. After a minute of heavy weight and
head shakes, the brute
took off for Wickiup. I was chasing it
downstream yelling for other guys to get there lines out of the water,
but
after near 100 yards he just broke off. My drag was set fairly
loose and he had taken a lot of line pretty freely so I
figure it had
to off drug over a sharp rock or tooth. I never saw the fish so who
knows how big it was but it felt
like the biggest thing I've felt in a
long time.
Needless to say, Jimmy, I'm getting tired of telling these stories
of
the ones that got away. Imagine what a great record I would have if I
landed 50% of the big fish I've lost in the
last year!
I won't hit the water again until October. Hope to see you there,
wherever it will be.
Take care, Dan
Labor Day weekend report from Newberry Crater
Thanks for all your tips regarding Paulina and East. Unfortunately
it didn't seem like the fish were all that hungry in Paulina Lake. My buddy and I hit it pretty hard late in the evenings
and early in the mornings without a single hit. I was spotting lots of big cruiser browns in about 100 feet of water
out in front of little crater campground and the Summer Homes, but could not get any of them to hit my plug off the downrigger.
The water temp was 55-Degrees and the weather was in the high 30's in the morning. I was thinking, alright we're getting
into some good brown fishing weater now, but to no avail. I talked to a few different fisherman, and only one had caught
a brown, and that was off a kokanee rigging while trolling!! It was a pretty small fish, though. There wasn't
that many people fishing the lake, maybe cause of the algae thing. They warned us about that at the checkstation at
the beginning of the park. I wasn't too concerned. East lake was pretty busy, though. We went over there
and talked to the guys in the resort. All I saw there were pictures of Dan McAllister, Jimmy Lewis, and Bret Martin!!!!!
Nobody had been catching any Browns yet, however. I'm beginning to understand guys. I WILL be up in the high cascades
come April/May of 2005. That seems to be the best fishing of the year. I would fish in the Fall, too, but I'm
usually hunting. This was probably my last trip to the Cascades for the year.
Best of luck and thanks again for your reports and info.
Fish On,
R.D.
Memorial Weekend Upper Klamath Lake
Josh Weissert caught an 8 pound Rainbow off a 6 inch Rainbow Assassin Lure and
his friend Eric Conklin caught a 7 3/4 pound Rainbow off a Rapala from the upper Klamath lake on Memorial Weekend this
year.
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