TTH -   Just wanted to update you guys on our early May trip to Lake Billy Chinook.  My son, Jared and I fished three days and caught 36 Bull Trout and 6 Brown Trout, including 8 fish over five pounds.  We had never fished the  Metolius arm before and had to learn from scratch.  We caught all but two of our fish casting from our boat towards shore in about 2-16 feet of water.  We were using Rapala X-Raps, size 10, in Rainbow Trout for the majority of our fish.  The two troll fish came on large Rapala blue/white broken back lures fished flatline.  We found we had to replace our Rapala hooks with stronger trebles as the original hooks straightened out on larger fish. We found very little fishing pressure and had the lake mostly to ourselves. The Bull Trout seemed to be hanging out in shallower areas on the main body of the lake. The fish we caught preferred a "stop n go" style of retrieve, slow and easy. The Brown Trout seemed to be in colder water hanging just off shore.

Day 1:  Intermittent clouds/sun.  Cold morning windy afternoon.  Mid 40 degree temperature.  Caught four fish over 5 pounds, including a nice looking 9 pound, 27 inch fish and a hard fighting 7 3/4 pound, 25 incher.

Day 2:  Mostly sunny.  Cold morning calm afternoon.  Mid to high 40 degree temperature.  Caught one fish at 6 pounds and another at 5 1/2 pounds.