Horseshoe Lake, Oregon

Photo credit: Chris Thayer

 

Horseshoe Lake is located in the Mt. Hood wilderness area, out past Olallie Lake in Oregon. It has been a favorite fishing destination for my family for several years now. I have fished it both on the bank and by float tube and I limit out every. single. time.

 

I chose the above photo to give away a secret, the best fishing in the entire lake is hiding from most boaters and campers. Tucked away back by the rock fall. The fish there will bite on anything. I've ran powerbait in chartreuse, red, pink, yellow, mixed and maggots. I've fished rooster tails, spoons, flat jigs, and even fluff chuckers in this part of the lake and have never been disappointed.

 

We visited Horseshoe lake midway through the Oregon summer, in late July and easily caught our limit from the bank. I was running on my Shakespeare Synergy rod, with a Quantum Optix series spinning reel. Nothing fancy, but it certainly does the trick. The weather when we were there was sunny and warm, there was only moderate bugs. Mostly fly's and bee's, we didn't encounter any skeeters but we didn't have to stay late because we caught our limit by almost noon. The lake here is a site to behold, the water was crystal clear for our trip and we could easily see large trout out in the water before us.

 

The hardest part about fishing Horseshoe lake, is getting there. The road is long, dusty, and is best traveled by a high clearance vehicle or a car your don't care about bottoming out on. (I prefer the high clearance method myself). For this trip we rode up with a friend in his wife's 2012 Jeep Rubicon and had zero issues. In the rainy season the road is super muddy. Once your in the campground area (if I remember correctly, the campground here at the lake is first come, first serve for all of its sites.) you have to drive around to the far end and then hike into the lake. H had a minor disagreement with a fallen log during the hike and ended up with a nasty bruise on her shin. On a side note, due to the hike in...after this trip was made I purchased a case for my rod and reel so that I could do away with snagging tree branches, tall shrubs, weeds, and what not and focus on getting down to the water instead.

 

All in all, the fishing here is prime. If you can make the trip, its worth every penny.

 

 

This is a PTC hiking map, but it was one of the few maps I could find on-line that accurately showed Horseshoe lakes location.

 

Look for a write up on Olallie lake in the near future.