A long morning wait.

Last weekend we took H's mom up to Faraday lake, some friends also joined us. When we arrived we were really suprised to see that there was hardly anyone there. We thought that we had gotten lucky and so took a seat near the end of the damn. It was still cool, swallows were fishing for bugs off the waters surface, devouring the mosquitos and midge flies gathering there. I got all of our rods set up, and after some practice casts for H's mom we all had our lines in the water. We sat for quite awhile before our friends showed up, we still hadn't gotten a nibble. It took their arrival, and our buddy R to cast out when ue got a fish on. From there we had very little down time. I caught one shortly after, then H. R and R were bringing in bows too.
Lunch time struck in short order, and with it a swarm of bees that seemed to affect everyone at the lake. We over heard a young woman who loudly proclaimed that she had gotten stung on the rear. The group down the dam from us were keeping us quite entertained in between fish. The squeels when they finally caught a fish had us all laughing. They didnt want to touch it! One girl even squeeled when her worm touched her toe.

All in all, we had a successful trip. As a group we bagged 11, three over 12".

They went into the smoker the next morning as fillets and are tasty, tasty!

Happy Boat Day!

Today is boat day! It would be an even more exciting day, if it wasn't also transmission service, rear seal, U-joint day for our SUV. Hopefully the rig will be ready for the drive out to take a look at the boat, I will post pictures later today once I know more.

This weekend will be spent fishing (like pretty much every other weekend, evening, early morning day!), we are taking H's mom out for the first time. (She has done some catfishing, but not much trout fishing). I got one of my old Shakespeare rods and a Quantum reel ready for her. You might be able to spot us up at Northfork reservoir come Saturday morning.

Happy fishing and thank goodness its Friday! Feel free to post some pictures of your weekend excursions, and your catch!

Olallie Lake

Photo Courtesy of Muddycamper.com

 

Olallie lake, situated amongst the Mount Hood National Forest, inside the Olallie lake scenic area is one of the larger lakes around. I have camped in the area, in one of the many camping spaces available along the lakes edge several times. The fishing is particularly good on the southern edge of the lake. Rowboats are available for rent at the main campground store, as are amenities and basic camping essentials.

 

We had our best luck with the good old standard worms, and red sparkle powerbait. Drop weights on 1.5' liters work fine here, as there aren't many weeds to combat. Most of the year, the lake here is crystal clear, and you can see straight down to the bottom until you reach the southern most side where it drops in depth. We've fished here on both the rented rowboats, and float tubes and had decent luck in mid summer weather. The campgrounds here fill quickly, even from the bank by the campground you can catch bows of keeper size. The best part of Olallie is the nighttime, not for the fishing...but for the stars. The sky here is often crystal clear, and the sky lights up with sparkling stars like the fourth of july. Absolutely stunning. But enough about the stars, the fishing here is pretty darn worth while too.

 

If you make the long trek up to Olallie, camp here at the lake and make a day trip up to Horseshoe lake, by following the main road. The fishing is better at Horseshoe, but the campgrounds aren't as well maintained.

 

 

The Pacific Crest trail also runs through the area, and you may see long distance hikers passing through. (not that this has anything to do with the fishing).

 



Northfork Resevoir, how 10 feet can make a difference.

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early. We got up to the lake around 6:30am and our lines were in the water before 7am. H was using my Daiwa ultra light carbon fiber rod, which we traded. So I am running on her Quantam 36pro Graphite medium. After doing some work for H's mom this weekend, I was able to purchase a new Quantam Triax spinning reel, loaded up with Chameleon Maxima 8lb line. My rigging for this spot, was a bullet slide weight, a round slide weight (to give me the extra weight to get out past the weeds, with the bullet to help cut through them on the reel in) a 2' 6lb test liter and an eagle claw #10 hook, with the barbs removed. (fishing in Oregon has all gone barbless for the most part, so if your thinking of going trout fishing, remove the barbs before you go. Or pinch them down with your tackle box pliers)

When we first got up to Northfork Res. we had settled in about mid-lake off the bank, around the corner from a few other fisherman. I started catching almost immediately. After our first 2 fish the bites died down and we thought we were going to be in for the long haul. A few others had passed by us on the trail and headed around the corner, and as we were listening in, they had already limited out and were packing up and leaving! Score! So we packed up, and move around the corner. After chatting with one of the guys, we casted out from the bank...and sat, and sat. H finally moved down about 10', and caught another. So we had 3 on the stringer. Soon, we heard the group that had been next to us catch their last and leave, so H decided to move back over. I was getting skunked in the supposed glory hole and had tried casting all over the damn place. 'did they leave any fish in here?!' No more than a minute and H has landed another one! so I pack up, and move back over. I feel like I have now fished from every inch of the bank. But H managed to find the sweet spot, and finished out our stringer in less than 20 minutes. By 12:15 we were running out of time in order for H to make it to work on time, so we were forced to pack up and head back early. As we were moving out, more were moving in. Though this time, the secret honey hole left with us.

We caught 7 total this trip with two being over 12" in length. H out fished me by 3, at the very end of the day, it wouldn't have taken long for us to limit out but we had to get H off to work and a very scary pile of dirty laundry awaited me back at the homestead.

This Friday brings with it some excitement, we are going to look at a boat. We have both been wanting one, I prefer row powered over gas powered, with an electric trolling motor when the expense can be warranted. But right now, I am excited to go check out a boat.

A horrible shot of the stringer of fish, as we ended the weekend. 

The road out, from the night before. It was a beautiful sunset.

H caught only one 9" rainbow the Saturday evening before, she had two fish that jumped the hook before shore though. 

 

Promitory Park & Northfork Resevoir

This evening H and I headed out to Promitory Park, we stopped first and got new line on both of our reels. I went with Maxima chameleon in 8lb, and H got Maxima Hi-vis green in 8lb. I also filled 2 old reels with some 6lb Pline CX to run as backup or for when we have guests out fishing.
When we got up to Promitory we did a little pre-scouting in the car before settling on an entry point. The fishing docks we were looking for were hidden by rolling hills, tall trees and plenty of camping spaces. We hiked in near the covered picnic area and found a boat dock to try our luck from. We had plenty of nibbles, but mostly small fry and nothing worth keeping. After about 2 hours we decided to move down towards the main dock by the boat ramp for Northfork Resevoir, from here H caught the only keeper for the day. The weather was perfect for this evening run.

Look for my review on the Maxima Chameleon line and the Hi-vis shortly in the gear reviews section.

Fishing faraday this evening.

When I got off work, H suggested that we go out for the evening bite and while I was hungry for dinner she was thinking of the trout instead. So we headed out towards faraday lake. We hit the tail end of the evening bite which was about 4:45pm. H had two grab on but both managed to bail just before the dam.
I put together a fluff chucker rig and I had a good sized fish following the fly but it just wasnt enough to entice a bite out of him. We packed it in around 6:30pm as the small fry started jumping. Seems to be about the norm for faraday, you know the evening has turned cold when the little guys start having dinner. Overall not a bad night, even though we left with an empty net. The weather was calm and the water was clear enough to see the first bar pretty well.

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.