Time to break this in! - Lake of the Woods

Metro · 06-15-2007, 04:52 PM

Just found this board a few weeks ago and it's exactly what I'm looking for. Like the fishsniffer, but in oregon.

I love this lake, great scenery, good variety of species and a chance at a big trout - oh and it's only 1 hour away from me. I took some friends up there on memorial day weekend and again last weekend. Some info on the lake if you're not familiar with it. ODFW stocks brown trout fingerling in the lake each year that grow quickly (lake record is 15lbs, I hear), triploid kokanee (avg 12"), along with run of the mill planter rainbows (grow to 20"+). Supposedly there's brook trout in there too, but not very many.

With four people fishing on memorial day, we did pretty good trolling. Funny story, the first fish we hooked, and my sister in laws first fish ever, turned out to be one of the trophy trout the DFG stocked. It had to have been 20-24", and girth around 18". It seriously looked like a steelhead, I estimated it to be around 7-10lbs. I say estimated, because we didn't bring a net and as soon as it saw the boat, it flipped it's head and snapped the 8lb line along with my pink hoochie

We were mainly targeting the kokanee, which were holding around 15-20 feet down. We spent the whole day trolling up and down the west side of the lake about 20 feet off of the 5mph marker line. We trolled at 1.2mph which is the slowest I can get my bayliner with the trolling plate to go.

I only have two downriggers on the boat so everyone was toplining except for me, I was on the downrigger at 20 feet and had 4 LDRs and landed 4 kokanee to 14". I was using a chrome/green slingblade with a 1.5" orange kokanee killer (apex with echip). Most everyone was using a variation of my setup (dodger + apex + corn) except for my father who was using some willow leaf flashers with a wedding ring tipped with a berkley gulp crawler. He caught two planter rainbows and a nice holdover/wild rainbow that measured 14" and prolly weighed 1.5lbs. He also lost 3 rainbows the night before on this setup.

After seeing massive fish arches on the depth finder holding at 30-35" all day, I decided to try for some browns. I clipped on a 4" blue/white flatfish and dropped it down to 28" on the DR. I opted for a flatfish because the rest of the crew was still toplining dodgers and the flatfish work better at slow speeds than a rapala. Within about 20 minutes my pole goes nuts and a fish pops it out of the clip. I can't say it put up much of a fight, but I was extremely proud of my first brown trout. He was about 14" and probably weighed as much as the rainbow my dad caught. After a few pics, I let it go. So we ended up with 8 kokes and 2 bows in the cooler.

Not awesome, but we lost a lot more fish and everyone had a good time. Considering this is the first time I've targeted kokes, I'd say I did pretty good, but nowhere near the 25 fish limit

----------

I took a friend out again last sunday, we got a really late start, but made it up there around 1 in the afternoon. Fishing wasn't quite so hot, I had several LDRs while fishing for Kokes. It seemed, everytime I got bored and started day dreaming I would hook and lose a fish. The kokanee are starting to school up though. We saw two big balls of them on the depthfinder around 30" in 50" of water, but no takers when we went through the school. Since it was pretty dead, I decided to pull up the plate and try fast trolling along the rocky shore on the east site of the lake. We were both using F9 broken back rapalas in brown trout. Out in front of the swimming area, my friend hooked a nice 11-12" brown trout that was like all head and no body

and followed that up with 3 planter bows and I ended up with just one bow and a few misses. All the fish except one came in front of the sunset bay campground in 10" of water as close to the shore as I dared to go. We started this around 7:30pm and caught all these fish within about 1.5 hours, although it seemed to happen much faster.

Pictures!

bro and his wife with a kokanee

One of the kokes I caught, you can kinda see my setup

dad and the biggest rainbow of the weekend

my first brown trout

more

Friend and his weird looking brown trout

Troutski · 06-15-2007, 07:51 PM

Have you ever tried the night fishing for the Big Browns ? weired fishing at night, very weired. I tried it once at Miller Lake and wasn't very successful at first but got the hang of it - wearing a head lamp and judging distance were the hardest things to deal with. Along with someone calling your name and you turn to look at them and boom, the night vision is gone...

. Thanks for the great story and pictures.
Anyone ever tell your dad he looks like Mike Meyers from Saturday Night Live ? Strong likeness...very strong. Tight lines to you and yours.

Chuck

Metro · 06-21-2007, 03:57 PM

haha I can't say I've ever heard anyone say he looks like mike myers, must be the picture. I wanted to try night fishing when we were camping up there, but didn't get a chance to. Do you know if it's legal to use underwater lights like people do in california? Seems like a fun way to fish.

Well, I went back again last sunday, it was pretty dead again (unless you're after thousands of tiny perch). Between my dad and myself, we only got 12" 1 kokanee and one rainbow with a lot of LDRs and one osprey attack lol. Sneaky little osprey was watching us fish and as soon as I hooked something and got it near the surface - it dove for my fish and tried to fly off with it. It made it about 10" above the water before I yanked on the line to free my lure and it dropped the fish. If I wasn't getting it, he wasn't either

The 'bow was the largest fish I ever caught to date - 17" 2.5lb

Fairly sure it's a hatchery fish betcause it was so fat and relatively short, but it had beautiful coloring on it's gill plate, I wish I got a better picture of it. It fell for a F9 bb rapala just out in front of the marina. I knew we would get something nice over in that area because I saw big bows under the docks when we launched that morning. I figure it's a "trophy trout" that hadn't wandered far from where it was dumped in. haha it was probably half the size of the one my sister in law hooked though, man that was a big fish..

Dichrofisher · 06-21-2007, 06:15 PM

What is an LDR?? And that was funny about the Mike Meyers thing because I think that Troutski looks like Mike Myers, and sometimes expresses like Mike.

Dichrofisher · 06-21-2007, 06:15 PM

What is an LDR?? And that was funny about the Mike Meyers thing because I think that Troutski looks like Mike Myers, and sometimes expresses like Mike.

Troutski · 06-21-2007, 06:19 PM

I am not sure if it legal using under water lights, you would probably have to check with ODFW (See the fish regs for phone #). If you get another chance up there try a broken back 6" Rainbow Rapala. Also another great lure is a Castic ThinFish 3" no weight and at least 150 feet behind the boat, trolling speed is around 1.5 - 2.5 mph, very productive lure. It is mainly a Bass lure(Castic) but the Browns and Rainbows love 'em.
Your post are great, nice to see pictures.....

Chuck
ps: He is a dead ringer for Mike Meyers.

Troutski · 06-21-2007, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dichrofisher

What is an LDR?? And that was funny about the Mike Meyers thing because I think that Troutski looks like Mike Myers, and sometimes expresses like Mike.

LDR : long distance release, I believe. Mike Meyers must be an angler, a very good angler.

Chuck

Metro · 06-21-2007, 11:21 PM

Yeah LDR is long distance release, it's a joke, kinda. See, I caught and released it safely!

Yeah I was troling F9 rapalas which are like 4.5" or so.. I'm not after trophies yet.. I'm just trying to catch fish consistently. But I should get some bigger lures. I'm new to this whole trolling thing, I used to only bait fish with powerbait. Last fall I picked up fishing again and started trolling for trout.

I forgot some of the details of what I was doing when I caught the fattie.
Speed: 3.0mph
Line: toplining 175ft back
What: F9 broken back Rapala in brown trout with some trophy trout scent
Where: in 8-15" of water, trying to hug the edge of the drop off near the marina.
When: about 8:00pm

Pictures!

Little kokanee

Sneaky osprey waiting for us to hook another fish

Troutzilla and one extremely sun burnt Metro

Troutski · 06-22-2007, 04:11 AM

Sounds like you have it dialed in.............I hope I can do as well today at one of my favorite haunts.

Chuck

girlzluvfishin · 06-22-2007, 07:40 AM

Metro, wow great reports man way to go!! great pics! It looks like you have a good time and caught some nice fishies!!! I will look forward to seeing more reports from you!!

06-15-2007, 04:52 PM	#1
Metro Neophyte Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Rogue Valley Posts: 16	Time to break this in! - Lake of the Woods Just found this board a few weeks ago and it's exactly what I'm looking for. Like the fishsniffer, but in oregon. I love this lake, great scenery, good variety of species and a chance at a big trout - oh and it's only 1 hour away from me. I took some friends up there on memorial day weekend and again last weekend. Some info on the lake if you're not familiar with it. ODFW stocks brown trout fingerling in the lake each year that grow quickly (lake record is 15lbs, I hear), triploid kokanee (avg 12"), along with run of the mill planter rainbows (grow to 20"+). Supposedly there's brook trout in there too, but not very many. With four people fishing on memorial day, we did pretty good trolling. Funny story, the first fish we hooked, and my sister in laws first fish ever, turned out to be one of the trophy trout the DFG stocked. It had to have been 20-24", and girth around 18". It seriously looked like a steelhead, I estimated it to be around 7-10lbs. I say estimated, because we didn't bring a net and as soon as it saw the boat, it flipped it's head and snapped the 8lb line along with my pink hoochie We were mainly targeting the kokanee, which were holding around 15-20 feet down. We spent the whole day trolling up and down the west side of the lake about 20 feet off of the 5mph marker line. We trolled at 1.2mph which is the slowest I can get my bayliner with the trolling plate to go. I only have two downriggers on the boat so everyone was toplining except for me, I was on the downrigger at 20 feet and had 4 LDRs and landed 4 kokanee to 14". I was using a chrome/green slingblade with a 1.5" orange kokanee killer (apex with echip). Most everyone was using a variation of my setup (dodger + apex + corn) except for my father who was using some willow leaf flashers with a wedding ring tipped with a berkley gulp crawler. He caught two planter rainbows and a nice holdover/wild rainbow that measured 14" and prolly weighed 1.5lbs. He also lost 3 rainbows the night before on this setup. After seeing massive fish arches on the depth finder holding at 30-35" all day, I decided to try for some browns. I clipped on a 4" blue/white flatfish and dropped it down to 28" on the DR. I opted for a flatfish because the rest of the crew was still toplining dodgers and the flatfish work better at slow speeds than a rapala. Within about 20 minutes my pole goes nuts and a fish pops it out of the clip. I can't say it put up much of a fight, but I was extremely proud of my first brown trout. He was about 14" and probably weighed as much as the rainbow my dad caught. After a few pics, I let it go. So we ended up with 8 kokes and 2 bows in the cooler. Not awesome, but we lost a lot more fish and everyone had a good time. Considering this is the first time I've targeted kokes, I'd say I did pretty good, but nowhere near the 25 fish limit ---------- I took a friend out again last sunday, we got a really late start, but made it up there around 1 in the afternoon. Fishing wasn't quite so hot, I had several LDRs while fishing for Kokes. It seemed, everytime I got bored and started day dreaming I would hook and lose a fish. The kokanee are starting to school up though. We saw two big balls of them on the depthfinder around 30" in 50" of water, but no takers when we went through the school. Since it was pretty dead, I decided to pull up the plate and try fast trolling along the rocky shore on the east site of the lake. We were both using F9 broken back rapalas in brown trout. Out in front of the swimming area, my friend hooked a nice 11-12" brown trout that was like all head and no body and followed that up with 3 planter bows and I ended up with just one bow and a few misses. All the fish except one came in front of the sunset bay campground in 10" of water as close to the shore as I dared to go. We started this around 7:30pm and caught all these fish within about 1.5 hours, although it seemed to happen much faster. Pictures! bro and his wife with a kokanee One of the kokes I caught, you can kinda see my setup dad and the biggest rainbow of the weekend my first brown trout more Friend and his weird looking brown trout Last edited by Metro : 06-15-2007 at 04:56 PM. Reason: my grammar is teh greetest

06-15-2007, 07:51 PM	#2
Troutski Super Moderator Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Hills Creek Res. , OR Posts: 1,218	Night Fishing ? Have you ever tried the night fishing for the Big Browns ? weired fishing at night, very weired. I tried it once at Miller Lake and wasn't very successful at first but got the hang of it - wearing a head lamp and judging distance were the hardest things to deal with. Along with someone calling your name and you turn to look at them and boom, the night vision is gone... . Thanks for the great story and pictures. Anyone ever tell your dad he looks like Mike Meyers from Saturday Night Live ? Strong likeness...very strong. Tight lines to you and yours. Chuck __________________ Practice C.P.R. (Catch Photograph and Release)

06-21-2007, 06:15 PM	#4
Dichrofisher Sustained Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Yewgene Posts: 276	What is an LDR?? And that was funny about the Mike Meyers thing because I think that Troutski looks like Mike Myers, and sometimes expresses like Mike. __________________ What's your angle?

06-21-2007, 06:15 PM	#5
Dichrofisher Sustained Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Yewgene Posts: 276	LDR, Mike Meyers What is an LDR?? And that was funny about the Mike Meyers thing because I think that Troutski looks like Mike Myers, and sometimes expresses like Mike. __________________ What's your angle?

06-21-2007, 06:19 PM	#6
Troutski Super Moderator Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Hills Creek Res. , OR Posts: 1,218	Night fishing I am not sure if it legal using under water lights, you would probably have to check with ODFW (See the fish regs for phone #). If you get another chance up there try a broken back 6" Rainbow Rapala. Also another great lure is a Castic ThinFish 3" no weight and at least 150 feet behind the boat, trolling speed is around 1.5 - 2.5 mph, very productive lure. It is mainly a Bass lure(Castic) but the Browns and Rainbows love 'em. Your post are great, nice to see pictures..... Chuck ps: He is a dead ringer for Mike Meyers. __________________ Practice C.P.R. (Catch Photograph and Release)

06-21-2007, 03:57 PM	#3
Metro Neophyte Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Rogue Valley Posts: 16	haha I can't say I've ever heard anyone say he looks like mike myers, must be the picture. I wanted to try night fishing when we were camping up there, but didn't get a chance to. Do you know if it's legal to use underwater lights like people do in california? Seems like a fun way to fish. Well, I went back again last sunday, it was pretty dead again (unless you're after thousands of tiny perch). Between my dad and myself, we only got 12" 1 kokanee and one rainbow with a lot of LDRs and one osprey attack lol. Sneaky little osprey was watching us fish and as soon as I hooked something and got it near the surface - it dove for my fish and tried to fly off with it. It made it about 10" above the water before I yanked on the line to free my lure and it dropped the fish. If I wasn't getting it, he wasn't either The 'bow was the largest fish I ever caught to date - 17" 2.5lb Fairly sure it's a hatchery fish betcause it was so fat and relatively short, but it had beautiful coloring on it's gill plate, I wish I got a better picture of it. It fell for a F9 bb rapala just out in front of the marina. I knew we would get something nice over in that area because I saw big bows under the docks when we launched that morning. I figure it's a "trophy trout" that hadn't wandered far from where it was dumped in. haha it was probably half the size of the one my sister in law hooked though, man that was a big fish..

06-21-2007, 11:21 PM	#8
Metro Neophyte Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Rogue Valley Posts: 16	Yeah LDR is long distance release, it's a joke, kinda. See, I caught and released it safely! Yeah I was troling F9 rapalas which are like 4.5" or so.. I'm not after trophies yet.. I'm just trying to catch fish consistently. But I should get some bigger lures. I'm new to this whole trolling thing, I used to only bait fish with powerbait. Last fall I picked up fishing again and started trolling for trout. I forgot some of the details of what I was doing when I caught the fattie. Speed: 3.0mph Line: toplining 175ft back What: F9 broken back Rapala in brown trout with some trophy trout scent Where: in 8-15" of water, trying to hug the edge of the drop off near the marina. When: about 8:00pm Pictures! Little kokanee Sneaky osprey waiting for us to hook another fish Troutzilla and one extremely sun burnt Metro

06-22-2007, 04:11 AM	#9
Troutski Super Moderator Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Hills Creek Res. , OR Posts: 1,218	Gret day Sounds like you have it dialed in.............I hope I can do as well today at one of my favorite haunts. Chuck __________________ Practice C.P.R. (Catch Photograph and Release)

06-22-2007, 07:40 AM	#10
girlzluvfishin Neophyte Join Date: May 2007 Location: Scappoose Posts: 22	Metro, wow great reports man way to go!! great pics! It looks like you have a good time and caught some nice fishies!!! I will look forward to seeing more reports from you!!

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