58 degrees was the ticket

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Launched at ramp C at 6:30 am, trolled anything and everything and didn't land a trout until 9 am (silver minnow crank). Wind kicked up, and by 11:30 am i was ready to call it quits...but then lake went almost dead calm at noon. Thought i'd try to pick up a smallie on a crayfish crank, hooked a rainbow instead at 12:45....water temp 58, all of sudden fish are everywhere on fishfinder. Any shelf or piece of structure, or bit of cover had fish around it. Landed 7 rainbows (all on crayfish cranks in 10 -20 feet of water in an hour. Water was 60 degrees when i left at 1:45 pm. One of those days where i was glad i stuck around. I hadn't realized rainbows would eat crayfish imitations so readily. All of them were feisty fighters, which was a bonus.

I envision my next trip...waking up at 9 am...coffee...donuts...newspaper...hit the lake at noon. To hell with getting up at 5 am.

 

[rippin fish lips]

Nice. The larger rainbows, if crawfish are around, will eat them if they are looking for a good meal.

 

[bass]

The early bird gets the worm, but we aren't after worms now, are we...

Great job Jiggy, thanks for the report. That is really interesting. Did you hook any bass at all? Were you banging your crank on the bottom or was it free swimming when you caught the trout?

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

The early bird gets the worm, but we aren't after worms now, are we...

Great job Jiggy, thanks for the report. That is really interesting. Did you hook any bass at all? Were you banging your crank on the bottom or was it free swimming when you caught the trout?

Didn't hook any bass, or see any in the shallows. Water temp was 53 F when i got there at 6:30 am, and FF was showing nada in 10 to 20 feet of water. When water temp hit 58 F around noon, it seemed like every trout in the lake moved into 10 foot of water. Fish were hitting crankbait as I bounced on bottom and free swimming too. On a side note, I finally got to see how valuable a FF can be. I have a 480 vertical pixel grayscale that i picked up for pretty cheap this winter, and after using it earlier this year in water temps of 47 to 50 F, i thought it was mostly going to be useful for depth, temp, and locating structure. But yesterday the higher water temp of 58 to 60 F really brought the fish closer to shore in big numbers, and I was seeing clouds of baitfish for the first time along with fish holding tight to structure. Every time the bottom dropped from 10 ft to 14ft and created a little ledge, i saw fish arches hanging below the ledge waiting to ambush, and my lure would pass over them 20 secs later and get nailed as i trolled along. I could see larger fish hanging around and under the clouds of baitfish as well. I'm wondering if it will be the same on the Willamette when temps hit closer to 60 F? I'm hopping to see smallies holding tight to structure in 20 foot or less.

As for Hagg, i get the feeling the smallies are still staging pre-spawn in water deeper than 20 ft. I fished the shallows and creek arms with soft plastics and saw nothing. I trolled the shallows with weedless flukes and curly tails as well, but not a strike. No fish surfacing to hit bugs, etc. If anyone is catching smallies on Hagg, I'd love to hear about it. I've been trying to find them in deeper water so i can try dropshotting them, but no luck. (I'm sure some of it has to do with the learning curve on how to read the FF and interpret structure in water deeper than 20 feet.) I'm still new to FF, trolling, and dropshotting. Trolling seems easier, but it's harder to target big fish it seems. I really appreciate everyone on this forum...I've learned a lot from reading some fantastic posts from you folks.

 

[nguya863]

I was out there on the bank down pass ramp C at around 8:20am and caught my first trout around 9am. Left at 1pm and came home with 3 trouts.

 

[bernduffy]

Yes, the biggest trout I've seen caught at Hagg was with a Rebel crawdad rattle crankbait. I was out of C ramp the same morning. What a gorgeous day. We had it all to ourselves, didn't we? I limited at a steady rate of one an hour trolling the magic triangle of Scoggins, Tanner and Sain. Sounds like a law firm. My 5 trout (9-13") came on either Ford fender or willow leaf trolls followed by kokanee style wedding rings and worms. By kokannee style I mean double hooks with the mylar smile blade. Surprise of the day was a 15" catfish came 20 feet off the bottom to go for the worm. My Papa from Louisiana taught me to fish so I love them cats! I am also looking forward to bass season, but not for the bass: it means its perch time, too. Now that is a delicious fish.

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

I was out there on the bank down pass ramp C at around 8:20am and caught my first trout around 9am. Left at 1pm and came home with 3 trouts.

Good job! Best I've ever done bank fishing at Hagg was 2 trout. Although I've had a few 25 perch days with my kids. My 5 yr old niece pulled a nice bullhead catfish out sain creek last summer.

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Yes, the biggest trout I've seen caught at Hagg was with a Rebel crawdad rattle crankbait. I was out of C ramp the same morning. What a gorgeous day. We had it all to ourselves, didn't we? I limited at a steady rate of one an hour trolling the magic triangle of Scoggins, Tanner and Sain. Sounds like a law firm. My 5 trout (9-13") came on either Ford fender or willow leaf trolls followed by kokanee style wedding rings and worms. By kokannee style I mean double hooks with the mylar smile blade. Surprise of the day was a 15" catfish came 20 feet off the bottom to go for the worm. My Papa from Louisiana taught me to fish so I love them cats! I am also looking forward to bass season, but not for the bass: it means its perch time, too. Now that is a delicious fish.

Yes, it was quiet out on the west end of the lake. I avoided the crowd (maybe 10 boats or so) down by ramp A and the dam for as long as i could. I bet that was a surprise catching the catfish (were you trolling when you caught it?)
I'm looking forward to the perch this year -- it will be the first year I try for them with a boat. Maybe find a few larger ones in deeper water. Would be fun to find a few crappie, too.

 

[bernduffy]

Yes, trolling...seems I catch a couple of big catfish every year at Hagg....usually when I put a bigger than usual chunk of worm on the lure hook. I'm just surprised they come up that far off the bottom. 25 perch days? Wow. I catch most of my perch 100-200 feet from shore just south of ramp C with a half a worm starting just off the bottom and eccentrically jigging up. Biggest one last year was 9".
Good luck on the learning curve with the fish finder. I use a very basic portable Humminbird, mostly for depth and basic structure. There's no doubt it keeps me from wasting time in dead water, but it definitely is no magic wand for catching anything. In fact, the first season using it, I made the newby mistake of paying too much attention to it. A good angler advised me to use the FF to locate the fish, then turn it off and use the unplugged skills. I swear I do almost as well observing and following mergansers, eagles and ospreys.

 

[Deviate]

I was out on Sunday morning and fished around the Scoggins Creek area. I saw a couple largemouth hanging out in one of the shallows but couldn't get them to go after ANYTHING. Spinners, worms, jigs, cranks, Pop-Rs, buzz baits... nada. They certainly weren't interested in anything I was offering. We did pull a few trout out on Powerbait eggs later in the day, but no luck on bass.

 

[Swimmagirl]

58 degrees or maybe something else

58 degrees or maybe something else

Launched at ramp C at 6:30 am, trolled anything and everything and didn't land a trout until 9 am (silver minnow crank). Wind kicked up, and by 11:30 am i was ready to call it quits...but then lake went almost dead calm at noon. Thought i'd try to pick up a smallie on a crayfish crank, hooked a rainbow instead at 12:45....water temp 58, all of sudden fish are everywhere on fishfinder. Any shelf or piece of structure, or bit of cover had fish around it. Landed 7 rainbows (all on crayfish cranks in 10 -20 feet of water in an hour. Water was 60 degrees when i left at 1:45 pm. One of those days where i was glad i stuck around. I hadn't realized rainbows would eat crayfish imitations so readily. All of them were feisty fighters, which was a bonus.

I envision my next trip...waking up at 9 am...coffee...donuts...newspaper...hit the lake at noon. To hell with getting up at 5 am.

Could be the temp or it could be that big truck that came by at 12:30 and dumped 7,000 trout into ramp c. Good times regardless of the reason though.
Best of luck on your fishing adventures

 

[Gettin' Jiggy Wid It]

Could be the temp or it could be that big truck that came by at 12:30 and dumped 7,000 trout into ramp c. Good times regardless of the reason though.
Best of luck on your fishing adventures

I was over by Ramp A catching the fish, so i never saw the truck. All the fish were about 12" and very healthy...if they were some of the 7,000 released, then hats off to ODFW! Most of the time they dump the little 9" fish in.

Anyway, glad i didn't see the truck dumping fish on the other side of lake...that would've taken the fun out of it during that hot hour!

 

[bernduffy]

Thanks Swimmagirl and welcome to OFF. I think I was also across the lake in the Tanner arm at that time. That would explain almost 20 bumps, nibbles, short tugs and tiny take downs I had later near C ramp. If I'd known, I would have switched to smaller lures/bait. BTW: in my experiments with scent, Mike's Lunker Lotion in garlic and/or tuna seems to be getting good attention. It seems to last quite a while, too.

 

[Swimmagirl]

These weren't regular stockers

These weren't regular stockers

Thanks Swimmagirl and welcome to OFF. I think I was also across the lake in the Tanner arm at that time. That would explain almost 20 bumps, nibbles, short tugs and tiny take downs I had later near C ramp. If I'd known, I would have switched to smaller lures/bait. BTW: in my experiments with scent, Mike's Lunker Lotion in garlic and/or tuna seems to be getting good attention. It seems to last quite a while, too.

I talked to the Odfw guy putting the fish in and he said these were from a different hatchery. I don't know exactly what that means but these were very feisty fish. I caught maybe 30 before I left around 3 pm and the large majority were in the 12 in range.

 

[nguya863]

Despite the annoying gusts of wind this morning, this afternoon was a producer for me and a guy nearby on the shore. Brought home 4 trouts and the guy nearby caught three trouts. One of them was a beautiful ~2 foot trophy