Big Lava Lake

G
GrillMaster
I am planning a trip to Big lava lake next week and was wondering if anyone knows how the fishing has been and if there is an algae problem on this lake.

GM
 
J
JeannaJigs
Good question, we were planning on heading up there for labor day weekend like we did last year. Was meaning to get up there earlier in the season, but the snowfall prevented that, so it's been put on the back burner until next month. I know last year we were up there it was starting to turn into split pea soup, but man the view there is unbeatable even with splt pea soup.
 
B
Bentrod
GrillMaster said:
I am planning a trip to Big lava lake next week and was wondering if anyone knows how the fishing has been and if there is an algae problem on this lake.

GM

I just got back from there. The fishing was good on Sunday and not so good on Monday. Got a couple just trolling a gold kastmaster in the morning.
 
G
GrillMaster
Quite the place

Quite the place

What a beautiful place, the water was a tad warm but the fish didn't seem to mind. We did rather well with trolling lures from side to side, tried bait but not very productive. Some of the other people I talked to said they were using night crawlers on the bottom near the Ospray Nest, I did see one guy that seem to have the lake dialed in, he had the largest Rainbow I had ever laid my eyes on; while he was cleaning it I paid close attention to the contents of the stomach and found it interesting that this fish was just stuffed with Black Ants. It looked like thousands of them, no wonder the fish was so fat. I bet this fish weigh 6 lbs if it weighed a pound; just plain out huge. The water was a little off color but still quite clear, the morning and evening seemed to be the best time of day to catch fish. This is the perfect time of year to catch the fish as they are stuffing them selves for the up coming Winter; the trees are starting to turn colors and the local Chipmunks are storing enough food for an army.
Great four day weekend and made some new friends and even met a fellow Offer on Sunday. By the way thanks for the lure it worked perfect just like you said it would.

GM
 
J
JeannaJigs
Going camping there this weekend, will be going up friday. Hopefully will have something to report when i get back that's better than the last time I fished up there
 
Raincatcher
Raincatcher
Sic 'em!!

Sic 'em!!

JeannaJigs said:
Going camping there this weekend, will be going up friday. Hopefully will have something to report when i get back that's better than the last time I fished up there

Go get 'em for me,Jeanna! :dance: Hope you get the biggest one in the lake...make it a regular "Nessie".:yay: Make sure to take bug repellent and batteries. I'm not going anywhere. As soon as this stupid plantar faciitis is gone,I'll be back at it. In the meantime,I feed the fish in the pond once a day. :wall:
Good fishing! :D:pray:
 
J
JeannaJigs
Raincatcher said:
Go get 'em for me,Jeanna! :dance: Hope you get the biggest one in the lake...make it a regular "Nessie".:yay: Make sure to take bug repellent and batteries. I'm not going anywhere. As soon as this stupid plantar faciitis is gone,I'll be back at it. In the meantime,I feed the fish in the pond once a day. :wall:
Good fishing! :D:pray:


Hopefully I will! lol. The last few trips I have been questioning my trout killing skills. I have four bottles of bug repellant that are in my vehicle ready to go, learned my lesson from the last trip I was up there. Get some trout in that pond! Lol that's what I would do :)
 
O
Outdrsmn
The skeeters should be gone by now. The fishing should start heating up too, if it already hasn't.
 
O
OnTheFly
JeannaJigs said:
Going camping there this weekend, will be going up friday. Hopefully will have something to report when i get back that's better than the last time I fished up there

Hey Jeanna, It may be a good idea to bring the fly rod with black ant patterns. Grillmaster noticed something rather suspicious regarding the stomach contents of that big trout. If you don't, you'll be sorry when you see multiple rising fish after ants. :naughty:
 
J
JeannaJigs
I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to venture into the world with a fly rod at this point. I think it could prove to be painful after I whipped it out and was doing some practice casting...it was not a good scene...my neighbor thought it was hilarious however. The whole fly thing is proving to be a greater challenge than i thought. lol. Makes me realize how in love I am with my catalyst spinning reel. I will give it a try, but, I think i will spend 90% of my time hooking crap that is not a fish.
 
Troutski
Troutski
Spinning rod with fly...

Spinning rod with fly...

Take your flies and use a float with the flies....just as deadly but no where as dangerous as a fly rod. This is the time of year that the fish try to stuff them selves with high protein meals, and the Trout do love them Ants.:dance:

Chuck
 
J
JeannaJigs
Lol this is a good idea. I got some little ants from the guy at homewaters, and so we shall see how they do. Was practicing my cast again....definitely gonna use a float Lol. I just suck at this whole fly thing.
 
J
JeannaJigs
Well, I decided to just go for it, and took the fly rod. Glad I did. Would not have caught anything had I left it at home, the fishing was totally crappy for trolling, spinners, people weren't even catching on that evil nastyness that is powerbait. So I decided to act a fool and go for it with the fly rod, I really am no good with that thing, but I only lost one fly to the scenery, and did not lose any of my own flesh to the fly. On my first cast I caught a 10 inch fatty. First cast with that fly rod on water (been too much of a weiner to actually use it, other than practice casting in a field by my house). I'm pretty much hooked now on the fly rod. I caught quite a few more fish, though they were mostly 6-8 inchers, with one acrobatic beast that actually broke my leader and took off with his fake ant prize, I would estimate her to have been about 12-14 inches. The weather was crap, saturday and sunday, with snow on the mountains this morning, and it was a full moon so that may have something to do with the slow action saturday and sunday, but friday night and this morning were hot. For me anyways. I guess a lot of other folks went home disgruntled and fishless. Me, I let them all go because I didn't want to cook them while camping, so I have no pictures, but, man, they were some pretty fish. very good experience this weekend was for me :)

Oh and they were all caught on #16 black ants :) so thanks for that suggestion.
 
Raincatcher
Raincatcher
Rock on!

Rock on!

JeannaJigs;
Wow,you and Ninja both went wild with the fly rods this weekend! :clap: You rock! It's good to hear you got into them and had a good time. I love hearing you stuck with it and out-fished everyone else. How did your parents do? Hope they got some too.
I,too have been intimidated by the whole "fly" thing. How lame is that?! :rolleyes: I even got an 8wt for steel (?) and look at it still in the box. You know,we need to get more gutsy and just do it.
 
J
JeannaJigs
I have a 6 wt, and now I'm looking into getting something for some steel, one of my friends always gets into them with a fly rod, and after hooking into trout with that thing, I can't even comprehend the thrill of getting into steel on a fly rod...so I must do this lol. This is my newfound obsession and I will not be stopped lol. No one else in my familial unit caught anything, and there were 14 rods in the water lol, I felt kinda bad because a couple of the kids wanted to get fish soooo bad, but they just were not biting anything, not even the velveeta cheese or powerbait lol. (but I got 'em :) )
 
O
OnTheFly
Jeanna & Barb

Jeanna & Barb

You two are making me get a little teary-eyed...
 
J
JeannaJigs
Lol! we do what we can.
 
W
WilliamCapuli
Big Lava Lake
This is a 15 miles south of Bend off of Forest Service Road 46 (Cascade Lakes Highway), at an elevation of 4800 ft. The 350-acrea lake primary inflow to are subsurface springs. The springs are located in the northeast corner of the lake at a depth of 20 to 30 feet. Water temperatures from the inflow vary between 45° to 60° F. There are no permanent surface streams entering the lake, however, intermittent seeps do enter the lake from Wire Meadow. Lava Lake connects with Little Lava Lake only occasionally during periods of spring high water. The outlet channel is located in the southeast corner of the lake.

Best time is early & late in season.
Floating devices and trolling are its popular fishing methods.
Cheese, power bait, flat fish, flashers, spinners, and green lures would be the best bait and for insect bait use dry and wet flies.

The following methods would be:
Small hooks with leaders up to 7' long & not over 4 lb test; fish seem not to like brown leader material 5X tippets for surface flies; 4X for subsurface.

“Protecting the best interests of your child. See details on Child Support Guidelines.”
 
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