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I went to Hagg on Sunday and was on the water for almost 10 hours. I ended up C&Ring 24 trout and one largemouth bass.
22 of the trout came from trolling a 1/24oz roostertail and 1/2 a nightcrawler with a 1/8oz sinker on a dropper. Same rig as last week and I kept the lures 30' back same as last week. I hooked up a couple of doubles and did finally manage to land a double
Even with a trailer hook I probably only hook one out of every 2 to 3 bites. All the trout were between 10 and 13", nothing bigger.
Cool thing is that I caught a tagged trout. The have an orange spaghetti tag on their back. I snipped off the tag and released the fish. Yesterday I called the number on the tag and the biologist said they are using the information to figure out when is the best times to stock Hagg. The fish I caught had been in the lake for a bit over a month. It looked really healthy so I guess they figure out what to feed on pretty quickly.
When I called we also chatted about if Hagg could open up year round. He said the main issue is that the agreement to close the lake to fishing in the winter was a cross agency agreement between the ODFW, Army Corps of Engineers and maybe others. The lake bed used to be an Elk wintering ground. Inundating the lake obviously reduced the available land. The compromise that was made when the lake was formed was to close the lake to fishing in the winter to give relief to elk that want to winter near the lake. He said that this decision may be reversed, but that getting approval across all the agencies is not a fast process
The bass fishing was a little tough for me. The water temp was about 5 degrees cooler than last week (55 vs 60). I tried hard for 2 hours and only managed one largemouth. I started out throwing a crankbait but after catching 2 trout on it and getting lots of follows and missed strikes from trout I switched to throwing soft plastic since I did want to catch a bass. The bass I did catch came on the soft plastic. He was the only bite that I had. Here is a picture of the little guy.
I definitely do not have that lake figured out for bass yet. Definitely a goal for me this year. The fish I did catch was quite shallow, but perhaps with the cooling water I should have fished a bit deeper.
Interesting note about the trout on the crankbait. I was fishing it with a stop, go and twitch retrieve. They seemed to like the vibration. I have tried trolling mini crankbaits in the past for trout but almost never hook a fish. I had been trolling the crankbaits at 1mph (the speed I like for spinners). I think I need to troll the crankbaits a bit faster to get them really thumping. I will give that a try next time.
Did anyone else make it out to Hagg
22 of the trout came from trolling a 1/24oz roostertail and 1/2 a nightcrawler with a 1/8oz sinker on a dropper. Same rig as last week and I kept the lures 30' back same as last week. I hooked up a couple of doubles and did finally manage to land a double
Even with a trailer hook I probably only hook one out of every 2 to 3 bites. All the trout were between 10 and 13", nothing bigger.Cool thing is that I caught a tagged trout. The have an orange spaghetti tag on their back. I snipped off the tag and released the fish. Yesterday I called the number on the tag and the biologist said they are using the information to figure out when is the best times to stock Hagg. The fish I caught had been in the lake for a bit over a month. It looked really healthy so I guess they figure out what to feed on pretty quickly.
When I called we also chatted about if Hagg could open up year round. He said the main issue is that the agreement to close the lake to fishing in the winter was a cross agency agreement between the ODFW, Army Corps of Engineers and maybe others. The lake bed used to be an Elk wintering ground. Inundating the lake obviously reduced the available land. The compromise that was made when the lake was formed was to close the lake to fishing in the winter to give relief to elk that want to winter near the lake. He said that this decision may be reversed, but that getting approval across all the agencies is not a fast process
The bass fishing was a little tough for me. The water temp was about 5 degrees cooler than last week (55 vs 60). I tried hard for 2 hours and only managed one largemouth. I started out throwing a crankbait but after catching 2 trout on it and getting lots of follows and missed strikes from trout I switched to throwing soft plastic since I did want to catch a bass. The bass I did catch came on the soft plastic. He was the only bite that I had. Here is a picture of the little guy.
I definitely do not have that lake figured out for bass yet. Definitely a goal for me this year. The fish I did catch was quite shallow, but perhaps with the cooling water I should have fished a bit deeper.
Interesting note about the trout on the crankbait. I was fishing it with a stop, go and twitch retrieve. They seemed to like the vibration. I have tried trolling mini crankbaits in the past for trout but almost never hook a fish. I had been trolling the crankbaits at 1mph (the speed I like for spinners). I think I need to troll the crankbaits a bit faster to get them really thumping. I will give that a try next time.
Did anyone else make it out to Hagg
