Harriet Lake Fishing Reports

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Went fishing to Harriet lake on Friday with two others. Heavy action on all kinds of Power bait off the bottom. I have a new dedication to the Power Egg! I have found they stick to the treble much better than the dough. I caught Four Trout with the same three Power Eggs on my Treble. I don't think the fish hit them as aggressively, but you don't lose your bait when you miss the hit and they have been coming back to hit again.

The weather was great and the fishing was sweet action! We caught well over 20 fish as we kept 14 nice keeper trout. See stringer pic. A highlight of the trip was a surprise visit from an otter that was scouting our stringer. Sure was cool seeing one in the wild. It stood on a log off shore and looked at us for a second or two before swimming away. Did not have time to get a picture.
 
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If it were a normal year, I would have been at Gold Lake today but since it is still snowed in we decided to try out Harriet for the first time this summer. Harriet lake should be insanely good right now but for a days effort I only picked up 15 fish. #10 was a nice brown trout fooled by an olive pearl bugger. On a good day, it is not uncommon to land 50 fish here. Note the cain rod.
 
I was at Harriet lake Sunday afternoon as well testing out the new 'toon. Fishing was fairly steady, had good luck trolling flies around all afternoon. Caught my limit of troph's before leaving plus a lot of little guys. LOTS of people there as I'm sure it gets every year on labor day weekend. I talked to a few people who were chucking PB and worms and they said it was very slow.
 
Lake Harriet is a great little spot for fishing and camping. This 22-acre reservoir, which stores water for PGE’s Oak Grove Hydroelectric Project was created shortly after the turn of the century when a concrete dam was built across the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River. Harriet is sheltered from the wind in a narrow, heavily timbered canyon. Because of it's small size, Harriet is a perfect place for first-timers to try out a new float tube or pontoon boat. A small, 10-site campground is located at the head of the lake. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife normally stocks more than 10,000 rainbow trout in Harriet annually. There are monthly stockings starting in Mid-April, and they continue through August. This often results in easy, unchallenging fly fishing. In addition there are self sustaining populations of both cutthroat and brown trout which spawn in the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River. These populations of wild trout are fairly small, but some of the brown trout can grow to more than 20-inches.
 
Well I was finally able to get some time to make a decent trip this Saturday. I decided to take my daughter up and hike into Lake Harriet. We got to Varney Creek trail head around 9 and hiked in, it took us around 3 hrs to get to the lake. Just started to skirt the lake and of course fish at the same time and Bam fish on. It was the first brookie of the day. We ended up catching 5 in all and had and awesome time. Two hours later we were at the car and heading home. If anyone is up for the hike it is well worth the trouble to get in there.
 
After a couple of weeks trying to make up there I finally got a chance today and made it there by 10ish. I was excited try to catch my first brown ever and had read on here that they mostly hung around the shallower areas of the lake so that's where I started. I started with a worm floating of the bottom which killed the stockers for me this summer and a bobber with a meal worm for my little sister. In the next 20 minutes her meal worm got 4 bites in 4 casts so I decided to switch over to that too. The next two hours we missed about 8 maybe more bites with her catching a nice 10 inch rainbow and me catching a real nice 15-16 in brown my first ever (both released). After that we moved down past the boat ramp a little bit to some more fishy lookin water and as soon as we got our baits in the water we were getting bites like crazy again. We caught about 8 more fish in that spot with 1 more brown about 12 inches and the rest were all bows from 9 to 12 in. we ended up keeping 3 that were hooked badly. We almost had another really good size brown but it got off right at the bank. We had an awesome time and spent most the day up there the weather somehow cooperated with us for most the day and fishing was great not much more you can ask for. Tight lines.
 
Setting aside the boring things that needed to be done around the house, my son Cody and I joined eggs, Wozniazm, and Waco at Harriet Lake today. Arriving in Estacada too early to buy our lunch at Subway, Cody and I devoured donuts at a nearby coffee shop while we waited for the popular sandwich place to open. With two 5 dollar foot longs in the truck we were off.

Word had gotten out that the lake had been stocked with dozens of larger trout so it was no surprise to see everyone and their dog fishing there today. Not exactly the nicest day weather-wise to be out on the lake but it was tolerable between brief showers and occasional breezes. Harriet doesn't get really really good until the first of June so the fishing was a little tough and because of the cool temperatures, there was nothing happening on top water for the fly guys.

As always, had a great time fishing with a bunch of great friends.:cool:
 
I have been camping at Harriet lake for past two weeks. Until 4/17 it was super slow. I could only consistanly catch on pautzkes. Bite has been early and late. Until stocking people would come, and quickly leave. Browns were eating flys late. The fish that were in lake before stocking are wiley. Caught three cutthroats on salmon eggs. Maybe caught 30 small ones in 10 days? Late stocking thursday 4/17. It was raining hard when fish were dumped. A few lucky folks had the lake to ourselves. I caught two of the 55 trophy's! Friday 4/18 I caught and released 75 stockers. Everything was killing. Good luck, and you all have a good en. Also, the water coming from timothy is melt off, and the water temp is still super cold. PGE had to work on dam a bout a week ago. Water was let out of pipeline. Now lake is being brought up again. Cold!
 
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Took the son up to Harriet lake yesterday for a little guy time. Rained the whole drive, got the lake and no rain for our entire day. Son humbled dad a little and struck the old man's ego by hooking up first and starting off 5-2. Lots of fish in the boat. Mostly small planters but so many that we were picky and managed enough decent fish to fill the limits. Second trip this year. Last one was in April and results were about the same. Not seeing a lot caught from the bank, but anchoring with worms or eggs on the bottom with a staggered slow retrieve was working phenomenal. Glad to be part of the forum now and hope to share more as the summer wears on! Cheers!
 
August 11th, 2014

Another Monday, another Fishing/Hiking trip. We headed up to Harriet Lake for the 4th time this year. It wasn't too crowded as we pulled in around 8 AM. I rigged up exclusively to target the very wary and elusive Browns that cruise the drop-offs. Before today I had not caught a Brown at Harriet in 15-20 years. The last one I caught was 13" off the bank just down from the Boat Ramp using a Worm along the drop off. This time, that was not my plan. I was using a Casting Bubble & Fly/Nymph that I had been using at Frog Lake Reservoir(just up from Three Lynx). I tied on about 6 - 8' of 3lb leader and my magic fly. The key is to let it sink, sink, and sink some more, then work it slowly with the current! 2nd cast! Success! 13 1/2" Brown(My Brother holding up the stringer. I DID release this one). I was again just down from the Boat Ramp working the drop off just off the bank and the moss beds near it. A bit later my Brother spotted a larger Brown cruising that very same area. 1st cast! Success! 17 1/2" Brown! I also caught a 12" Rainbow(released it) and had many, many other hits. I did have one very large Brown go after my fly jumped half way out the water and it was HUGE easily 24-25" ! There were many other sizable Browns jumping, some large, much to my surprise and unusually so. The weather turned way too hot by 11 AM and I think the Browns retreated to deeper waters. All in all a REAL good day catching two Browns in the same day within 2 hours of each other! I will be heading up their again Sunday going after them again using the same technique. If they're cruising the drop-offs I'm confident I'll get a few more. They absolutely go NUTS after the Fly/Nymph.
 
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Hey fellow Fisherman and Fisherwomen!

Harriet Lake: SLOW. Started fishing around 6:15 AM and left at 11:15 AM. I had a few bites using a sinking fly, but that's it. They wouldn't hit any dry flies, heck, they wouldn't even hit Power Bait or Eggs. No one was having any luck. They were actively feeding on the surface, but clearly showed they weren't interested in much else. There were many good sized Browns (16"+) suspended near the moss beds just off the bank and I threw EVERYTHING at them lol, with no luck. A few times one large brown 18-20" opened her/his mouth and pursued my offering, but that was it beyond that.
 
Been up there consistently for the last 3 weeks- at Harriet and frog- I've been destroying the browns a lot of them at Harriet this particular year have been decent size 14"-16" and a couple of nice whoppers a 18 and 20" brown that I'm holding in the pic.

They should be stacked at the inlet by now- last weekend I was in the stump patch that's what I call it the area between the boat launch and handi dock- where the old buildings used to be- and blasted a bunch out on nymphs.
 
Monday, September 15th, 2014

What a day! It doesn't get much better than this. Showed up at Harriet around 7:15 AM and we had the place all to ourselves. I guess people didn't want to take the long way up 26, down skyline, and FR 57. I'm glad we did. My Brother caught 2 Trophy browns 19" and 21"(Not pictured), and I caught 2 Trophy Rainbows 18" and 19" both of which were wild with just beautiful markings would remind you of a Deschutes redside. All fish were released unharmed.
 
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Took the float tube up to Harriet lake on Saturday. Had a good day in the sun, and caught/released 2 browns and 2 native rainbows drifting chironomids under an indicator around the weed beds.
 
Beautiful day at Harriet 4/30/15...
 
Fished Harriet lake again this weekend. This time I took my dad and brother out in a canoe. They both got into there first fish of the year and I caught a few as well.
17" brown (with goofy long arm pose)
 
We took a Saturday afternoon drive up the Clackamas today. Ended at the Harriet Lake. I had not been up since PGE did work on the area. So now they have taken away all the parking on the road.
 
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