Henry Hagg Lake Fishing Reports

[DOKF]

Excellent report; welcome to OFF.

Hagg is one of my favorite places. My avatar pic was taken several years ago from the parking lot, at Ramp A. The moon was setting prior to sunrise. I only wish that I would've had a better phone or camera back then.

When "trolling" Woolly Buggers, or any fly for that matter, think of sitting in a float tube and making two very slow kicks. Then drifting a bit. Then a couple of slow kicks. That's the speed you want. Slow and steady is the ticket.

Perhaps you slowed your speed down, on your second outing? Which resulted in catching fish. Also try Olive Green and/or Brown Buggers. The same colors in Teeny Nymphs are also good IMO.

Maybe also try an intermediate fly line, instead of a sinking line. The water is cooling down and the fish may now be in the top 10' of the surface. If you have more than one reel--with different lines--you could easily switch, to see what will entice a bite.

Good luck and tight lines, TD

Yes, the second outing did have more hits near the surface. A smaller jet diver, and a floating line / bead head bugger. Fish on the bugger was by casting with slow spastic retreival. We did catch one while slowly paddling to dock.

Thx!

 

[DOKF]

Be sure to check the regs...

Willamette Zone | eRegulations

Description The Willamette Zone is all waters draining to the Columbia River between the city of St. Helens and Bonneville Dam, except for those portions of tributaries east of the Sandy River that are downstream from the Union Pacific Railroad line (see Columbia Zone, for more details)...

www.eregulations.com

Not quite sure what you are implying here?

 

[troutdude]

Not quite sure what you are implying here?

Me too. @Raincatcher why did you mention that?

 

[DOKF]

The boy and I had another wonderful day out on Hagg Lake today. Any day on the water is better than all other options.

Not a lot of fish to the boat, but plenty of excitement.

We tried trolling wedding rings behind a ford fender / jet diver, and wedding ring behind flashlight / jet diver. But our first fish was on a leech slow trolled just north east of the no wake zone about 100' offshore in about 15' of water. A beautiful 16" rainbow nearly ripped the flyrod out of the boat. With a 2 lb tippet, we gently coaxed it into the net after 3 nice runs. Not 30 minutes later, we landed a nice 14" on the flashlight / wedding ring. Also a good fighter, but not as challenging with the trolling setup. Interestingly, this one was double hooked; he took the main hook in the lip, but the trailer hook caught him in the flank.

We caught a couple more smaller trout (8 ~ 10") on the troll rigs, and surprisingly also a small perch. Definitely did not expect that!

When the wind calmed, we tried drowning the leech again; missed a couple nice strikes, but none landed.

We timed our day perfect between yesterday's rain, and tomorrow's expected deluge.

 

[DOKF]

Dinner last night. Nice colour. I like these fresh on the grill. Colour indicative of insect and crustacean diet, not like fresh planters raised on fish meal (no carotenoids). Planters kept are destined for the smoker.

 

[Fishnsleep]

Anyone planning on fishing Hagg Lake tomorrow or Sunday?
I would think it has been stocked by now? Nice fish DOKF, in a canoe no less, nice!

 

[DOKF]

I think I read on the ODFW website (or the recreation report?) that stockings were done for the year because of the fires and hatcheries down.

But, I didn't see too many fishing out on the lake Weds. Should still be good this weekend.

 

[DOKF]

I went out to Verboort this evening to get my annual fixin' of sausage and sauerkraut.

On the way home, I decided to swing by Hagg Lake to see if anyone was getting lucky.

Saw a spectacular sunset, and talked to a fisherman just coming off the water. He had just had a nice fish on as he pedalled into the Eagle Point ramp. We talked a bit; he showed me 3 very nice fish all 14 ~ 16", all fat, all caught with a very simple lure trolled near the surface, very slow. But I will let him write his own report.

However, mission accomplished. Still lots of nice trout in the lake, available for those looking.

This Sunday is looking to be a nice bright day, unfortunately I have to work. May make it out again Wednesday.

 

[Fishnsleep]

It would not be fair to only post when fish are caught, lol. Went to Hagg on Wednesday with a friend Chad, fished four rods from about 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we lost one nice trout, it jumped out of the water and spit the spoon out. We tried trolling and bottom fishing a few spots with power bait. We did see a few fish caught from shore, people fishing the bottom, and one boat at the ramp reported catching more than five. Maybe we were not deep enough, we did try different depths, using a rudder and two and three ounce weights. I was told it was stocked a couple of weeks ago by a fellow angler. Oh well, still a beautiful day, with the beautiful scenery and wildlife Scoggins Park has to offer. Now, to try and determine plans for the weekend, looks kind of wet, maybe some catch and release sturgeon in the lower Willamette Sunday, or sleep in and watch some football?

 

[Jay K]

New to posting but thought you may like to know about Hagg. From 12-2pm I caught 4 trout and missed a 5th with rainbow power bait about 30” off the bottom at the small inlet at the south end of the Dam. The water is low so don’t do what I did and blindly walk the trail at the west end to the water to see there was no water