Irishrover
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I was sitting in my rocking chair this morning keeping warm by the fire in the wood stove. I had just finished reading about the not so good prediction for the spring Chinook run this year. There is a possibility that boats will not be allowed above the I-5 bridge on the Columbia. If that is the case there is going to be a lot of congestion on the water, sort of a bumper boats fishery. That got me to thinking, maybe I’ll just fish for the summer and fall runs of salmon and concentrate my spring efforts chasing trout with the fly rod.
There are a lot of nice lakes up in the Mt Hood area that can be a great deal of fun to fish from a float tube, pontoon boat or drift boat. One of my favorite is Laurance Reseservoir aka Laurance Lake. It sits on the north side of Mt Hood and is an easy drive. It’s about an hour from Sandy east on Hwy 26, then North on hwy 35. Take the Parkdale Dee turn off (about 22.5 mile north on 35) . A half mile down the road turn left onto Culbertson Rd about a mile don the road there is a stop sign turn left on that road about 2 miles down that road make a right turn on to FR 2840. That road goes right to the lake.
The lake has native cutthroats and rainbows, it also has stock rainbows and only fin clipped fish can be kept. I usually head to the second boat ramp at the far west end of the lake to enter the water. At the west end is where the creek enters the lake. In the spring I head toward the creek area and use a callibaetis nymph and floating line. It seems to work but what I really enjoy is using and a black ant pattern off the south shore by the big fir trees. The wind blows the ants out of the trees and the fish have learned to key in on them. It’s just a lot of fun out there on the toon casting in toward shore and giving a little twitch to the fly line and then bam…fish on. Down by the dam end its about 90 feet deep and in the summer that’s a good place to be with a wooly bugger or carey special. A lot of other patterns work up there like the callibaetis sparkling dun, and caddis patterns. The other nice thing about this lake is the scenery of course just about any lake in Oregon can claim that!
There are a lot of nice lakes up in the Mt Hood area that can be a great deal of fun to fish from a float tube, pontoon boat or drift boat. One of my favorite is Laurance Reseservoir aka Laurance Lake. It sits on the north side of Mt Hood and is an easy drive. It’s about an hour from Sandy east on Hwy 26, then North on hwy 35. Take the Parkdale Dee turn off (about 22.5 mile north on 35) . A half mile down the road turn left onto Culbertson Rd about a mile don the road there is a stop sign turn left on that road about 2 miles down that road make a right turn on to FR 2840. That road goes right to the lake.
The lake has native cutthroats and rainbows, it also has stock rainbows and only fin clipped fish can be kept. I usually head to the second boat ramp at the far west end of the lake to enter the water. At the west end is where the creek enters the lake. In the spring I head toward the creek area and use a callibaetis nymph and floating line. It seems to work but what I really enjoy is using and a black ant pattern off the south shore by the big fir trees. The wind blows the ants out of the trees and the fish have learned to key in on them. It’s just a lot of fun out there on the toon casting in toward shore and giving a little twitch to the fly line and then bam…fish on. Down by the dam end its about 90 feet deep and in the summer that’s a good place to be with a wooly bugger or carey special. A lot of other patterns work up there like the callibaetis sparkling dun, and caddis patterns. The other nice thing about this lake is the scenery of course just about any lake in Oregon can claim that!
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