Lemolo Lake for Memorial Day

[TheKnigit]

Well we spent Memorial Day Weekend this year camping at the Inlet Campground on Lemolo Lake. Tried fishing the North Fork of the Umpqua 1 evening with no luck. The next morning we got up, cooked some breakfast and took a buddies 2 kids out on the lake. We ended up netting 18 rainbows, all in the 10"-12" range. No monsters, but the kids had a blast. We trolled 1/8 ounce spinners with a rainbow color pattern. I didn't seem to matter what the brand of the spinner was. At one point we had a Panther Martin, Blue Fox, and a Rooster Tail out and every single on caught fish.

The next 2 days those spinners didn't produce more than 4 fish a day. I tried fly fishing a couple of times, but I never got anything to take. All in all it was a great weekend, and Lemolo Lake continues to confuse me. It seems like I find a trick, lure, or a fly that works great one evening...and then I can't replicate the results for the rest of the trip.

 

[Aervax]

Nice report, and what a beautiful place. It is strange how the bite shut down. Maybe your neighbor campers were jealous of all the fish you were catching and soaked all the spinners in sunscreen overnight.

 

[TheKnigit]

Haha, could have been. I think I will have to try and make another trip or two back there this summer. See if I can figure out a consistent method for the lake. We didn't find any browns while we were fishing. I was a little bit bummed about that.

 

[troutdude]

Excellent report; and nice too see a post about Lemolo. I've not been there; yet. But it's on my bucket list.

Have read that jiggin' Tasmanian Devils, is a go-to method. Might try that, on your next outing.

 

[TheKnigit]

I will have to give that shot. We didn't bring the fish finder this time for some reason. I will have to make sure that is in the boat as well. Maybe I can find some sort of pattern or a depth they like to sit at. We did see several Kokanee caught closer to the dam on Ford Fender style flasher rigs.

 

[troutdude]

Ford Fender style flasher rigs.

A Fender and worm, with 3-4' of leader, should work for 'bows and maybe browns. But the real trick, for browns, is to start fishlng at "first legal" light (and hour prior to sunrise). As well as, the last two legal hours of the day. Browns are notoriously nocturnal feeders.

 

[pinstriper]

A crusty old codger (who was very believable and thus all the more suspect) once told me that the planted rainbow trout - particularly in the time when they were recently stocked - stay to what they have known their whole lives thus far: swimming as a school in a circle, going round and round the pond at the fishery.

This was meant to explain why the bite goes "on" and then "off". The school happened by, then moved on. Simple as that.

I dunno if it is true, but it certainly sounds plausible. Schooling also explains the phenomenon with non-stocked fish - I had it happen this weekend with surf perch. Nothing for 90 minutes, then BANG !!! every case was a bite or landed fish.

 

[TheKnigit]

I would tend to agree with you Pinstriper...but 14 of those 18 rainbows from the first day were all caught in 1 trip over the course of 2 hours as we made 1 large slow trolling loop around the lake.