Mt. Hood Lakes over Memorial weekend

M
mustardthetrout
I had the opportunity to fish a variety of Mt. Hood lakes over the long weekend, as I have a cabin in Government Camp and it's easy for me to access them. None of them were as crowded as I imagined, and the fishing was generally pretty good. I first fished Timothy Lake on Saturday. Caught lots of fish trolling small Frog Flatfish close to the shore. Rule #1 of fishing Timothy is to stay close to the shore. The deeper water in the middle of the lake is largely devoid of structure and I've never had any luck catching anything there other than the occasional stocker. The key is to remain close to the shoreline.

(Sorry if some of the pictures are upside down. They always manage to upload weird)

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I then spent some time fly fishing the Oak Grove Fork that drains out of Timothy Lake. The fishing in that stream always sucks at this time of year; I believe that the trout must spend the winter hunkered down in Harriet Lake and just start to come out and feed around now. However I still managed to scratch up a few. This river is cool because it is probably the only place in the area where someone has the chance to catch four different species of trout in a day.

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I went to the John Day River to fish for bass the next day (and caught a ton!) but when I went back that evening I had time to fish a couple of the smaller ponds around the Government Camp cabin. These lakes usually get pretty swampy towards the end of summer but at this time of year they're still pretty fishable. I still haven't managed to figure out what insects the trout that live here feed on but attractor patterns still work well enough.

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Lastly I gave Trillium a shot. I didn't have high hopes because they haven't stocked it yet this year. Although all of the Mt. Hood lakes can support wild trout there is definitely a distinct difference when they stock it, especially in Trillium. However, I managed to get a couple on wedding rings. However, for some reason I can only post ten pictures per post so I can't post any pictures. However, they were average (12-14 inch) size.
 
bass
bass
Looks like you had a great time! Pretty cool that you were able to hit so many different pieces of water in one trip.

How were the mosquitoes?
 
M
mustardthetrout
bass said:
Looks like you had a great time! Pretty cool that you were able to hit so many different pieces of water in one trip.

How were the mosquitoes?

I noticed none! They're never a problem on the water and I wore long sleeved clothing elsewhere
 
I
iairj84
You didn't mention Clear lake, have you been there recently? I am headed there in a few weeks and have been looking for reports and they're few and far between.
 
M
mustardthetrout
iairj84 said:
You didn't mention Clear lake, have you been there recently? I am headed there in a few weeks and have been looking for reports and they're few and far between.

I haven't heard much about Clear Lake either. I've heard good things about it though.
 
T
twout
Mt. Hood Lakes over Memorial weekend

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Rule#2. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
I have been fishing Timothy Lake for 29 years this summer. The deeper water towards the middle of the lake is full of stumps and structure. The cheapest fish finder will even show you this. This native rainbow was 1 of 3 I caught while trolling for Kokanee in the middle of the lake Memorial week. I wasn't even targeting them! I frequently catch natives this way all season long.
eace30292eda966d82dd14e44fd3a1a8.jpg
This is exactly what Timothy Meadows looked like in the 50s before the dam was built. Structure.
It is a nice post you made but to make statements that sound like fact on a fishing forum that people use to gather information on a particular area is wrong. Good fishing to you.
 
M
mustardthetrout
twout said:
fbb3384ecd3140ee6690e722980a656e.jpg
Rule#2. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
I have been fishing Timothy Lake for 29 years this summer. The deeper water towards the middle of the lake is full of stumps and structure. The cheapest fish finder will even show you this. This native rainbow was 1 of 3 I caught while trolling for Kokanee in the middle of the lake Memorial week. I wasn't even targeting them! I frequently catch natives this way all season long.
eace30292eda966d82dd14e44fd3a1a8.jpg
This is exactly what Timothy Meadows looked like in the 50s before the dam was built. Structure.
It is a nice post you made but to make statements that sound like fact on a fishing forum that people use to gather information on a particular area is wrong. Good fishing to you.

I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. In my experience I have caught the most and largest fish while fishing relatively close to the shore. It's fine to disagree, as you may have had different experiences, but to claim that I'm making factually inaccurate statements is a little insulting.
 
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
mustardthetrout said:
I wasn't trying to mislead anyone. In my experience I have caught the most and largest fish while fishing relatively close to the shore. It's fine to disagree, as you may have had different experiences, but to claim that I'm making factually inaccurate statements is a little insulting.

I agree, fishing method/depth can easily result in someone catching lots of fish in one area (nearer to shore) and less in others (deep center areas)....people are encouraged to share their experience and results, which are not always going to be the same, it's fishing after all.

I think twout was mistaken to think that your post was anything other than just your actual observations and results. cheers, roger
 
I
iairj84
Not to mention times of year and weather can hugely affect it, what works in late spring can be completely different than what works in July or August, especailly in smaller lakes.
 
T
twout
mustardthetrout said:
Rule #1 of fishing Timothy is to stay close to the shore. The deeper water in the middle of the lake is largely devoid of structure and I've never had any luck catching anything there other than the occasional stocker. The key is to remain close to the shoreline.
.

Perhaps I am reading this wrong but sounds factual to me. "Devoid of any structure"?
Insulting? No I wasn't trying to insult anyone. If you feel insulted that someone strongly disagrees with your statements on the World Wide Web well......
Like I said mustard, nice post but...
 
H
handmethewrench
Thanks for posting! great looking fish
 
T
thunder3kr7
T
thunder3kr7
I fish Timothy a few times each season and normally fish close to shore on the upper parts of the lake, but I do fish the middle from time to time, especially when it is hot.
I like to troll from the Clackamas arm to the right, you will see a large shale hill with a 12 to 15 foot shelf that drops off to 30 plus feet. I prefer to troll 5 to 10 feet away from the shelf. The channel in the other corner is great to troll with low light, early morning and early season, plus you can do well with a few crawdad traps in the cove right next to the entrance.

In the middle I like to stop the motor and slowly drop to the bottom with my normal trout trolling setup, then gun it at double the normal speed until my gear is working like normal, then reduce the speed to normal for 5 minutes, and repeat. I do this 3 or 4 times normally it get me kok on every other pole each time and a few times I have picked up a trophy rainbow trout. If I get nothing I move back to my main stays, closer to shore.

I don't fly fish but I have a few other things I do for the shallows like dragging a whole night crawler.

I would love to try anything else that works for you guys, let me know what you got....
 

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