Lakes Odell Lake Fishing Reports

B
Big Nigiri
Any reports from Odell Lake?
 
4labs
4labs
Odell opens on the 22nd. I doubt any ramps expect to open other than the 2 lodges.
Until I see snow completely gone from the road cam I wont be looking to head that way.
Most likely Princess Creek wont open until mid May.
Should be a early jigging thing and then troll around the 1st week of June
Paulina might be open after the road opens May 10th but theres a lot of snow up there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hobster
B
Big Nigiri
Thanks for the update. I thought it was open year round. Do they not ice fish like on Diamond? The roads looked bad this weekend.
 
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
Big Nigiri said:
Thanks for the update. I thought it was open year round. Do they not ice fish like on Diamond? The roads looked bad this weekend.

no ice fishing at Odell, it's regs. are found under "Exceptions to Central Zone Regulations":

Odell Lake
  • Open Apr 22 – Oct 31.
  • 25 kokanee per day in addition to daily trout limit. No size limits.
  • 1 lake trout per day, 24 inch minimum length.
  • Closed between ODFW markers and the mouth of Trapper Cr.
  • Closed between ODFW markers and Odell Cr outlet.
  • Closed to angling on tributaries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: troutdude
T
TheBigFoote
I was up there this weekend, still a bit of snow in that area!
 
B
Big Nigiri
Thanks you! I am still learning my areas. I've never lived in a state that had so many exception to the rule
 
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
Oregon Regs. have layers, like an onion...or a parfait. General Statewide, then Zone, then location specific Exceptions. and then there are the updates and mid-year regs. issued for Ocean Salmon and Halibut, Fall Salmon, Ground fish....yep, they got layers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: plumbertom
P
playhooky
rogerdodger said:
Oregon Regs. have layers, like an onion...or a parfait. General Statewide, then Zone, then location specific Exceptions. and then there are the updates and mid-year regs. issued for Ocean Salmon and Halibut, Fall Salmon, Ground fish....yep, they got layers!

Some years ago I can remember layers of fish to use all those regs on ..... now we just pick up a copy of confusion every year!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fred and plumbertom
6
69198
I'd love to see a phone app that could "unpeel" all those layers based upon your input such as your location (GPS) and desired fish target. Open the app, type in "trout" and see what you can do. Sure would make my life easier :)
 
4labs
4labs
Drove by today(Sat) on my way to Wick
Princess Creek gate closed but road plowed
Sunset Cove gate open
About 20 boats @ 7am that I could see as I zipped by
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Now is the time to start thinking kokanee. I love to fish for them but I only make it out once or twice a year. It's hard to pull myself away from the Spring Salmon, Shad, Summer Steelhead. You know what I mean. It's just a fishy time of year all over the place.

I met up with a couple friends to fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Weather was really spotty so we fished A LOT less than we had hoped. On the water, OFF the water and back on. We had decided to make the best of it and we would fish when we could and just chill when we couldn't. Ended up being the best weekend I've had in a long time. Nothing beats time with good friends, lots of fish and a long weekend.

We got up to Odell Lake Resort on Thursday afternoon. We had hoped to fish the evening jumper/jig bite that night but the wind was howling so we set up camp and got everything ready for a daylight start the next day. Friday did not disappoint at all. We started by jigging and tossing to jumpers and quickly put 6 or 7 in the boat. As that settled down we started looking for fish and catching intermittently. We decided to troll at that point and finished in the afternoon with a total of 20 in the boat. Likely lost at least that many. Those buggers are hard to keep attached all the way to the boat.

We went to the dock, filleted and bagged the fish and headed to camp for a quick siesta. We got back on the water at 6 what we hoped would be a solid jumper bite and boated 12 more that evening. It was a fun day but not red hot. Consistent for the most part but definitely had some lulls in the action too.

Saturday started out breezy but calmed down. We fished the same program and ended up with 25 more. We should have quit at 11 a.m. because between 11 and 4 we might have only boated 3 or 4 fish. Lots of hits while trolling but we just couldn't get them to stay on or even stick at all.

Sunday started out really windy and wet so we skipped fishing. By the time we were headed out the weather had calmed and it looked very fishable but we didn't try it.

So here is what I used.

For jigging: Gary Knowlton's Custom Kokanee Jigs in 1/2 and 1 ounce. Both orange/white and purple/white did well. I think orange out performed everything else tho.
You can find Gary on Facebook. Great guy and local too.
Depth - fish were thick between 80 and 100' when we anchored in 105' but they didn't bite. We found most of our biters in the the 25 to 50 range.

For trolling: I avoid the expensive stuff here. The kokanee groups will tell you that you have to use the crazy expensive dodgers and lures. It's just not true. I used some old school chrome dodgers that I picked up at a garage sale and the cheapest wedding rings I could find. I also used some pro trolls I had in my box but I don't think they did any better than the wedding rings. Depth 5' to 25'

All that expensive stuff looks good and catches a lot of fishermen but I don't think it catches any more fish.

I like to can my kokanee but there are many ways to prepare it. Once canned it makes a delicious dip when mixed with cream cheese. I'm going to experiment a little more with this batch. Tonight will be Pasta ala kokanee carbonara at Bistro jamisonace.

Odell is a great experience. I see a lot of people out there scratching their heads but if you have a little info going in, you'll definitely catch fish. I'm happy to help if anyone wants some pointers. Just hit me up.

20200516_151017.jpg 20200518_074906.jpg IMG_20200516_122641_412.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fish-On Fred, troutdude, C_Run and 1 other person
G
Gulfstream
Great report! The camp grounds were open?how was the size? Thanks
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Odell Lake Resort and Shelter Cove are open. State campgrounds are not but the ramps are opening this week.

Size was bigger than last year. 12" average probably
I didn't measure but much bigger than last year for sure.
 
G
Gulfstream
THANKS!
 
bass
bass
Great report! It is pretty impressive that you consider 32 fish not red hot!
 
  • Like
Reactions: fromthelogo
jamisonace
jamisonace
bass said:
Great report! It is pretty impressive that you consider 32 fish not red hot!
on a good day we would have had our limit at 90.....by 10 a.m.

You should see the schools of fish on the sonar. Thousands of fish swim under the boat and on a good day they are all biters. We had a hard time getting them to strike. I don't know what the difference is but every day is a little different in terms of bite.
 
Top Bottom