Salmon in Fall Creek Reservoir

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trollin4trout
The salmon in there are not a rumour or mistaken identity. This is what you can catch. Pretty sure this is not a sucker! Caught on 6ft. ultralight rod w/6lb. test. 34" long- 10-12 lbs. I guessed?

34inch3fallcreekres062803.jpg

It's been a few years since I was down there- this was 6/28/03. This was a super hot 90+ degree day with water skiers zipping by me all day. Didn't bother the fish in the least- was a bit bumpy though! June/July was good for me two years in a row. One day I also caught 5 trout in the 15-24" range along with 2 salmon.

I always trolled near the dam- just the south end -from the center concrete structure to the south end and over to the grassy point at the State Park and back to the dam- especially around the spillway area. 20 ft. on the downrigger was always golden- a small brass w/orange flame Needlefish- trolled slowly caught at least 5 of those salmon. Probably 50ft. setback from the ball and no other flashers or dodgers- just the Needlefish. Have patience and KEEP TROLLING- there are some great fishys in there!

Jim
 
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nwkiller
wow, thanks for the post that is pretty awesome, never knew!!!!!
 
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rippin fish lips
yes!!!!! I knew it!!!!!!!!!! Glad that you had a picture of one caught out of there!! Just more proof that they are in there :D They are pretty tricky to catch tho
 
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markasd
Very nice... good post - good info!
 
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trollin4trout
rippin fish lips said:
They are pretty tricky to catch tho

NOT that tricky really at all. I told you the exact spot, the exact lure and depth, and the exact time. I was simply fishing like that for trout the first time I caught one- I kept doing it and kept catching them.

You can't go out there for an hour and expect to light them up- you might actually, but I usually troll from sunrise to sunset and figure I'm going to get a hold of at least one- my best day was caught 2 and lost one.

Jim
 
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Thuggin4Life
Thanks for sharing that again man. not sure if that is a land locked nook or on they truck up in the summer from down below.
 
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nwkiller
well i know that ODFW was trying to do some salmon stuff up fall creek, so they are probably the ones that are from up there. Maybe we should release them until we start catching smaller ones then we will see if there is any breeding going on...that would be pretty cool.....as of now, i know that you cannot fish for them in fall creek, not sure about the res
 
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Thuggin4Life
I have caught at least 100 small 10-14" chinook in the reservoir. This is what i know... for several years you have been able to find dark nasty salmon in the creek above the reservoir in the summer even though there isn't a fish ladder. talk with the corps about water levels and such for my motor i lost to the lake and got side tracked a bit. turns out there is a holding pond below the dam where the salmon keg up and then they get trucked above the dam. no i assumed that they dumped them in the creek above the dam in the big pools because you can find them up in the creek every year but ussually not in the same spots as the year before. now also in the winter they have been keeping the lake lower than normal to help the juvenile salmon be able to make it out of the dam without a high mortality because of the fact that there isn't a ladder. I have done very well catching theses smaller chinooks along the dam so thing they are wanting out but also get them just about anywhere in the lake so i think some of these fish may just think that the lake is the ocean and give up or not want to go out through the dam. After seeing the bigger ones caught in the lake not sure if odfw just trucks the ones from below ibnto the lake and let the fish swim up the creek or if they were just big land locked chinook or what. anyways thats what i know on the subject.
 
brandon4455
brandon4455
its very possible that is just a large land locked but most likely a trucked in fish. look at the color on it. if you figure the lake is like an ocean to a land locked chinook it would still be very chrome. a trucked in fish goes through a lot of water and rarely are bright fish at that point. and the average land locked fish is way smaller then a sea run chinook. ive seen people catch fish ike that at detroit and thought they were land locked but were indeed a trucked in fish.
 
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rippin fish lips
That one was trucked in, its obvious
 
X
xltom
I can't imagine a land-locker would get that big in that small of a lake. Last summer it got so warm in there that all the salmonoid(coldwater species) had sores on em' and the meat pulled off with the skins a bit.(I skin my trout with no knife).

Great thread! You can bet I'll be tryin that lure when I fish over there.
 
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markasd
Same deal with Detroit I believe? I know they run from the lake up to the Marion Forks Hatchery. That's some pretty chilly water, and wouldnt surprise me one bit if these are land locked. They have a bit of a different color to them - kinda greenish for lack of better description. The one in Jims pic has that greenish hew to it.
I have a bunch of pics from back in 01-02' and had tons of fish in the upper reaches of the creeks later in the year - not boots either. There was a dude feeding the fingerlings so I asked about the stacks of bigger fish in the creeks, he said they planted em as a project. They used the lake as there ocean and return back up the creeks later to spawn. Not sure how long this lasted as I have not been back up there that time of year since then.
Same deal as Fall Creek Res maybe?
Just a thought..
 
P
ProfessorChromology
I thought the ones they trucked above the dams (they do it on the N.Fk of the Willy too) were all hatchery fish. The one pictured has an adipose. It would not surprise me at all if it was a native offspring from the fish trucked up in previous years. On the other hand, it's not chrome like the ones I've seen out of Lookout Point. Who knows for sure? Who cares? Awesome that salmon are back in the streams like they were for eons prior to the dams. Good catch!
 
X
xltom
Not all hatchery fish are clipped, especially the big brooders.
 

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