Spider block fish structures

C
cbrimhall
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I just visited the Oregon Bass & Panfish Club's website and learned that they constructed and then deployed spider block structures on March 5th throughout the lake. First off, THANK YOU to them for doing this! Hagg receives a lot of attention, as it should, for being a great rainbow trout fishery, but it has always held warm water species as well. I want to say that I read somewhere in this forum awhile back that previous artificial structures had been removed from the lake a few years back, so hopefully this will give anglers target areas to fish again. So, do any of you happen to know where these structures were put in the lake? Hagg is vast and one could spend a lot of time staring at a sonar screen looking for them, which I will do if I must, but some pointers would sure help! It would also give the trout guys a heads up of areas where they might want to check their trolling depth before they get all their gear snagged in the structures, I've done it on other lakes and it can ruin a great day of fishing real quick.

Again, thank you to OBPC members Ray Arkus, Michael Clardy, Don Davis, Bill Egan, Jim Gruber, Bud & Marcia Hartman, Dennis Isaacson, Bob Judkins, Russ Miyada, Tom Nelson and Mark Van Duser. Special thanks to Rich Tombleson, Garry White and friends for providing the boats to transport and place the blocks. Overseeing the project were Tom Murtagh, ODFW Area Biologist, and Gary Galovich, ODFW Westside Warmwater Biologist. If any of you guys are members here, job well done!
 
What are these structures?
 
I can't recall exactly what arm they are in but it is the northwest corner i believe. I went there a couple months back to throw a round of disc golf and remember reading about it on one of the big info boards at the bathroom/ boat ramp area.

They are constructed of concrete i believe. Similar to stacked cinder blocks.
 
They put them in scattered all throughout the fishing side of the lake. They also mentioned that if you wanted to find them they would be visible when the lake is brought down in late summer. They don't want many people knowing where they are at because they think that Trout fisherman would vandalize them.
 
Thug,

Here's a pic:
 
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Well, at least one of them looks like it's located just south of Boat ramp C near the entrance to the Sain Creek arm! :D
 
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Those don't look like they provide much structure or cover, that any fish would inhabit. And they look like great ways for our trolling gear to get snagged up.

Is this really a good idea??? And with all of the many places to go bass fishing--and few places to trout fish on the west side--what prompted this to begin with? Do the bass really need help to propagate?

An inquiring mind needs to know...

P.S. For the record, I like to fish for bass too. I'm not against bass fishermen/women.
 
I ended up doing a google search and seen the same pics. Thanks though. looks like those things are only like 3' tall so i doubt any trollers will have a problem with them and if you are then you are getting in the snag zone anyways. They way the work is plants and algea cling on to the hose making an umbrella effect and in turn a place for small fish to hide from big ones making more fish reach adulthood instead of being food. so alo there will be more bass eating trout so it defeats the efforts of the stocking. I think man should stop interfering so much with things that are allready un natural.
 
I have seen them put a few in about 2 years ago. The ones I watched them drop are directly across from boat ramp C. Think they were in about 15 - 20 ft of water (but that was when the lake was low in the summer). I have bass fished a lot on that lake. Got some really nice bass. Only once did I catch one in the 3 lb range from the deep water where they dropped them. Everything else came from water less than 15 ft deep. Even the largest one I have caught was 6.5 lb small mouth in 8 ft of water from the bank.
There is a TON of area to bass fish from a boat or a float. Little tougher from land but it can be done.
 
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That kind of lines up <pun intended> with one of my thoughts.

The lake has produced record breaking bass. Which means that it is obviously already a lake, with structure and cover that bass thrive on. So, I really don't quite understand why the club feels that they need to "make improvements"?

Why not spend their time "fixing" other bodies of water, where the bass really need the help?
 
I think that they are trying to increase the number of bass in the lake. Yes, there are some record breakers in there, but I think there could be many more with a little help. Most of the people I see are targeting trout. Usually the stockers. I do that when I have the kids, but without them, I would rather wait all day for a bigger fish instead of the stockers. And I dont eat fish, so gettin a limit means nothin. Catchin a nice big rainbow or fat bass that puts up a good fight means more to me than takin it home.
I would like to know if anyone targets catfish in Hagg. Looks as if there is some excelent habitat for some catfish. Never talked to anyone who has tried. Might be some giants in there but I know nothin about catfishin.
 
Fishermen need to go to Hagg and see it in the fall. Bureau of Reclamation and park people every year remove structure from the lake and leave it barren. All fish need some structure, algae, plankton, zoo plankton, are all part of the food chain and need structure to grow on. Over the years what little structure that was in the lake has rotted or been removed. The Oregon Bass and Pan fish club has had 3 structure projects in the last 4 years, working with ODFW to enhance the fishery. The carry over of trout and warm water in the lake is limited by its food supply and small fish also need structure to hide and grow. The last 5 small mouth bass records all came from Hagg and those fish grew big eating some of the 70-80,000 trout stocked each year as well as bluegill and crappie bur except for what you see on the shore lines there is little structure and the lake drops 80 feet or more each year. Find the structures and you will find trout suspended over them as well. If they ever raise the dam we hope they will leave butt cut stumps and other structure around the lake to help fertilize the lake and enhance insect growth.
 
State record brown bullhead over 3# came from Hagg. Caught on a crappie jig by Oregon Bass and Pan fish member. Have seen some nice cats to 2# about 16 inches caught but no numbers. Black and White crappie, yellow perch, brown bullheads, largemouth and small mouth bass, bluegill and pumpkinseed are all present, there use to be some cutthroat mixed in with the rainbows but, have not seen any in years. Check OBPFClub website for state records on warm water fish. ODFW will be doing some sampling for warm water fish populations next month and the public is welcome to OBPF club meetings check their web site.
 
Fishcrappie, welcome to OFF. And thank you for your very informative posts! Keep up the good work.
 
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