Fishing Report 9/27-28/06

After a long lay off of four months, I was back up at Lake Billy Chinook to pre-fish on Wed. for a guide trip on Thurs. Interestingly enough, it was Rolf Donahower, purchaser of my home, back in May, who had lined me up to take himself and two of his friends, Kirby and Phil out for a shot at some bulls.

At this time of the year, both the kokanee and bull trout show up at the mouth of the Metolius river where it enters the lake, staging before they spawn. Usually the Sept. and Oct. weather is some of the best we get in Central Oregon. Crisp, clean and clear mornings with windless daytime highs in the 70's and 80's. These two days were no exception.

On Wed., I didn't have a chance to get up to the lake until late in the afternoon. I pulled out an older A/C original of 7" and decided that I would work it good. Seemed like a good choice as the first bull hit around 4:00 p.m. at 20 feet. Turned out to be a nice 5 LB. fish that was pre-spawn (you can tell the difference by the condition of the fish.) I released her and put the set back down. There were several boats anchored up in the area jigging for kokanee, but I was the only boat working the bulls. By the time the shadows were completely over the arm, I had caught 9 bulls to 8 LB. and all but one came of the A/C plug.

Thurs. morning I slept in at the campground because the trip was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. Kind of nice for a change. These bulls often respond throughout the day with evenings and mornings seeming to be a stronger bite usually. I meet Rolf, Kirby and Phil a little after 10 and we ran the 16 miles up to the river on a glassy mirror with no wind at all.

We started picking up fish within the first hour and kind of sprinkled them in all through the day with no apparent hot bite to speak of. There were a lot of kokanee and bulls showing on the graph. If my count was correct, we caught and released 13 bulls before we pulled up at 5:30. The biggest one going around 6 LB. All but two of the fish came off the A/C original with a 5" Lyman and a A/C 8" minnow getting the other fish.

The guys had a dinner date with the wives back in town, or we would have watched the sun go down. There is often a good bite the last hour of light. All in all, a great time with some good guys, whose company I enjoyed.

Tight Lines, Rick