Timothy Lake Fishing June 29, 2014

Yes, there was even more fishing this weekend! After fly fishing the swift, cold Oak Grove Fork and the secluded, quiet lake behind my cabin, I decided to do some fishing at the largest and most popular fishing lake in the Mt. Hood area. And this would be Timothy Lake. Any person who is familiar with the Mt. Hood area knows of Timothy Lake, the huge, deep blue lake that is popular among swimmers, boaters, and fishermen alike. It can be seen on nearly any postcard sold within ten miles of Government Camp.

I decided to head there to do some trout trolling last morning, in the midst of some of the strangest weather we have been experiencing. Yesterday's toggled haphazardly between beautiful sunshine and stampeding hail. Today was around the same, with the full spectrum of possible conditions being encountered in the manner of a half-hour drive. However, the weather started to better by the time my father and I reached the Pine Point boat dock. 

After loading up our canoe with fishing tackle and rods, we launched into the enormous lake. Although it is dwarfed by many other bodies of water in Oregon, it is still the largest and deepest lake in the Mt. Hood area, with an area of over two square miles. As a result, it can be very daunting to fish, especially without any sort of motor or sonar technology. Aside from randomly throwing baits from shore, fishing from a boat needs a lot of practice and a little luck. The huge and deep lake gives fish plenty of room to swim around, and many fishing efforts have to be concentrated around structural areas. The problem is that many of these cannot be seen from the surface and I, once again, do not have a depth finder. As a result, it can be intimidating to fishermen at times.

I started off a short distance from the dam with some different colors of Powerbait. I tried the normally-effective green and rainbow colors with little luck, even though small fish were jumping absolutely everywhere. It was extremely frustrating, especially since I had talked to a kid yesterday who had caught one using the exact same bait. 

After putting up with this abuse for a half an hour, I reeled in the Powerbait and decided to do some trolling because I could cover more water. Besides, trolling uses lures that catch bigger fish. I rigged up one rod with a salmon egg-tipped Wedding Ring. It's one of the most popular lures here, and I figured it might produce some fish. Perhaps even one of Timothy Lake's small Kokanee. Few people fish for them due to their size, but they would still be fun to hook while trout fishing. I rigged the other rod up with an F4 Frog Flatfish, another excellent trolling lure. I'm not very savvy with trolling speeds, so I just tune the plug and find a speed that produces the action I like best. I let both lines out and looked for the rod holders. The rod holders I left back at the house. Settling for the spaces between an extra seat (the black foam thing in the photo above), I began rowing in slow s-curves.

I had just begun dragging my plug about twenty yards from a grassy shoreline when the rod with the flatfish slammed down and fell onto the deck of the canoe. I scrambled over and grabbed it just as a fish began going nuts, splashing frantically on the surface. Taking care not to tangle my lines, I brought the fish along the side of the boat. It jumped again before I was able to grab it by the lure and hoist it in the boat.

As you might guess by the way the deck looks, things pretty much went haywire because a ten-inch fish. I worked the lure out of its mouth before tossing it in my cooler. Since the plug had turned a fish, I put another one on my other rod. I set the lines out again, and after a few disastrous tangles, began trolling again. After rowing for a while longer without much action, we reeled up and headed for shore. I talked to some other fishermen and they had caught little as well. Although it had been a relatively slow day of fishing, it was still a fun two hour trip on one of Oregon's most beautiful lakes.

Swamp Fishing June 28, 2014

That's right. I fished at two different Mt. Hood locations in the same day, and both were radically different from one another. The first was the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas, an area that produced over a dozen trout. However, I also had some time to fish late in the evening at a nearby swampy meadow. Although the exact location will remain undisclosed, it is one of the few places I am able to walk to from my Government Camp cabin. The swamp is marshy and difficult to access but it culminates in a small, shallow pond that holds trout.

After trudging through skunk cabbage and other grasses through waist-deep swamp, swatting mosquitoes along the way, I reached the lake. My father and my uncle were also with me. It was around six o' clock, and fog was already beginning to roll in through the mountains.

Fish were rising and readily striking Parachute Adams flies, but it was difficult to keep most of the small Brook Trout on the hook. Light tippets were required for the crystal-clear water, and fish were frustratingly out of reach. Wading was out of the question here, and the water was too shallow for any sort of floating device. As a result, casting from shore was my only option.

After missing several strikes, there was an explosive bite and a nice fish was on the line. It had been hooked on one of the strangest patterns I've ever tied, one I never thought would produce anything other than a bleeding nose. It was the Kam's Caddis with Translucent Reflective Fish Stuff.

I should really know what that stuff is actually called by now. Anyways, the fish was eventually landed, and it turned out to be a native Cutthroat, an unexpected surprise in a pond like this.

The catch of a native Cutthroat in a small swampy lake is clear evidence of an isolated, self-sustaining population. This is why I am emphasizing that this particular fishery is protected. Although I did not disclose the location of this lake, it is likely that many know where it is nonetheless and will fish it. While I encourage this, I cannot emphasize the importance of catch-and-release, especially while using flies and artificial lures with barbless hooks. These fish are not stocked, and careless management can eradicate the fishery. We need to be the solution, not the problem.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE:

As many hippies and citizens of Government Camp know, there is a proposal to host a music festival known as "Kaleidoscope" in our town. A meeting to make a final decision took place recently, and although I do not know the answer, I can state that this cannot be allowed to happen. 

This monstrosity of a music festival took place last year in Eugene, Oregon's extremely liberal town of hippiness. The police made them leave. That's correct. Due to members and attenders of the festival sleeping and raiding the fridges of empty or unattended houses, they were expelled from the most unquestionably weird and relaxed town in Oregon. In addition, their littering trashed beautiful streets and natural areas such as parks. Eugene forced this musical disaster to pack up and get the hell out. If they couldn't tolerate the flaming effigy that is "Kaleidoscope," then there's no reason to suggest we should. As citizens of Government Camp, we need to rally against this environmental disaster and refuse to sanction any actions that may lead to this festival taking place.

Okay, I may have been overboard, but any music festival that big will be noisy, overbearing, and obnoxious. I also have a bad feeling they'll ruin the lake I talked about, which is very close to Government Camp. This will not only ruin the fishing, but the native trout stocks. That would suck.

P.S. I also do not mean to be offensive to Eugene. I have been there many times; t is a very nice town and I was just trying to make the point that Kaleidoscope is evil and should be sent to the fiery inferno from which it came.

P.P.S. I am also not trying to be offensive towards the proprietors of Kaleidoscope; I am sure that it is a trustworthy organization that should not be judged by some of the people who attend it.

Thank You.

Oak Grove Fork June 28, 2014

Summer is finally here! After a long winter with little fishing, it is once again time to wet one's line on the sparkling waters of the Mt. Hood area! This trip wasn't my first of the new summer, though. I had done some fishing on the small meadow ponds that dot the area with good catches of small Brook Trout, and had also gotten skunked on Timothy Lake. However, today was the first legitimate Mt. Hood fishing trip, and I decided to spend it at the Oak Grove Fork, one of my favorite trout streams in the area. Draining for around seven miles out of Timothy Lake, it has great fishing for a variety of species.

I woke up at about 5:30 a.m. to find a dreary mist of fog and drizzling rain shrouding the woods outside our cabin in Government Camp. I groaned. I had just gotten back from fishing in sunny Southern California and was once again reminded of where I lived. Digging out some long johns that I had put away for the supposed summer, I got dressed and went to load the car. It was cold and miserable, and I had second thoughts about fishing in these conditions. However, I decided to simply deal with the dreariness and soon found myself driving to the river with my father.

Upon arriving, I was greeted by a man in his fifties or sixties. He was holding an old, beat up spinning rod and told us that he caught several trout. I politely grimaced. This river is tiny, and there's little room to share. However, this  guy looked like an old-timer who had I fished here forever, so I didn't mind. Were he in his twenties with expensive gear and store-bought flies, I might have thought differently. He was done and heading back to his car, so I went down to my favorite spot in the river, a short distance beneath the hydroelectric dam.

I was using a size 14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail, the standard used here. This river has large numbers of BWO mayflies, and the Pheasant Tail is the best pattern to imitate them with. I got a bite on my first cast, but missed it. A few casts later, another fish struck and I hooked into a pretty little native Cutthroat Trout.

I gently released it, and kept fishing. Now that I had caught a fish on a nymph, I decided to switch to a dry fly because I like dry flies. My strike rates actually increased. The little seams between the calm and fast areas of the river held the most trout.

I caught several more fish but didn't want to stress them out through handling. Most were fairly small, but fun to catch on light tackle. After thoroughly fishing the riffles and logjams, I headed back towards the hydroelectric plant itself. 

With the continuous vortex of swirling water, the plant is a place that most fishermen ignore and walk past. However, I wasn't in a hurry and decided to give it a few casts. I was immediately surprised by a nice fish, and several more followed.

I even tried my hand at making fishing videos, but that is another story entirely. Below is a frame I took out of one.

Trust me, you don't want to see the video. I messed around a while longer before giving up and heading back to the car. Although it was a short fishing trip, it was still a great start to summer  and an awesome day catching fish in the Mt. Hood area.