Fishing Report 3-13-06

I took Dave Pankratz and his Father-in-law, Gary Self out yesterday for some bull trout fishing at Billy Chinook. It continues to be very cold here in Central Oregon and I shuddered to think it was only 13 degrees when I pulled out of the garage at 5:30 a.m.

We meet at the Cove and were on the water by 7:00. There has not been much need to get out at "dark-thirty" lately as the bulls have been responding better midday. It was so cold that I borrowed a cup of coffee from Gary to pour over the downrigger to thaw the ice that built up on the ride up the Metolius Arm. That is cold!

Most of the bulls and a Lot of kokanee continue to be past the island and around the big left turn before you make before the right turn heading up the upper arm. We marked a lot of fish at 50-90 feet and are catching them with riggers at 45-65 feet. The A/C kokanee and Mikey accounted for the couple of plug fish we caught. The big Slingblade/ Roto-chip/ herring combo has produced the most fish and I am sticking with having at least one down there most of the time. The main bite was around 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., but we catch a straggler later in the day. We ended up with a total of 6 and probably lost another 5. The fish sizes were 2.5-7 Lb., with 2 at 7 LB. I am re-rigging the baitholder with barbed hooks on this next outing to see if have a few more hook ups and fewer lost fish. Look for several more bull trout reports later in the week. I am booked all this week and part of next.

Screamin' Drags, Rick