Last weekend the high water and even higher gas prices drove the blog crew to think outside of the box. Record snowpack and soaring temperatures blew up the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers. The Central Oregon lakes were supposedly fishing well, but it’s a hell of a drive, so we opted to try something closer to home.
We decided to head out to Esmond Lake which is a small three acre cutthroat lake, a rarity in the heart of the Oregon Coast Range. It was formed by a landslide on Esmond Creek, a tributary on the Upper Siuslaw. It’s not stocked, hard to find via a maze of logging roads, and physically challenging to hike into. It was our first time making the trip.
When we pulled up to the unmarked trailhead to the lake, we put on our waders and threw our float tubes on our backs. We were about a half-mile down the trail when I stumbled onto the first bear pie. It was big, brown and mostly grassy.
In the second half-mile of the hike, we counted over 15 piles of bear shit and each pile seemed to get wetter and fresher as we followed the bears down the trail. I’m assuming it was a mother and cubs, because we found some big turds, but also some little paw prints. Not a good sign. I was on point, so I stuck my giant float tube out in front of me like a sheild and pushed on, trying to keep the chatter up on the trail.
We eventually got to the lake, where giant logs were spilled over the creek outlet, and it was nearly impossible to get open access to the water without balance beam walking and log rolling over several hundred yards of downed old growth stacked and floating between the end of the trail and open water. This was even more fun when you’re wearing waders and carrying a digital camera.
The impounded stream drowned the forest and the remnant trunks of that forest still stand ghostly above the water level. The lake itself was deep, cold and fishy looking. And we made the assumption that uneducated trout would go for a weighted wooly bugger stripped slowly. We didn’t count on picky fish. But picky they were. We got a few tugs on our buggers, a rise on a small caddis. Todd of TU Chapter 678 caught a couple fish on a March Brown wet fly, fished in the film, but the biggest topped out at nine inches.
Despite the slow fishing, we stuck it out till near dark, then pushed our way back through the overgrown trail , float tubes first, avoiding the bear turds.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 barrett c. // May 19, 2008 at 11:02 pm
i spent countless hours looking for esmond 10 years ago.what i found was numerous cuttthroat eager to pounce on weighted blue and white streamer flies(clousers)allowed to sink as deeply as possible and stripped rapidly towards the surface.my fishing buddy and i dragged a plastic canoe out there but after a single season the jungle out there consumed it(at least we never found it again).that is some real remote country full of bears,cougars and elk.we walked on the left side of the lake ,but climbing would be a more accurate description.there used to be a three walled cabin out there to post up at.old timers also speak of a landlocked salmon population.we did catch some smaller unidentifiable trout like species(parr sized)but the catch was mainly cutties.good on you for making the trek.i know that it is not for the faint of heart or leg muscles.
2 Reese DeHart // May 20, 2008 at 1:47 am
I fished esmond last saturday and i also packed in a float tube. I caught 15 fish in 3 hours. The best was 13 inches and it was a great fight on a 3 weight rod. The fly that worked best was a parachute adams size 12. The fish were feeding on ants being blown out of the trees. Cast the fly under the branches along the bank about a foot from the bank picked up the most strikes. Also a scud on sink line picked up 4 of the fish I caught. Most of what I caught were 6 to 8 inches. Lots of bear shit and some appeared to be a couple of hours old. I heard a large animal breaking branches as it left the area around the lake.
Reese
3 Karl Mueller // May 20, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Maybe the heat put the larger fish down. There were some small fish rising along the shoreline but nothing really sizeable. I tried a #12 Parachute Adams with no success but maybe I didn’t have it on long enough to get positive results. It’s good to hear that there are some bigger fish in there. I suspected there were–I saw one rise that was more of plunking sound than the high pitched splash of a dink. Thanks for the report! I heard something busting brush near the lake too!
4 ericb // May 21, 2008 at 2:56 am
I travel the smith river road once a month to visit relatives and cannot wait to try and check out this lake.
Thanks for the tip on an out of the way spot.
ericb
5 mark wilson // May 31, 2008 at 5:50 am
I’ve been going to esmond lake for about 12 years now. The first time I went was alone and going off of directions from this old timer I used to know. I did however have an old hunting map given to me by my dad. I got an early start that moring, leaving well before daylight. When I finally arrived at the point which I thought I was supposed to be the trek began. Still dark I was remmbering the directions given to me. They did’nt seem to match the map. Armed with A fishing pole and my K-Bar I decided to go ahead and and try to make the lake before light. As I started toward the lake I noticed the trail was an old road. Contiuing on following the road and the sound of the creek, my mind started to wander A bit about possible confrontation with A bear or courger. Instantly my senses sharpened and it seemed as though every sound was filtered and processed in my mind through the still lingering darkness. I began to notice the mornings first light trying to cut it’s way into the stillness of what was once night. My eyes instantly began to work as one with ears. daybreak was well on it’s way, but there was A slight fog in the air just thick enough to cause my sight play A trick or two on my mind at certain points in the trail. It felt as though I’d been walking for an eternity. Finally I had reached the lake, and at first it did’nt look like much of A lake at all. Still I trudged my way through the fog and log hopped my way to the ght center of the lake. No luck on the first trip.I do make it in 2-3 times A year,it’s hit and miss on the fish, but I think I’m hooked on the whole experiance or my first trip, and will always return as long as I’m able. Good luck to those who can find it, and those who can remember the way in. Oh ya watch out for those damn bears.
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