We have a situation upon us that happens every year. You can almost set your watch to it. The rivers we know and love, ebb and flow this time of year, as water temperatures start an upward trend and fishing improves. The spring equinox is March 20th this year, and that is significant for several reasons. Days get longer, water temperatures start to warm, and the first significant hatches of the year begin as the sun creeps into the northern hemisphere. Those that were cooped up all winter tying flies (definitely make it to tying night at falling sky brewery on Tuesday March 18th at 6:30!) are chomping at the bit to wet a line. So you finally get a day off work, the sun is shining, you look at the river flows and realize it is way to high to safely wade or float. How many of you have a plan B? With the unpredictability of spring weather, you’ll need one. Stillwater!
I’m an absolute stillwater junky. I started out stillwater fly fishing over a decade ago while backpacking. I took many trips a year and most of the time I’d end up at a lake. I ended up down a stillwater rabbit hole. I read as many Phil Rowley, Brian Chan, and Denny Rickards books as possible. I bought a boat. An endless stillwater pursuit was in my future. Being based in the Willamette valley I’m always waiting around for the productive lakes in the cascades to thaw and become accessible in the spring. I love our high mountain lakes, but I don’t want to wait around for them to open. I’m like you, I want to fish! I started poking around our local reservoirs and I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. All of our local stillwater options have great opportunities with everything dependent on timing (not unlike any other fishing) I’m going to give you a spot you can have success with this time of year, and the reasons I picked this spot to share: You don’t need a boat and there is plenty of access.
Lookout point reservoir. I know you’re probably laughing at me right now, but when the rivers are blown out, and you got a day to get out what do you have to lose? Or maybe, you just want to try something new.
Your main catch will be smallmouth bass. Most people think that smallmouth are a summertime thing. They can be, but these fish start staging in shallow water and feeding up for the spawn this time of year. I’ve caught them as early as the first week of February while it was spitting snow outside. The water is cold, upper 40’s. You’ll also catch largemouth, crappie, and large scale sucker fish, but your main catch will be the butterball smallmouth. These are the slowest growing bass species. It takes 5 years for them to get to 12 inches, 7 years to get 16 inches, and if you are lucky enough to land and 18-20 inch small jaw, he is likely going to be over 10 years old. Most of the fish you run across will be 12-16 inches. You’ll catch the occasional trout, and Walleye even swim these waters…
Let’s talk access. There is access along both sides of the reservoir, but I prefer to utilize the pull outs and trail access along the north side, or west boundary road when I’m not using my boat. If you have an app you like, you can download maps that are super helpful. The cell service isn’t great out here. I don’t recommend wading because it’s not necessary. You do too much hiking for them anyways. With the sudden drop offs along the shoreline you’d likely go for a swim, so I just recommend a sturdy pair of hiking shoes or boots. Find a pullout, drop a waypoint so you can find your way back. Walk down to the trail and head left or right. Keep your eyes peeled for a trail branch that leads to the water. Before you leave the trail it’s not a bad idea to drop another waypoint. I’ve missed this step and fished my way down shore for a mile or more and it can be tricky finding your way back to the trail. I prefer to fish the points that have stumps and rock on them. The straight banks can have fish on them too, but I don’t catch as many fish on mud banks. Never pass up the feeder creeks. Some days those fish will be nosed right up in the current, even in cold water.
Gear and tactics are simple. A stripping basket doesn’t hurt but not crucial. I fish a 10ft 5wt, but if you got a 9ft 5wt or 9ft 6wt laying around that is fine. I do recommend an indicator taper fly line. The wind can come up, and you’ll be fishing an indicator and balanced leech so the indicator line is necessary. Off my fly line I’ll run a 7.5ft 3x RIO tapered leader. Slide on a medium slip style indicator on your leader and tie a tippet ring to the end of your leader (you can use any style indicator, this is just my preference). You’ll run 4x tippet off of your tippet ring. I usually run 4ft of tippet to a balanced fly. Try different colored flies. Green, black, brown, red, and purple all catch fish. Using a thinner diameter tippet after the tippet ring is crucial because you will likely lose flies fishing amongst the stumps and rocks. When you lose a fly your indicator will trip, and the tippet ring saves you from losing your indicator. So buy or tie lots of flies (the fly shop can thank us later). Don’t just cast out into the lake, you’ll want to fish more parallel down the bank. Focus your casts along the color line change right where you stop seeing the lake bottom, and maybe a little further out but you won’t catch much bombing a 50ft cast out into the lake. I usually fish about 6ft from indicator to fly. Adjust your depth and cover water. Don’t let a cast sit for more than 20 seconds. If they are there, they’ll eat it pretty quick. Fish close to the stumps and rock. That’s pretty much it. You don’t need a boat, and there are miles of shoreline to explore.
I stumbled into this while waiting for our prized trout waters in the mountains to open up. This trip is awesome! I do run guided trips at Lookout and other reservoirs here in the Willamette Valley, so if you are interested in a guided stillwater fly fishing trip in a comfy boat you can get ahold of me through The Caddis Fly Angling Shop ( 541) 342-7005. I can take the guess work out of where to go and we can cover a lot more water from my boat. But if you’re a DIY type person I wanted to share with you an option for a new adventure that is totally worth the trip, even when the rivers are in good shape!
-Adison Rook
[Valley and High Lakes Stillwater Guide]
