My son and I went fishing at Foster Reservoir today. We arrived and noticed that the water lever was back down at the same level it was at in May of this year, so I decided not to go to our secret location on the North side of the lake but to go to the South shore where we fished during May and had a lot of luck. I was kicking myself for not bringing my fly rod. This is the place I like to roll cast some Balls O' Fire Pautzke Salem Eggs and let it slowly sink down and then watch the line go shooting out when a fish takes it. Oh well...

Again, I don't usually fish Foster this time of year, so I was hoping for some fish but not fully expecting to catch any.

We got down to the lake and the water was perfectly calm and reflected the sky like a mirror. The sun came out for a while and we enjoyed the warmth.


About twenty minutes after casting out our lines, my son had a fish on. He reeled it in and it was a big rainbow trout (about 15 inches).

He was using green PowerBait and size 18 treble hooks like we usually do. I was using orange PowerBait. I got a bite right as I was trying to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth. I went over to my pole thinking that I would easily bring in the fish. I think I picked it up a pre-maturely, because after picking up my rod I felt nothing. Oh well, I was sure now that we would have more chances today. The weather was great and we had a couple ours left of daylight still.

And more chances we had, but for some reason we couldn't bring the fish in for one reason or another. My line broke once, my son wasn't paying attention most of the time and I had to tell him when his rod was about to take off into the lake. He would pick it up and there would be nothing there. So, as the sky darkened from an imminent storm, his rod fell over and I yelled at him to grab it, but he didn't grab it fast enough, so I grabbed it and reeled it in. And that was the only other fish we caught today (rainbow trout, about 13 inches long).

Note: At first we were casting out about as far as we could, but one time I was reeling in and I saw a fish chasing the bait less than ten feet from the bank. So, I decided to start casting out in that area and we started getting bites on a more regular basis. But, still, we couldn't bring them in for one reason or another. It was beginning to make me mad, because these fish usually hook themselves and you have to practically pull their guts out to get the hook out of them. It may have been because we were using some older bait that wasn't quite as soft as the fresh stuff.

All the sudden, the wind picked up and it started to rain on us sideways. The wind was blowing so hard that it kept blowing my fishing pole off of the rock it was propped up on. It was miserable and cold and although I would have kept fishing if I'd have been alone, I figured we probably should should go because my son was shaking like a willow in the wind. It was extra hard to leave because the fish started biting like crazy when the wind picked up.

So, hey, the fishing at Foster can be pretty good at Foster in November!

Tight Lines! -nimrod243

Today is Memorial Day and we just had to go out fishing! I was pretty confident that we would be able to go to Foster Reservoir and limit out on trout within a couple of hours and I was ready to do it...
My son and I got up at 6:00 a.m. and headed to the lake. We had to make a pit stop at "Wally World" to get some odds and ends and we continued on our way. We made it up to the lake at about 8:00 a.m. I was a little disappointed because since earlier in the month the lake has filled up to capacity. That means the our hot spot where we had limited out two times earlier in the month was under twenty or thirty feet of water. So we looked around for a place to fish, which proved to be fairly hard since there were already quite a few folks around and when they fill up the reservoir, the surrounding trees and steep banks make it pretty hard to find a place to fish.
So we stopped half way between the dam and the first bridge and fished for about a hour. We only got one bite and I landed a nice 10 1/2 to 11 inch fish. But that was the only fish that we saw there, and I was still expecting to find some place where we could limit out in a couple of hours, so I decided we should head back down to the dam to fish there.
Apparently the fish didn't get that memo because we didn't get one bite at the dam. It was warm and still and there were several people fishing. We didn't see anybody get so much as a bite, so, we decided we would try somewhere else.
I had planned on going to a boat ramp that is near the first bridge that goes up to Green Peter Reservoir, but there was no parking available, so we decided to just go ahead and go up to Green Peter to fish off the bridge on the Whitcomb arm.
We didn't get a single bite there after about an hour, so, we decided to head back down to Foster. I figured we might try some spot on the north shore of the lake, so, I found a spot and parked and since my son was asleep, I decided to go ahead and take off the Buzz Bombs we had been using for kokanee and put on the standard size 18 treble hook and three small split shot 14-18 inches up from the hook for a PowerBait setup. Well, after I finished that, I couldn't take it any more so, I woke my son up and we packed everything down to the water.
On the first cast, my son caught a nice 11 inch rainbow, and the action was pretty much non stop from there on. We limited out in a couple of hours.

Notes:
Caught first fish on south shore on fly rod with tapered leader (about 8 ft). On the end of the tapered leader I tied on a little extra 4lb leader. I roll casted out some salmon eggs on a size 10 eagle claw hook. Love that action.

It was a pretty hot day. There were water skiers and lots of fast moving, wave making boats. The breeze picked up a bit in the afternoon and blew into our faces as we fished the north shore. I think this maybe brought the fish and the fish food to the north shore.

The weather and conditions (hot, lots of boats and lots of other fisher folks, high water, and a good stiff breeze) could have discouraged me, but I am very glad we kept looking for the fish. I knew they were in there. Indeed we found them!

The weather was absolutely wonderful. I had a very enjoyable day with my son! We really bonded today like we never have before. He is such a good kid. I love him so much. He is really growing up and can now do things that he couldn't do before. I am so proud of him.

P.S.
After we caught our limits on Foster, we headed down to the South Santiam River below the dam and I fished for steelhead for a couple of hours. I was using my fly rod with an egg sucking leech. I didn't get any hits, but I saw three steelhead taken. I think that, for bank fishing on the South Santiam, the best thing a guy can do is get a good long steelhead rod and use a bobber and jigs. These guys could have casted all they way accross the river! I observed one of the guys catch two of the steelhead. As I walked by I noticed he had a big box that was full of every color of marabou steelhead jigs imaginable. This guy was serious. I need to get serious about the steelhead too!