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

Saturday, June 20th was a wonderful fish filled day! I got up at 6:15 and loaded up my gear in my Nissan Sentra and hit the road.
I headed up Oregon's Highway 20 through Lebanon and Sweet Home and over he Santiam Pass to the Highway 126 Junction. From there I headed southwest about 10 miles past Clear Lake and on to one of my favorite summer fishing spots, Trail Bridge Reservoir.
Trail Bridge is frequently stocked with rainbow trout during the summer and ODFW has restricted fishing to artificial flies and lures. I'm afraid many fishers are not aware of those restrictions however as I heard bank anglers speaking of bobbers and saw PowerBait floating in the water along the bank.
I arrived at the Reservoir at about 9:00 AM and hastily inflated my Caddis Float Tube (by dizzying lung power), then donned my new(ish) lightweight breathable waders and wading boots. I packed my float tube, flippers and fly rod down to the lake by the dam and was in the water in a few minutes!
I already had a size 10 bead head Carey Bugger in “brownish-red” tied on the end of my leader, so I cast it a couple of times as I kicked over my favorite weed beds, not expecting much action. After a few casts, I made the wise decision and snipped off the Carey Bugger and tied on the fly fish go crazy over at Trail Bridge, an Olive Woolly Bugger (a very entomologically correct fly - not!).

On the first cast, I shot out all the line and just let it sit there while I put my gear away in the float tube pockets and all the sudden... fish on! I didn’t even have to set the hook. It was a beautiful rainbow trout about 10 1/2 to 11 inches long. Some of the stocked fish take on a beautiful "purplish-blue" color that helps them blend into the color of the dark blue water.
I fished on, from 9:00 AM until about 1:15 PM when, after 27 hard fighting fish, my Woolly Bugger broke off in some poor fish's mouth. I think I got my money's worth out of that fly! So, I tied on another and continued fishing.
At this point I had convinced myself that I just had to catch 30 fish (releasing all but the largest fish unharmed, so as not to exceed my daily limit) before I left...
Well, a major psychological barrier set in or maybe it was the barometric pressure, or the fish were taking a siesta, or something and it took me another 45 minutes to round out my 30 fish day. In fact, I had all but given up and then caught the 30th fish as I kicked my way back to the bank!
So far, the day had been quite fishy, but I wasn't finished yet! I took off my boots and waders, deflated my tube and packed all my gear into the trunk of my car and was off down Highway 126 towards Springfield to my brother's house to help him move some stuff into storage and then hit the Willamette River in his drift boat for steelhead/salmon!
As soon as I saw the little bars on my cell phone, I called my brother, who probably was wondering why the heck I hadn't answered his phone call about an hour and a half earlier. I explained the predicament I had been in, and got a laugh out of the 30 fish statistic. We chatted until I hit the town of Leaburg, where I made a pit stop for some health food (2 chicken strips w/ Ranch, a jalapeño corndog and a 32 ounce of Mountain Dew) and some sand shrimp for “big fish” bait, provided to the store by Steelheaders West according the lady behind the counter.
Made it to Springfield, fulfilled moving duties, hooked up the boat, loaded our gear and headed of to a nearby boat ramp.
With the boat in the water, the excitement began! I desperately tied my one-and-only, purple Egg-Sucking-Leech onto the end of my Scientific Anglers 9ft, 6lb, tapered leader. Casting just slightly upstream, letting the fly “dead-drift” for a few seconds, I let it swing across the deeper runs. I fished this way for a couple of hours. My bro was using a red diver with sand shrimp...
Sure enough, all of the sudden, I was minding my own business, waiting for the tug at the end of my line when my brother called out my name excitedly, and I looked over to see the spinning rod that was sitting in the rod holder flapping like a willow in a stiff breeze!
FISH ON!
I took to the oars in short succession and, seeing how we haven't invested in a steelhead/salmon net, I had to maneuver the drift boat over to a shallow area to "beach" the beautiful bright hen steelhead.
The fish made a couple of runs and after one failed attempt on my part to grab the fish, my bro took over, and successfully scooped her up, with one hand under her belly and the other securing her powerful tail. She was up out of the water and into the boat!






















Now, that was exciting!

The only thing I caught a little later that evening was a nice cutthroat (about 15 inches) on the same diver and sand shrimp, which managed to release itself right next to the boat. I should have been really excited about it, and hey, I'm not complaining...
but I really wanted it to be a steelhead!


Tight Lines! - nimrod243