September 28, 1997
Billy Chinook Reports 1997
September 28, 1997
Went to Lake Billy one mor time for the year, reason being to bring
my boat home. I leave it there for the summer.
Anyway on weekend of September 27th & 28th we fished for the Kokanee. The first day we
fished hard and caught 19 and on the second day we fished for about 4 hours and picked up
8, so we brought home 27. The fish were running about 12".
The best thing about the whole trip was while fishing we didn't have to put up with the
water skiers
. I hope next year will be as good as this year. Hopefully these 12" will be 14-15
inches.
See you next Year
This report submitted by Don McConnell
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August 30, 1997
Went to Billy Chinook August 30th and had a fine day of fishing for
the Kokanee. I took my wife and two grand daughters and started fishing at 8:15am. It's
kind of hard to get two small (6 and 10) girls up early, anyway we fished until 2:00 pm
and caught 37-- 10-14" Kokanee. We landed 10 fish the first hour & lost several.
I think we would have caught 60 or 70 the way they were biting if we would have started
early and stayed a little longer. The fish finder was very active with fish running about
30-40 feet. We fished back & forth from the dam up the Metolius arm for about 1/2 mile
using Ford Fenders as usual and Wedding Ring spinner with 3oz of lead, and of course the
white corn.
I was reading thre Madras paper and the fishing report was saying the fishing was real
slow at the lake. I quess they got there report from someone who had bad luck.
I would recommend fishing the lake this time of year, especially after Labor Day as the
water skier traffic is less.
I plan on one more trip the weekend of the 14th of September.
If you need more information on fishing the lake please E-Mail me at URAFISH@AOL.Com.
Good Fishing
This report submitted by Don McConnell
August 9, 1997
The wife and I decided to fish again at Billy and did very well. We
stayed in a Motel (really roughing it) and started fishing about 8:00 am Saturday the 9th.
Between 8:00 & 10:00 we caught 2 fish and thought this might be our worst trip we have
ever had, but about 10:30 or 11:00 the Koaknee started biting. We were fishing up around
the island back toward the dam on the Metolius when the wind started to pick up when the
fish started to bite. We were trolling with a Ford Fender and a Wedding Ring Spinner and
using white corn and 3oz of lead. We fished till about 5:00 pm and had a catch of 33
Koankee running between 11" - 13" with the biggest being 15" .
Plan on returning to the Lake over Labor day weekend.
Good fishing.
This report submitted by Don McConnell
August 5, 1997
I went up Tuesday (8-5-97) to fish again and it was really good. I
normally only take one other person with me in my boat, but my father in law and brother
in law both wanted to go. We fished from about 9 am until 2:30 pm or so. Having more
people also seemed a little more fun. We went up to the same place that you saw the boats
anchored and jigging. That is rattle snake point to the left. (There are signs posted not
to take the rattle snakes. Like anyone in their right frame of mind would!) We were there
about 9 am. I was concerned that this was too late, but we still came home with 24 fish.
The largest was about 14" and the smallest was about 11". The fish were nice and
fat and very pink on the inside. We jigged buzz bombs and had the best results with green
and yellow, orange, and hot pink. We also jigged a couple of nordics and zingers with very
good luck. It seemed that anything with white-green or white-pink also worked well.
The smoker is going non-stop as my smoker can only handle about 11 fish at a time of this
size.
The weather has been real nice ... bording hot. The water was 73 degrees and like you said
the fish were more active jumping than they were biting. Be patient and when nothing
happens move a little and jig some more.
The yellow jackets were really bad in the campground. Especially by the fish cleaning
station. I just brought my fish home to clean. I will have to remember to bring a yellow
jacket trap up there next time. If everyone kills a few of them we could wipe out there
population and wouldn't have to worry about getting stung. If anyone is planning on using
the Perry South Campground, make sure you don't leave any meat or fish parts out... or you
will come back to find a swarm... and I mean a swarm of yellow jacket who will not leave
until the sun goes down. We learned this the hard way! :(
'till the next time! Good fishin'
This report submitted by Dave Brouillard
July 28, 1997
Boy I can sure tell it's been a year since I made the trip to Billy
Chinook. Those 15 miles of washboard dirt road seemed like 30. But when we got there,
there were plenty of spots open for our tent. We wasted no time pitching the tent and
buying two days of Tribal Fishing Permits. So we started fishing at 3:30 pm. The water
temperature was 72 degrees, the air was in the high 80's, and the wind was at that perfect
speed where you almost don't have to run the trolling motor. The fish finder was showing
fish just about everywhere. More fish than Odell Lake even. So for the next three hours we
trolled through school after school of fish with practically no results. We ended up with
6 fish for the three hours of trolling. For our final hour we motored up to the summer
homes where all the fish were jumping and there were a dozen boats anchored and jigging.
We jigged for about an hour an only saw a couple of fish caught. I think they were
snagged. The one I got in was in the tail also.
The next morning we were on the water by 6:00 and headed for the area we saw the most fish
the day before. We didn't go to the jigging spot because my wife dosen't like to jig and
it looked like the fish weren't biting very well there the day before. So we went across
from the bluffs, on the left, before the island, towards the island. We fished with mixed
results till 10:00 when the bite seemed to wane and the heat seemed to become more than we
wanted to bear. When we pulled into the dock we had a total of 11 fish for the morning and
17 for the trip. The largest fish was 13 inches, the smallest 11 inches.
We ended our trip a day early because of mattress problems. I purchased an air mattress at
Costco a month ago and it leaked so bad we were sleeping on the hard ground. That's
unacceptable for old folks like us. We're headed for Costco today to return it. All in all
the fishing was pretty good. I'd sure like to be there when they're on the bite though.
This report submitted by Robert
Nolan
July 26, 1997
I just got back from fishing Lake Billy Chinook. The weather has been
very nice (in the 80's.) A friend and I went up late Wednesday night (7-23) and set camp
at Perry South. We were on the lake early Thursday (7-24) morning 5:45am or so. We trolled
for a while down the Metol. arm, but did not get any strikes. We motored up to the 3
Rivers Marina, bought worms and caught a bunch of small mouth bass along the edges of the
island. At about 3 pm we decided to try jigging since I have had good luck with that in
the past. We went up to rattle snake point, ancored, and proceeded to jig the 2"
yellow and orange buzz bombs. We caught about 15 nice sized fish. Paul was using the
orange 2" buzz bomb and I was using the yellow and orange. (He only caught 2 but had
just as many fish on as did I.) I think the difference was the poles we were using. He was
using a stiff 7' pole and I was using a light action eagle 5'er. The net with the long
handle was a must have item as a lot of the fish in other boats were being lost at the
boat.... not ours. I also saw another older fellow rigging up with a one ounce weight then
18"s of leader and a size 6 or 8 hook with eggs and a piece of white corn. He was
catching as many fish as us. We however were having fun fishing the bombs. We stopped
fishing 7-25 about 11:30am and caught a total Friday of 18 fish. Not a bad couple of days.
We came home with 33 fish. The largest fish was a 15.5"er. The smallest was 13".
Most of the fish were in the 14 to 15 inch range. They were all nice and fat. (must be
getting ready for the spawn?) Go fishing early if you are planning on going because by
about 8am there was no place for another boat to ancor. There must have been a good 20 or
25 boats fishing where we were and all the boats were catching fish. Green buzz bombs were
also working.
This report submitted by Dave Brouillard
July 18, 1997
We fished Lake Billy Chinook 7-10-97 and 7-16-97. Between the three
of us we picked up 23 Kokanee each trip. The fish were running between 12-14 inches. We
fished with silver ford fenders and wedding ring spinners using white corn. The fish were
running around 30 to 40 feet so we used 3 oz. of lead attached to the line saver, the
secret is the speed! "Slow, Slow, Slow!!
GOOD FISHING!!
This report submitted by DON McCONNELL
May 23, 1997
I just returned from fishing Lake Billy Chinook yesterday Thursday
March 23rd . I fished on Tuesday,Wed,Thursday. The Fishing was very slow. I caught one
fish per day. They were Jumping all around,but no bite. I understand the fishing was
pretty good a week ago. The story of my fishing life.( You should have been here yesterday
). I was using downriggers and tried every depth that I could get to. Thirty feet seemed
to produce the three fish that I landed,and the two that got away. The weather was
beautiful,and the lake was calm all three days. I plan to tackle this lake again in the
near future.It hasn't got the best of me yet.
Good Fishing
This report submitted by Ronald Cooley
May 2, 1997
Yesterday, Friday May 2nd, a friend and I went up to Billy Chinook to
try out the kokanee. The first cast that I made I had one. We did real well jigging ORANGE
BUZZ BOMBS. We had many bites that we couldn't get to the boat. The only color jig that
was working was the orange. The wind never came up and it was a balmy 60 degrees on the
entire lake. I have never seen it that beautiful. We enjoyed about 3 hours of fishing and
came home with 10 fish.
'Till the next time.
This report submitted by Dave Brouillard
April 23, 1997
I have been fishing at Billy Chinook now for a month. I started fishing for the bull trout, but turn to the kokanee when the bulls don't seem to be biting. We have done well late in the evening jigging orange buzz bombs up the metolius arm (the river portion) of the lake. It is only about 14 feet deep. We cast as far as we can and jerk the bomb in as we reel. (Corn on one hook is a must!) The fish have been nice size... averaging 13 to 15 inches. Last weekend we caught 11 and yesterday we caught 5. Nothing seems to be working as far as trolling... just the jigging. No other colors but orange. As far as size... the smaller the better.
This report submitted by Dave Brouillard
Febuary 13, 1997
I have been fishing Lake Billy Chinook for quite a few years now and to avoid the mass crowds we concentrate our efforts in early spring and after Laborday weekend. We have had some killer weekends after Laborday weekend. Jigging in the late season is super, with some real nice fish getting ready to go up river to spawn.
Early season has been kind of up and down. We have had some weekends when we have taken limits for 4 people for 2 days. I mostly troll in the early season. Camping during early season and late season is never a problem. I always camp at PerrySouth campground.
This report submitted by David McCoy
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