Billy Chinook Reports 1998

September 28, 1998

THE FISHING AT LAKE BILLY CHINOOK HAS BEEN VERY GOOD, AS THE WIFE AND I SPENT A WEEK UP AT THE LAKE . WE WERE THERE THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 28TH.

WE FISHED THREE DAYS OUT OF SEVEN MAINLY DUE TO THE WINDY CONDITION, BUT DURING THOSE THREE DAYS OF FISHING WE CAUGHT 133 11"-13" NICE KOKANEE. WE LIMITED TWO OF THOSE DAYS WITH OUR 50 FISH..

WE WERE USING THE SAME SET UP AS WE HAVE OVER THE YEARS USING THE FORD FENDER, WEDDING RING SPINNER, WHITE CORN, 3OZ OF LEAD AND 50 PULLS OF LINE FROM THE REEL AND FISHING VERY SLOW. AROUND THE DAM AND UP THE METILOUS ARM SEEM TO BE THE BEST FISHING AREA.

THIS IS THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR TO FISH AT THE LAKE, AS ALL OF THE WATER SKIERS ARE GONE.

GOOD FISHING

This report submitted by Don

July 12, 1998

Karen and I went to Lake Billy Chinook early in the morning on Sunday July 12th. We headed out of Perry south campground about the time the sun was rising. Neither of us had a watch so the exact time is had to tell. We trolled up the Metolius arm and didn't catch anything. The fish were jumping and a good number of boats were jigging so we gave it a shot. We caught one fish in about 3 hours and I was getting a bit tired of trying all the different colors in my box when we noticed someone in a boat near us catching fish after fish after fish so I took a chance and asked what she was using. She was using a buzz bomb looking thing but it was only about 1/2 oz and there was no color on it at all. It was gray. Well I didn't have what she had, but I did have a good number of 1/2 oz banana weights. I put a hook on one, tied it onto my line and 3 cast later I had a fish on. We caught 24 more fish using banana weights and a treble hook on the end.....no corn..... no worm. The fish were really nice size and we would have caught more if we wouldn't have lost so many right at the boat. It was a beautiful day and the only people catching fish were those using the gray 1/2 oz weights. :)

Can't wait to go again!

This report submitted by Dave Brouillard

July 2, 1998

Can't catch fish all the time.  This was our first trip to Billy Chinook we didn't catch fish.  The weather was about as perfect as it gets.  I've never seen the lake dead calm like this all day long!  We heard of an 18"er being caught by the island and a limit being caught the day before.  The fish checker said that most fish are being caught up by Rattlesnake Point just past the summer homes.  We tried there for 30 minutes the evening before and I hooked a few fish an landed a 12" bull Trout.  I kind of wanted to try there in the morning but my wife doesn't like to jig fish so we trolled by the island.  I landed a pretty fair Bull Trout and we caught one small, 10" Kokanee.  We spotted many fish on the finder and had very few bites.  We tried just about everything you can think of and trolled at every depth.   All without luck.  I think the people that were catching a few weren't using downriggers and were catching them on the drop.  For the most part the fishing for a vast majority of people was very slow.  everyone we talked to only caught a few or none.  I noticed my new fishfinder was going crazy the whole time we were there.   At around 100 feet there was always fish like marks, everywhere on the lake.  I think this is where the thermocline or an oxygen layer was creating marks on the screen.  The surface water temperature was 70 degrees.   This is the first trip we have ever caught Bull Trout, four all together, but nothing meeting the 28" minimum.

This report submitted by Robert

May 30, 1998

We went to Billy Chinook again for a one day trip and did very well. We caught 26 real nice Kokanee with one of them running 16". Most of the fish are between 12-13. We were fishing the Metolius arm up aroung the island. We probably lost more of the fish than we caught.  It looks like this is going to be the year for the good sized fish.

Good fishing

This report submitted by Don

May 16, 1998

Went to wickup May 16th to try Kokanee fishing and caught 34. Most of the fish are running between 10-12 inches. We were using ford fenders with a wedding ring spinner and using white corn .1oz of lead was attached to our line saver.   We braved the snow and fished most of the day.

This report submitted by Don

March 23, 1998

I went up to the Lake on Monday, and boy was the wind blowing. The first boat launch was impossible to launch a boat. There were waves like the ocean on a stormy day. We decided not to fish the Metolius Arm and went to the Deschutes arm. We trolled for a while and caught 1 nice brown trout on a broken back rapalla. We were wanting to go out for the Kokes, but the weather was just too harsh. My tackle box needed to be totally dried out after docking the boat. The waves were sooo harsh that I felt we were going to sink. (I think we may wait a bit longer to try this again!) It my still be a bit too early to fish up there without a VERY stable and deep hulled boat.
This report submitted by Dave Brouillard

March 8, 1998

From your local ODFW research crew. kokanee fishing at Lake Billy Chinook has been fair to good for folks fishing the Metolius arm. On our last survey (2-25-98), perhaps 90-95% of the Kokanee were located upstream (west) of Dhinook Island. The thickest schools were located between the island and Fly Creek. Also, there aren't many 2 or 3 year old Kokanee in the reservoir this year. Fishing may be slow, unless the 1 year old Kokanee enter the fishery by June or July, which they did last year. However, the average size will be up again this year because the numbers are low.

Cheers,

This report submitted by Steve Thiesfeld

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