East & Paulina Lakes Reports 2002

August 11, 2002

I fished Paulina Lake August fourth through the Eleventh with family and friends with good success. The fish were fat and most were fourteen to fifteen inches. This was quite a change from my Wallowa Lake trip in July. We only caught one dink about eight inches this trip. The morning bites were good with fish caught from 28 to 36 feet down, dropping about ten feet as the sun hit the water We had good results with chartreuse colored wedding rings tied with chartreuse Gamakatsu hooks in size #2in the early morning. As the sun hit the water purple Kavorkian Apex lures and the purple pearl Apex were also effective. We caught some fish on Hoochies but they were not as hot as they were in the middle of June, when I was at the lake last. My friend Rod tied up a chartreuse #14 spin and glow with white and orange glow beads on pink #2 hooks that was a consistent producer most of the week. We had an interesting mix of weather. It got down to 22 degrees on Sunday night. I had to warm my wading boots over the propane stove to unfreeze the laces Wednesday it started to clear and it was sunny for the remainder of the week. They also weren't kidding about bears this year, A few foolish people didn't pay attention to the warnings and had their coolers rolled during the night. One walked through our camp and down to the lake while seven of us were sitting at the fire. We found good concentrations of fish in the Northwest corner of the lake near the cinder slide. The area from the group camp and north to the point where you can see the resort had lots of fish as well. The evening fishing was not as good for us as in past trips, but the morning bites made up for the lack of fish in the evening. Normally I never fish in the middle of the day but I took out my friends two boys and did well near the group camp. There was a good chop on the water and we wind drifted. We got four nice Kokanee to fourteen inches in a little over an hour and had several other hookups as well. I can't remember having as many double hookups as I did this year. It was fun. My wife and I had two doubles one morning and landed all four. If I had one complaint this year it would be the lack of enforcement of the ten mile per hour speed limit on the lake. I didn't see one police boat on the lake this year but lots of sleds and other assorted boats going full out on the lake. I just E-mailed a letter to the Deschutes County sherrif.We'll see if they respond. I'm really going to miss the Kokanee page. I've learned a lot and corresponded to a lot of great people. You know who you are. Thanks Robert for all the effort you have put into the page. It is a first class site. Best of luck to you and your family. Good fishing to the rest of you readers, Kirk

This report submitted by Kirk

July  13, 2002

My wife and I decided to take a couple of days of laid-back relaxation by running over to Paulina Lake from our home in Corvallis. We arrived late Thursday night and didn't start fishing until about 10am on Friday. We marked lots of fish in all my favorite spots, but were only able to come up with a couple of browns in the 12"-14" range. The majority of fish were using the 40' depth, but we were not able to interest the fish in anything we had in the box (we were strictly jigging). I had recently purchased an underwater viewing system, so dropped the camera down to 40', and what do you think I found? It seems the water at that depth was teeming with zooplankton. No wonder the fish were uncooperative. They must have been stuffed. When I put the camera down at 50' and 60', I found a much lower concentration of food. We fished for awhile on Saturday morning, but decided to call it quits after not being able to get anything going on a wide variety of lures. If nothing else, maybe this report can help someone make an informed decision on where to go in the next few days.

This report submitted by Jim

June 16, 2002

My wife and I went to Paulina Lake on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We fished for 2 hours on Friday, 9 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday. Only landed one Kokanee!!! I could not believe it! There were not too many people catching anything. Most of the action was on the northwest corner of the lake by the last birdhouse. The people that were catching the fish were using a
red Nordic .25 jig. That was the one Nordic I did not have. We drove all over Bend trying to find one and had no success, so I recommend bringing one with you. We trolled by the summer homes and got a couple bites but nothing to the boat. The fish are holding at approx. 45-50 feet. There are lots of fish but not a lot on shore. On Friday a 14.2 brown was taken from East Lake. Saw the picture while we were eating at the lodge on Friday night. We hope to get back over to Paulina in a couple of weeks. This time I am stopping and getting a red Nordic first!!! 

This report submitted by DELONMITSU@aol.com

June 16, 2002

Sunday Headed up late with the family to Paulina.  I dropped them off at the hot springs and I went off to fish around 2:30.  Started by the birdhouses with a pink bug behind a Vance's dodger.  After one pass over many fish I took Kirk's advice and put on a pink hoochie from R & K.  It was not more than 1 minute after dropping down to 35 feet that I had my first fish.  The fishing was slow but steady until 5 pm when the bite stopped cold.  I think the barometric pressure dropped with the approaching system.  I picked up 4 fat 12 inch Kokanee with the pink hoochie and lost two others right after the line release from the clip.  These fish really slammed the hoochie. After 5 I tried a variety of gear and nothing worked.  I also did not see any other fish caught so at 7 I packed it in.  I am always amazed at how red the meat is on these Paulina fish.

This report submitted by Brian

June 13, 2002

I made my first Kokanee trip of the season to Paulina Lake with two friends. I have split days off so this was a whirlwind trip. We arrived at the lake at about two on Tuesday and were on the water by four. I had heard from a friend that fishing for him had been good by the summer homes and group camp area of the lake. There were a few people jigging by the group camp and I was marking fish so we started trolling with apexes. We hit fish immediately and stayed in that area until about eight when wind and white caps made fishing difficult.  We finished the night with thirteen fish from eleven to fourteen inches with the average about 12 inches.
    We were on the lake at five this morning and this time headed over to the Northwest side of the lake. The bite was great. I put on a pink hootchie about ten inches behind a 4/0 silver Vance dodger and hit three fish in about five minutes. One of my friends did well with a red and white stripe Apex and the other caught fish on a pink and white spin and glow while flatlining.
    I tried using that fishhawk system that I bought at the sportsman's show and quickly put it back in my tackle bag. John Ward was right about practicing with it first. After the second tangle I was done. Maybe next trip.
    We finished getting our limit about ten. We had to work about two hours for the last two fish. Even with the double hook rigs I'll bet we lost ten plus fish, but had a great time. I was very impressed with hoochies on this trip. We hooked fish on pinks, orange glow and green, with pinks being the best producer. I use ten pound vanish and the fish were not spookie at all. I also had action on Wee tads in hot orange and pink but a lot of strikes resulted in no hook ups. I can't say why that was because I had the hooks well trailing behind the plug.
    One evening and a morning isn't much time to spend at the lake but I'll be back for a week later in the summer. Good fishing to you all, Kirk

This report submitted by Kirk

May 11, 2002

Saturday was at Paulina fishing for Kokanee by 8 am.  Started out by Little Crater campground.  Headed up the SW shore but marked few fish.  Finally caught a fish on the N shore by the birdhouses with an Apex.  Next fish was caught with a diamond blade spinner from R and K.  Found around 20 boats all jigging in the shallow area between the birdhouses and the red slide.  Trolled around that area twice with no hits.  After watching many fish
caught I switched to jigging.  It was slow for me but managed two more fish on a buzz bomb.  That slowed down so went back to trolling and right a way got my fifth fish with a pink bug.  Trolling with dodgers at 35 feet and Anise craw scented corn.  The fish were all 12 to 13 inches and getting fat. The water was 39 degrees.

Sunday evening putted around the Davis arm for about 1.5 hours at Wickiup with the wife and daughter enjoying the evening.  My daughter caught our only fish on a diamond blade spinner.  Marked many more fish than I did opening weekend.  Fished shallow setting the downrigger at 10 feet.
This report submitted by Brian

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