Green Peter Reports 1999

October 25, 1999

Well, it is that time of year again and my biologist friend was back at GP for their yearly netting. This year was not as good as last(yes mike, those were Kokes in the nets last year). The netting last year was not a real surprise if you consider the amount of fish taken out of the lake and the size and quantity of fish that showed on the fish finder. It was an exceptional year. This year they got 20 Kokes. Almost all were males up to 14 inches. Wayne, the biologist, said that they were probably a little early because the females show up later. He said that they would definately plant the lake this coming spring. They will plant 100,000 fingerlings.

I asked Wayne about the difference from last year to this. He felt that the floods we had a couple of years ago, really affected this years fish. He felt that the mud and and debris scroured the spawning beds out and destroyed a large portion of the spawn.

Well, that is it for this year. I did not get to fish GP but three times. My oldest son wrecked my sled and that put an end to koke fishing for the summer. Hopefully next year, with a new boat, I'll be back on the lake. It is a great place to be even if the catching is not always the best.

This report submitted by Guy

September 10, 1999

A friend from worked fished GP yesterday with good luck. Between two they caught 17 and lost another 30 or so. The person he went with, last week caught 17 as well. They fished the south side and trolled with the wind back towards the island. My friend said that they were trolling fast and if the wind slowed so did the bite. They were also using smaller blades on their lures, like a size 1 or 0 behind a dodger. The fish are starting to turn and may only be good for smoking at this point.

This report submitted by Brian Russell

August 24, 1999

Robert, we finally went back up to Green Peter today. We were hoping for the best and expecting the worst. We fished from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and had five on and three landed for our effort. We started with Slim Jim Spinners and Red Wedding Rings. The two of us fished at 50 and 70 feet with one small hit without a real take at the deeper depth. We then talked to some folks who had caught one fish at 49 feet using a wedding ring and a 4" flasher. We tried several spots that normally produce a fish or two, but batted a big zero. We then ran towards the dam on the right side of the lake until the dam was in view and then cut our motor and wind drifted. I changed to a small flasher and a small white spin-n-glow with a couple of beads behind it. Within ten minutes I had three fish on, landing a couple of 11" kokes. We thought we had the answer so we with switched the other rod over to a similar set up. It was interesting that none of the fish fought worth a hoot, they just kind of came to the boat. Switching the other rod over put the curse on the catching. About 1:00 p.m. we were up the Quartzville Arm. We weren't watching the rods and when we looked up my buddy's line had "hung up on the bottom." We put the motor in neutral and he tried to reel the line in but in just kept moving out. Turned out to be a beautiful 15" kokanee. Once again we thought he had found the mother load, but that proved to be the end of our catching. At the dock we talked to a couple of gentlemen who were pulling out in front of us. They reported catching 15 or16 fish. They were using a standard setup. However they were using lead lines and 4oz.of lead. I had seen them drifting down the middle of the lake apparently dragging bottom. They also mention the lack of fight, however with that much lead in the water it's no wonder. The Corp. has already started to draw the lake down so it looks like this will be my last GP trip for this year. Sure hope that things get back to "normal" next year. I still wonder about the fish survey that was done last year and they said there were so many fish that ODFW wasn't going to stock the lake this year --- I wonder what they really were looking at and calling it fish?
This report submitted by Mike Morse

July 29, 1999

Visited Green Peter last thursday mostly to swim but did a little kokanee fishing while we were there. We started around 2 pm and tied to the middle of the logs. We had schools between 35 and 60 feet under us for most of the three hours we were there, but they were very thin and not like last years blackouts. My son caught the only fish which was a fat 12"er. We jigged the whole time and had several other bites but nothing else hooked. A friend of mine just got back from Paulina and caught 15 kokes and two smallish browns in two days. Most were caught trolling and the biggest was only 15". Two years back we were averaging 15".
This report submitted by Joe

July 23, 1999

One 13 inch Kokanee was all I could manage to catch today. I got on the water at 6:30 AM and fished until just past noon. I caught the one on north side of area 2 (down by the dam) and trolled area 3 as well. Fish was fat and full of eggs. Had the downrigger set at 50 feet and was using a red wedding ring with brass blade, tried nickel as well. Had only the flashers on the cannonball and wasn't using a dodger like I normally do. Don't think it would have made a difference anyway. Unless I see some positive reports with fish being caught in greater numbers, I don't think I'll fish GP again this year. I've been up there two or three times a month since the beginning of trout season and have managed a grand total of three kokanee for my effort. Now don't get me wrong, I love to just be up there fishing, but some significant catching would make me more willing to go back.
This report submitted by Doug S.

July 20, 1999

My son Sam and I had a great time at the Green Peter. We were able to experience wind, calm, rain, sun and thunder showers. Along with the adventure we were even able to catch 13 kokanees. We experience early release with about three times as many. We finally found what worked best for us. We ran a set of Slim Jim spinners with a red wedding ring/silver blade behind it. Depth was 40 to 45 feet. We showed most of the fish in the Quartz Creek Arm. I spent most of the day proving what wouldn't work. I went through four different colors of dodgers. I used several different lures, including some home made standbys that never use to fail. Today, even the newest design, the Pink Weenie, failed to put a fish in the boat however it was good for a couple strikes. We did mark a good number of fish, but our strike to mark ration was very poor. Sometimes I swear I'll never go back, well, not till next week anyway.

It's interesting that what worked today is what I first started fishing with a number of years ago. Because I prefer dodgers over spinners I really tried to make that work. If I would have switch over and if we would have used a net we would have had quite a few more fish. Having a wonderful day was the main purpose and that went great.
This report submitted by Mike Morse

????

My friend and I age dyed in the wool Green Peter Kokanee lovers. Our most recent outings have been strange and frustrating. His girlfriend and I made the trip mid June and expected to catch many fish as is common for us. We fished all morning at 40 to 60 ft. with little luck. About mid day we changed tactics and found trout fishing good but only caught 2 Kokes all day. This past weekend six of us went for the weekend and fished hard for two days. Not one Kokanee just trout. I fished from 20 to over 90 feet. Marked plenty of fish but no luck. This is very strange and we are puzzled. We usually can count on at least close to a limit every time. Where are the fish?

PS It is still my favorite lake.
This report submitted by Lake Troll

July 9, 1999

I took the day off from work and went to Green Peter with my nine year old son. We arrived at day light and started trolling right out from the dock and headed to the island. It started kind of slow for the first hour. By the time we got to the island, we( I should say my son) started hooking Kokes. It is amazing how fish can be attracted to one side of the boat. We fished identical rigs, identical depth and Jon caught 13 of the 18 fish we go into the boat. It was a great day for Jon and he was very good at letting me know about it.

We were fishing at a depth of 38 feet. Eight of the fish were 12 and 13 inches in very good shape. The rest were in that 9 to 10 inch length. They all wound up in my smoker. We marked quiet a few fish up at about the 40 to 50 foot level, something we had not been seeing in our other trip to the lake. Maybe with some real summer weather, the fishing will continue to improve. At least this day was encouraging.
This report submitted by Guy

July 8, 1999

Fished from 7 to 11 and came home with 5 fish: one fairly skinny 13 1/2"er, one 12 1/2"er, one 12"er, two 10 1/2"ers, turned one 9"er loose.  I lost four at the boat.  I fished on the East side of the lake in the cove across from the island.  The fish seemed to be at 52 feet, I didn't try deeper but should have.  I marked very little on the fish finder again, one good school at 52 feet and some fish on the bottom at 100 feet.  Got to get ready for work tomorrow.   Thinking of fishing Odell Sunday/Monday. 
This report submitted by Robert

July 4, 1999

Went Kokanee fishing with my friend at Green Peter Dam on July 4th. Like the Oregon weather this year, one thing predictable about Kokanee fishing at Green Peter Dam this year is that nothing is predictable. I have been trolling for Kokanee in the last few weeks at 50ft with highly unusual statistics. I will get some nice 13" plus Kokanee in one day but 8"~9" baby Kokanee exclusively on another day at same depth and with same lure. I checked the stomach of those baby Kokanee and none of them has eggs in it. I believe they are for next year so expect some big one next year.

We started to troll eastward from the dam at about 9:00am and lake was calm. As usual I tied my 4-blade Beercan flasher to my downrigger ball and a Sep's fluorescence dodger in front of my red Wedding Ring tipped with corn & worm. Based on my experience, the fluorescence dodger seems make a big difference in Green Peter Dam since the water is usually not very clear. I like to put snubber in front of dodger so the lure has more wobbling actions. I started to troll @0.8 mph at 35ft to 50ft deep and picked up a few Kokanee/ trout along the way. I noticed that all Kokanee were caught at 50ft (but not 35ft) so I decided to drop the lure down to 50ft and 60ft. More fish were caught at 60ft after that. We took off from the lake at 4:15pm with 10 Kokanee and 5 trout. Most fish are 13" plus and fat. To my best estimate, the sweet spot for Kokanee is about 60~80ft deep while trout is at about 20~30ft deep.

This report submitted by Chien-Hua Chen

June 26, 1999

Went to Green Peter Saturday (6/26) to try my luck with the Kokes. Given the bad reports, I was trying to figure out if the fish were just holding in a different place do to the extra snow run off. I started out just looking around the island with the fish finder to see what I could find. There were some Kokes there, but they were all over 100' deep. After that I headed up the Quartzville Creek arm. I was guessing that they just had not really settled down in the lake yet. The theory was that the shallower water might warm up a little bit better and put them on the bite. Well the water had warmed up. I saw one of the best thermal clines I had ever seen. It was very strong and constant all the way up the arm. The funny thing about was, that there were no fish hanging around it. I did mark fish again, but as before they were all way deep. I decided to try the other arm with fisherman's bridge, but mark no Kokes around it (and subsequently had no bites). After that, I decided to try jigging at the tubes. On the way, I saw a friend and asked him how he was doing. He said he caught a couple of small 8" Kokes, and some trout. He said if you wanted to catch trout, put your rig down around 15 to 20 feet. I decided to call it a day and switch over to the trout and troll my way back in. The trout were pretty easy to pick up. I lost a couple, and ended up only putting a couple in the boat, but then again I did not really troll very long for them. The trout were pretty nice. It seems if you want and easy limit of trout, just troll the arms at the thermal cline and you can't go wrong. By the way, I found the way you can tell the trout from the Kokes on the fish finder. If you see a fish and actually get a bite, then it was a trout.
This report submitted by Brad

June 26, 1999

Well, it was a beautiful day. I arrived at the lake at 4:30 in the morning. I love it at first light at the lake. It was a little breezy and chilly to start, but the lake was almost empty of boats and people for most of the morning. It felt kind of strange for a Sunday not to be working my way among jet ski's and all the other pleasure craft that normally share the lake.
This report submitted by Guy

Fishing was great, but as they say the catching was not so great. I managed 6 Kokes and 2 trout. All of the Kokes were small. All of the bites came across from the Island on the rocky points. There seems to be alot of fish at least on the fish finder, but very few seemed to be eager to bite. The water was beautiful and fairly clear. Hope fully things will pick up as the summer gets into full swing.

June 24, 1999

I didn't expect much so I wasn't disappointed by the poor fishing.  I did mark a few fish off reference point #4 but the bites happened across the lake on the opposit side by the point across from the island.  I had 6 bites trolling at 38 feet but only landed two of these.  The fish were 11'ers.  I searched the lake looking for fish and ended up catching a planter at the tubes.  In three hours of looking and fishing, the two were it for the morning.  I'm sure if I had wanted to fish the whole day I could have caught more but it just didn't seem worth the effort.   The boat ramp was empty when I got there and only had two other rigs when I left.  
This report submitted by Robert

June 20, 1999

I went up to Green Peter this Father's day with a friend from work and his son. We got there at 11 am not rushing the morning because of the poor reports we have heard lately. As soon as we were out of the opening of Thistle creek and in to the reservoir, we started to mark fish scattered between 70 and 28 feet with some even closer to the surface which we surmised were trout. We put out two downriggers and one long line. Started off the downriggers with just dodgers and wedding rings-nothing. And there were fish every where, nonstop. We finally managed one nice fat fish with the beercan flashers and rainbow dodger in front of a red wedding ring. We tried many different combinations of flashers, dodgers, and lures and different depths, but no biting fish. Again we were trolling through just school after school of fish. It looked like Odell to me.

Being frustrated we headed to the tubes and tried jigging. Again there were fish all over the place. Right a way I hooked and lost a fish, had another break my leader, then it went weird. For about half an hour, every drop down the bait was taken from the buzz bombs; corn, worm, everything. It was almost impossible to detect a bite and I was using Fireline. The bite just stopped so we left the tubes at 3. We wind trolled back in until it started to rain. When I raised my downrigger my line had tangled with the flashers. As I untangled the mess, the dodger and lure were still in the water 6 feet back. I felt a tug and looked up and there was a kokanee that had hit the lure 6 feet behind the boat and just 1 foot under the surface?? Go figure. We might have done better fishing in the top 10 feet all day. It was odd that this fish was skinny, but the one caught at 45 feet was fat.

The best part of the day was the lack of pleasure craft on the reservoir. It made for a peaceful day. I that think once the lake settles and stratifies the fishing will be great. We saw so many fish it seemed crazy that more were not biting.
This report submitted by Brian Russell

June 15, 1999

Here is a picture of my daughter Amanda with 13 1/2" kokanee caught at Green Peter on June 15. Been averaging about a dozen kokanee a trip, which sounds better than most, but hopefully kokanee fish will improve. Been catching most of my kokanee at 45 feet on the east side of the lake.
This report submitted by Bill Kremers

June 10, 1999

Went up to Green Peter on 6-10 to try to catch some Koke's for the first time this year. Where are the kokanee this year? Trolled around the island with no luck. Decided to run up to Talley Cr. and Flats area. Still no luck. Went up to the dam and trolled that area and still no fish. Marked very few on the fish finder. Last year the fishing was good the first part of May and I had several limits in my freezer and smoked already. Oh well, it was a beautiful sunny day to spend out on the lake. Maybe they're waiting for a few more sunny days like this to go on the bite.

This report submitted by Jim Middlestadt               

May 26, 1999

Went to Green Peter Res. With the hope of good weather and pick up a few Kokanee. Well, the weather was so-so, West wind blowing from the start, and no Kokanee showing on the depth finder. Went to the dam, I thought I saw a few fish at 160', man that's deep. From there went to the Island. Picked up a couple of small Rainbows and released them. Fished all depths from 85' to 20', still no Kokanee. Got tired of fighting the wind and pulled out at noon. Every one I talked to did about the same as I did, blame it on not knowing the reservoir and the full moon.

This report submitted by Gary

May 23, 1999

My friend who taught me how to fish for Kokanee went up to the lake on Sunday the 23rd. It was the first time out for him this year. He managed to catch a couple of trout, a couple of small Kokanee that he released and 6 keeper kokanee. One of which was in the 11 to 12 inch range. He did mark two large schools of Kokanee off the island. They were 90 to 100 feet deep, but he caugth all of the fish near the surface. They did not come easy, but he did put some fish in the boat.

He was amazed at the amount of water in the lake and the amount of floating material on the lake. He also was kind of depressed about the number of pleasure boats and jet skiis at the lake. He spent most of his time dodging the boaters while trying to fish. He really did not think about the first real day of summer wheather and use of the lake by all who enjoy the beauty of Green Peter. All in all, he had a great day. He thinks that it will be a good year for Kokanee once the water clears up, the water level gets back to semi-normal and some consistant summer weather hangs around.

I will not be able to get to Green Peter for a couple of weeks, but I will get there and hope to see some of you.

This report submitted by Guy

May 24, 1999

Today we fished about five hours with only a seven-inch throwback to show for our efforts. It took a while, but we finally found fish as we motored through one of the many debris piles. About that time the wind kick up and we went to wind drifting for them. We marked a number of fish as we did a SW to NE drift heading towards the island. We made four passes over them but could buy a bite. We also mark a good number of fish up the West side of the Whitcomb Creek arm. We were unable to make any purchases there. We then tried the West side of Thistle Creek and again marked a good number of fish, but they weren't the least bit interested. Throughout the day we only saw one other fish caught. We talked to several boaters from the dam to both ramps and didn't find anyone that connected. Things of interest: the sheriff was putting the slow buoys out for the ramps and the Corp. of Engineers were cleaning debris off the lake. Without the wind to help corral the wood in a small area they are going to have one tough job. The fellow we talked said that they have been at it for a week, but there is so much wood in the water that it looks like they have done nothing. He says he has never seen it this bad and I certainly agree with him.
This report submitted by Mike Morse

April 24, 1999
Well, I got the boat out for the first time this year. I took my two girls up to Green Peter in an attempt to catch some Kokanee. Since I was tending their poles, the motor, the food, and lastly, my pole, I did not fish real hard. I set them up for trout, and mine for the Koke's. I did mark a few in the 60' to 90' range, but no biters. I put my gear down between 40' to 60' and just left it there. The girls picked up a couple of the stocker trout, but nothing real big. When we were putting in (not until 11:00am), I talked to a boat that was coming out. They only caught two. The fish are still pretty far up the arms. Next time out, I am going to head way up the Quartville creek arm for starters.
This report submitted by Brad

April 17, 1999

I took my daughter fishing today at GP, first time out this year for both of us. She is seven and is the most patient little fisherman I know. This was a trip just for her and we were after the freshly planted Rainbows in the Thistle creek arm. The first fish we caught though was an eight inch Kokanee, and I marked a large school of what I"m assuming was Kokes just up the arm from the boat ramp across from the point everyone camps on. They were holding in about forty feet of water. That was the only Koke we caught, our catch for the day was four Rainbows and the one Kokanee. The bank fisherman by the culvert said they caught one Kokanee.

This report submitted by Doug S.

April 16, 1999

Fishing report and boatramp update by Rick Hale

Click on the link to see an up to date report for Green Peter Reservoir.   Please note that as his reports are received I have to delete his previous pictures to conserve space on the server.  Lets hope he keeps his new digital camera working.   These are great pics!
Link to boatramp report
This report submitted by Rick Hale

April 12, 1999

Well Morgan and I made it to Green Peter yesterday. On the way over we were privileged to witness a world class sunrise that was majestic. We talked about it a number of times as we enjoyed a nine hour boat ride and lake tour. No bites. Talked to three other boats who matched our record. I did try out my new Scotty Mini line releases. I don't know how they work on fish, but when we went to check our lures they pulled out smoothly and with very little effort.
This report submitted by Mike Morse

January 13, 1999

Another Green Peter boat ramp UPDATE

I called the Linn County Parks department again today to check on the status of Thistle Creek boat ramp. I talked with a man named Brian, who is the parks director (I think). He said the boat ramp may not be completed this year. The mud slides and high water have slowed work. Most of the gravel will be laid this year, and the concrete will most likely be poured next winter. Brian said that when the ramp is not being worked on boats can be launched using the old road. Work will also stop by the end of February because that is the time the water level increases in the reservoir. I also asked if this new ramp was related to the Willamette river levels and the future possibility that the GP would have lower levels in the summer. He said that the boat ramp project has been in the works for years and is not related to the Willamette study. He is also opposed to the lowering of GP in summer months. After reading the book by Dave Biser and the examples of Kokanee populations declining when humans started to fluctuate reservoir levels, I mentioned that the lower water levels could adversely affect the Kokanee population at GP. He recommended that we write letters to a few key people studying the Willamette project. When he passes those names on to me, I will send them on to you.
This report submitted by Brian Russell