Reports for Odell Lake 2001

I was at Odell fishing 8-20 thru the am. of 8-22. We fished Monday the 20th with fair results. The first hour (6 to 7 am.) was best with slower action until about 10 when we quit. We ended up with 12 koks for two rods...not very impressive for Odell. We tried all depths and most of our gear. Most fish were caught at 50 to 60 ft. Dodgers and spinners worked best and the color working was pink. Later, I found that some
people did fairly well targeting the shallow fish at 20 to 30 ft. The koks ran 12 to 14 in. and some were just beginning to show mature features. The weather was pleasant with the usual wind increase late in
the morning.

Tuesday was cool and cloudy. It was also my worst day ever in over 20 yrs of fishing Odell. Our two rods accounted for 2 fish caught between 6 am to 12:30 pm. We tried everything we had including stuff we've never tried. Every method was equally productive...or equally unproductive. Again, I found that the few moderately successful results came shallow with pop gear or ford fenders followed with spinners. I tried again in the afternoon for a couple of hours fishing shallow with pink wedding ring spinners and managed to land 5 fish. Most were the smaller class at about 10 in. We enjoyed an excellent dinner of alder barbecued koks before the night rains commenced. It was steady rain for most of the night, but Wednesday morning was cloudy and calm without rain. My schedule to leave early left me with only a couple of hrs. to fish. Of all the depths from the top to 70 ft. I had the most bites at 30 ft. Lots of short bites. Only 3 koks in the boat when I had to quit. They ran 11 to 13 in. The boats were primarily working the West end from Shelter Cove to Burley Bluff and from there Eastward out to Windy Point. On Monday we caught some fish as far East as the Railroad Slide. My screen showed the fish to be scattered with no big schools.
Only a very few of the anglers did well in my observations. Mostly the Odell "regulars" who are there most of the summer. Lots of skunks reported. I have heard that a big drop in the pressure can really turn off the kok bite; so that's my excuse. I can't come up with anything else because I usually do much better here.

This report submitted by John

We opted to fish Odell in the morning and Crescent in the afternoon the 27th. I wish we had fished Crescent the 28th too. We put in at 6:30 and were quickly into a fish or too. But the fish were not there in the numbers I usually see them, nor were they there in the usual spots. Normally I would knock them dead at 100 feet on the bottom at the West end of the lake. Not today. Instead we marked fish from the west end almost to the middle of the lake. But they would only bite in front of the marina on the south shore and at only 35 feet deep. The weather was quite miserable, a heavy cold mist of a rain put a damp on the three hours we fished. We left with 13 fish 12" and over, only one of which was 14". All in all it was pretty good fishing. I think Crescent has more fish this year though.

This report submitted by Robert

Went to Odell this weekend, fished Sat am., evening, and Sun am. Fishing was excellent, but definitely an early morning fishery. From 6 am. to 8 am. I averaged 7 fish per hr. But after 8 am. the average went down to 2 or 3 per hr. After 10 am. maybe 1 per hr. Evening average was 4 per hr. Early, the best action was at 40 to 50 ft. After 8 am. the best depth was 60 to 70 ft. Nice sized fish for Odell. The average size was 13.5 in. I caught very few under 12 in. and several each time over 14 in. with one over 15. Most experienced anglers also had excellent results. The fish cleaning station at Shelter Cove was very busy. I had my best results with small Hoochies and spinners behind a # 000 dodger. The lake was less crowded than I expected on a weekend maybe due to Thursday's bad weather. The fish were very thick and healthy looking...no parasites.

This report submitted by John

Nancy and I spent five days at Odell, 18th through the 22nd. The weather was great. We brought home 73 Kokanee and lost probably that many or more. On Friday as we were getting ready to pull the boat out I was talking to a couple that limited out by 11:30 and asked what they were doing different than we were as we only got nine fish. They were not jigging like the rest of us, the standard jigging method. they had a 1/2 oz. Banana sinker with about a 4 ft. leader and used worms and corn letting it all the way down then reeling it up the three or four feet so it was close to the bottom. Just wished I had talked to them when we were putting the boat in the water instead of taking it out.

This report submitted by Jack & Nancy Botts

Made a speed run to Odell Lake on Friday, trolled till noon, caught only two fish worth keeping, released several in the 8" class. Went to camp and had them for lunch. After lunch went to Trapper Creek, spotted some fish on the finder and started jigging, caught 7 more before dinner. Saturday morning went back to Trapper Creek, lots of boats, pick a spot and started jigging, not fast action but just picked up fish now and then. When I quit for the day I had 18. The fish where 11" to 13", I was jigging in 108' of water. Had three Mac's on, got one to boat, it was 19". Weather was ok, no rain but the wind was blowing Friday afternoon and a moderate wind all day Saturday. All in all a good trip.

This report submitted by Gary

Myself and three friends went to Odell lake on Thursday, May 31st and did real well. We got a late start and didn't get on the water until about 7:00am, but as soon as we got anchored up we started catching fish. All the Koke's we caught were in the 12 to 14 inch range and were nice and fat...

We fished the Trapper creek area in about 110 feet of water and used, Buzz Bombs and Nordic's in the colors of , Reds and Oranges. We had a couple of Mac's chancing the Kokanee around , and even had two take our kokanee from us right at the boat.. what a sight..

The weather was great, and as usual the wind picked up about noon and we came off the lake at that time. We managed to bring home 70 nice fish for the smoker though.. And am itching to head back up for another day at Odell...

Good fishing

This report submitted by Don

I went fishing at Odell from 5/26 to 5/28 with some friends. I took home 60 fish that averaged about 12 inches with a fair number between 13 and 14, and one or two a little bigger.

Most fish were caught jigging just off the bottom in 90 feet of water with buzz bombs that has some chartreuse color. We saw some people just landing one after the other using a jig made by the Lure Guys out of Eugene. We caught most with the use of corn when the bite started. Very early in the morning we did better without corn.

We trolled after 10 am and did well using green willow troll flashers from R&K or ford fenders. I started using double hooks, also from R&K, on my lures and lost far far fewer fish than my friends using single hooks. When I was using dodgers inline with my lure I was out fished by the rods with flashers inline. As much as I hated to, the last day I switch from the dodger to flashers and started to catch more fish. We were fishing between 35 and 60 feet and getting fish at all levels all over the lake when we trolled. The gold blade the wedding rings out fished the silver or the nickel.

This report submitted by Brian

Went to Odell Lake 5/17/01 to 5/20//01, fishing was fair to good depending on who you where talking to. Limits where being taken by some and others were not going so good. It depended on how you where fishing and the place you where fishing. It is a big lake and hard to fish all the spots. Some where good in the morning while others where good in the afternoon. It also seemed to change day to day. I didn't limit, but I didn't do to bad either. I mostly jigged, every jig I used I caught fish. I trolled them some times, and fished them on the surface, and also fished them on the bottom, they all worked. I did see a lot of fish around 40'. The weather was good, but got forced of the lake on thursday and saturday afternoon by the wind.

This report submitted by Gary

Good Morning! We went on our annual "boys only" fishing trip to Odell from Tues the 15th thru Fri the 18th. The fishing was great, but the weather hurt us the first two days. Tues rain, Wed snow.

The kokes are running larger this year at Odell & seem to be heavier. Our group had some hot rods in it & some got limits, but most got around 18 fish a day. Mostly on either chrome or red buzz bombs. Fish were in the upper 30 feet of water most of the time, until Friday when they went to the bottom. When it got windy, we trolled with the wind & had limited success, because we found it hard to get them in the boat when you are trolling that fast. We visited Wickiup on Thurs & only caught 1 koke in about 3 hours. Lots of boats & we only saw about 1/2 dozen caught between everyone fishing. tom

Went to Odell Lake 5/10/01 thru 5/13/01, the weather was great, even warm at night, no long johns. Fishing was good, caught some trolling, 40' with the downrigger, two colors with lead core. Most of my fish where caught jigging. The fish where running 11" to 14" with most in the 12" to 12 1/2" range.

This report submitted by Gary

I took my family and Mom and Dad to Odell Sunday, May 6 through Tuesday, May 8. The fishing was great. I was advised by the store at Shelter Cove to use a bright orange or pink Nordic for the Kokanee. I only had buzz bombs in chrome, orange, and white with pink. They worked just fine with the addition of corn. It turned out, we didn't always need the corn. I started with single Gamakatsu hooks. After several missed fished, I started adding a second hook for myself and the kids (#4 and #6). We began to net many more fish with the double hooks. The fish were fairly scattered from 30 to 60 feet. Fishing seemed best for us near Princess Creek early in the morning and switched towards the West end later in the day. The sun was out and we had more people than room in our little 12' boat. We didn't fish all that hard and came home with 35. The fish were nice, with most near 12 inches. We only got about 3 or 4 near the 8 inch size. Another fisherman said he had never seen the fish this big this early in the season. I also saw a lot of other boats catching fish on jigs, with many double hook-ups.

This report submitted by Jeff

May 6, 2001
Our first kokanee trip of the year was a dandy. Three of us fished Odell Saturday May 5 and Sunday May 6. The weather was windy and snowy on Saturday morning. I had a hard time getting the boat anchored. I had to
put a second anchor on the chain to hold us down. We were in the Princess Cr. area in about 90 feet of water. The fishing was outstanding. At one time all three of us had a fish on. We were jigging with orange buzz bombs by casting out and jigging back to the boat fairly aggressively. The fish were in the top 4 feet of the lake. My son and I had 25 fish limits in 2 - 3 hours. Our friend was new to jigging so we came out later in the day for him to finish out his limit.

Sunday was a slower day. The lake was still and the fish were not hitting well. We switched over to trolling (Bolo troll rig followed by homemade orange bead, silver plate spinner blade and white corn) and did manage to boat 16. We talked to one guy and his friend with 50 fish that day. They had stayed with it jigging orange Nordics. By the way the fish are nice size this year. We caught fish up to 14 inches, and probably averaged 12
inches.

This report submitted by Dan