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July 9, 1997
3 of us fished Odell Lake July 4th, 5th, and 6th. We caught 25 kokanee over those 3 days mostly with trolling flashers and a green wedding ring with corn. The fishing seemed real good at times and then it would slow way down. Some folks seemed to be catching more fish than we were. I noticed one couple using dodgers behind a troll rigs attached to their downrigger ball. They seemed to be doing real well, but when I tried that I got nothing. We caught two fish jigging with green Nordics. Talked to one guy who had caught 15 jigging with a flame orange Nordic near Trapper Cr. campground. Most people were trolling. I heard of one group of 4 that caught 30 fish on 7-6 by trolling most of the day. We typically gave it up about 10:00 AM. We fished a variety of depths. We kept one rod on the surface all the time and fished the other two with downriggers at 50 and 60 feet, which seemed to be where most people using downriggers were fishing.

Odell Lake is really great place, and I hope to get the fishing figured out better over time. I talked with two different people who had been to Wickiup over the weekend and said it was a real bust. Huge quantities of insects on the water and the fish were just not biting. .
This report submitted by Dan

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July 2, 1997
Arrived at Odell Lake and had the boat in the water at 7:00am. First drop trolling a Wedding Ring I lost a fish because it hit it on the drop. I thought this was going to be another Odell Lake limit for sure. Between 7:00 and 8:00 I landed 8 fish. Not too bad as usual. What was unusual was the small size of the fish. The Suttle Lake Kokes were bigger and they were small. At 8:00 someone turned off the bite. I trolled and jigged till 1:00 with very few bites, sometimes through huge schools of fish, with no bites. So I ended up going home with only 9 small Kokes wishing I had got there at 6:00am. It was a beautiful day. Looked like other trollers did well early also. I marked huge schools of fish right in the middle of the lake and about half the way down. I have a feeling it will get better as the summer progresses. A guy at the gas station in Oakridge said Wickiup was red hot but seems to be cooling off and now Odell is picking up. Sure wish I lived closer.
This report submitted by Robert Nolan

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June 30, 1997
My daughter's boyfriend and I headed up to Odell lake Monday night. We were up early in the morning Tuesday, on the lake at 5:30. Being my first time at the lake we followed the other boats located around the Trapper creek area. It was dead calm so we tried jigging with Buzzbombs and Nordic jigs tipped with corn. After an hour with only one hit, watching the other jiggers lack of success, and the trollers being the only ones catching fish, we switched to trolling with wedding Rings. I was really expecting to see more fish on my finder. We trolled for two hours and pick up two. Then moved over to the rock slide and talked with a fellow who said I should have been here the other day, there were thousands at 40 feet.

We move down to the Princess creek area and had no luck. Saw one boat doing well using basically the same set up as I was, long lining flashers and wedding Rings with a 1/2 ounce banana weight. I was rowing because there was no wind, and they were trolling with a motor so maybe the fish liked a faster presentation? Yet I watched lots of people trolling with no luck. Over heard people say it was a slow day.

For lunch we headed to the other side of the lake, dropped anchor and fished worms off the bottom while we ate. We caught some nice white fish, one went about 17 inches. Fished for trout for a while until the wind picked up at 3:30.

We finished the day wind trolling at the Trapper creek area. Pick up only two more, this time with a green Wedding Ring not pink. It was a beautiful day however, and hot once the sun came out. Better luck next time.
This report submitted by Brian Russell

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June 9, 1997
Here is a report on fishing at Odell the weekend of 6-7-97 and 6-8-97. My son and I started out very early Saturday morning off Princess Creek. The fog came pouring in and it got windy fairly quickly. We anchored and jigged Nordics in about 100' of water and picked up one right off the bat but then switched over to trolling. We caught several trolling right on the surface with "Bolo" flashers, wedding ring, and corn. It looked like about 1/2 the boats were trolling and half jigging. We migrated up to the west end of the lake to get out of the wind and caught more jigging in about 115' feet of water right off of the rock slide. Fishing was probably in the fair category. We caught 11 the first day and then 4 more Sunday morning.

We were fishing next to one guy Sunday morning who was catching one right after the other. He was using a "glow in the dark" green Nordic and a piece of nightcrawler. He was literally outfishing my green Nordic about 10:1. I'm going to try and find some of those, as I think it would be a help in the low light levels of 100' down.

We saw literally thousands of fish go by on the fish finder at all depths. Odell is truly an amazing fishery. We were also delighted to see a pair of bald eagles. One word of advice for anyone fishing there is to take WARM clothing. We literally had ice form on the boat while we were fishing. I had left the side windows on the boat at home, and will remember those next time.
This report submitted by Dan

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May 18, 1997
I just got back from Odell Lake, can report lots of fish and excellent action. My brother and I escaped over Mother's Day weekend, just in time for the good weather. We got there about 10:00 am on Friday, ditched our stuff in the cabin, and hit the water with a friend.

We started over by what's called either "the cove" or Trapper Creek, the small bay around the corner from Shelter Cove resort. We brought the whole arsenal- jigs, corn, Dick Nights, Hus-Lures, flashers and anything else we could think of. The boat had downriggers, but we ended up not needing them, as in the Spring the fish can most easily be caught on the surface or near it.

We fished around the cove in an area about 100 feet deep, casting Buzz Bombs and Nordic jigs. We developed this surface technique some years ago, and have found it to be really effective and lots of fun. You cast out about 50 feet or so, and then raise your rod tip up quicklly, let the jig sink for a count of two or so, then reel two turns of the reel handle, then jig, reel again, etc. We only caught 3 or 4 in the first hour, small ones, so we moved down the lake to the Princess Creek boat ramp area. We fished there, doing what I call "drift-jigging", where you run the boat upwind and then cut the motor, setting the boat across the wind. You then cast perpendicular to the wind, and jig without reeling in much line. When the jig is directly down-wind, you point your rod downwind and jig it every 5 seconds or so. This covers lots of water, and for some reason the fish really hit the heck out of it. We quit at about 8:00 pm with 30 fish or so, and bigger than in the other part of the lake.

The next morning, we started at Princess Creek, and really got into them. There was no wind, so we stayed in that area most of the day. The three of us limited by late afternoon (75 fish), and had to quit. The best colors were hot pink 2" Buzz Bombs, a new yellow on one side black on the other Buzz Bomb, and a pink stripe Nordic. We also used size 4 red treble hooks, with a small piece of red tubing on the shank. I think this really helps We tried the corn when things slowed down, but it really didn't seem to matter.

Sunday, we went back out to Princess Creek and started getting them again. We quit at about 8:00 am with another 30 fish or so. The sun came out and it was still, and the fish moved off the shallows and pretty much quit biting. We weren't too disappointed, thinking about the ride back home and all the smoking and canning to be done.

Anyone with any questions about locations or techniques can e-mail me at trout@spiritone.com
This report submitted by Lane & Sabrina

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