Lake Billy Chinook Report

Fished Lake Billy Chinook to ring in the spring solstice. The object of my desire was Bull Trout. I had never fished the lake before but my research revealed that the Metolius arm offered my best chance. I launched around 9 AM from the South Perry ramp and worked my way up the Metolius arm tossing spinners and catching nothing more than some rays while taking in the awesome views.

After a while I switched to trolling flatfish. A short while later I hooked and landed a 1.5 lb steelhead! Some kind super smolt or some fish who got lazy and thought "I don't need no f*cking ocean".

About 30 minutes later the same rod trolling a copper U20 flatfish buried and I brought in a nice Bull Trout. What a cool fish! I was super stoked to connect with this species for my big fishing year (species #20).





Later I started catching kokanee on the flatfish. I forfeited one bull trout rig and dropped a Shasta tackle sling blade and hoochie spinner in the water. Then came the most epic kokanee bite I had ever been on. Not more than 3 minutes would pass between bites and they were slamming my gear left and right. I started releasing them after catching 4 decent size fish (limit is 5) just so I could keep catching them. It was three hours of non-stop kokanee action. A total blast!



I camped at South Perry and then fished the Deschutes arm the next day. It was really beautiful with lots of wildlife just no fish.



A great trip. Catching a Bull Trout was really cool and the awesome kokanee bite only reinforced them as one of my favorite fish to target from a kayak in the Cascadia region. The first step is admitting you have a problem. I am koke addict.

Nice report. I fish Lake Billy Chinook every Memorial weekend.

willbd

Sweet. LBC is where I caught my first bull. Congrats.

Nice work!

Beauty of a Bull Trout, Congrats!  Looks like you had an awesome day!

Man I've started looking forward to your videos more and more. Awesome stuff! Love the underwater footage of the koke chasing the lure around - outstanding. Sounds like you hit a great bite and way to go adding bull trout to the list. I don't know how you have time to fish so much, but it's awesome!

Really nice video and fishing report.  Looks like a blast!

Wow! What a great presentation of your outing! I have never used a Shasta rig but will add it to my arsenal.  It looks like the trolling depth was pretty shallow, with very little weight. That is a great place to go and enjoy epic scenery while fishing, and some times you have it all to yourself!

I was in the the confluence of the Metolious and Crooked river arm (right in  front of the dam) in Feb, pretty slow fishing but there were both Bull and Kokes getting caught.  The Kokanee action was not even in the ballpark to what you experienced.  I saw most Bull Trout trollers were using down riggers with cut herring- and going verrry slow.  I saw 3 Bull Trout boated, one was a 29" and the other two 21"-23".  One of those smaller Bull Trout took a Kokanee rig- it looked like a Shasta troller from a distance.  The weather was pretty cold, but sunny.  I'm looking foreword to using one of those Shasta rigs it looked great in the waster.
Thanks!
Scott