Mount Hood non-report

I was going stir crazy at work last week, looking out the window when the blue skies appeared and thinking about grabbing my boat and heading out to Sauvie Island... didn't happen.  Instead, I got up yesterday morning with the goal of taking the kayak (and my dog) out to explore some place new.  Despite the grey skies and 60 degree temps in Portland, I decided to head up to Clear Lake on the East side of Mount Hood.

Clear Lake is a small irrigation reservoir that is heavily stocked with rainbow trout.  Supposed to have some nice sized holdovers, as well as some naturally reproducing brook trout.  Small motor boats are allowed, and there is a pretty large campground (as well as dispersed camping around the lake.)

Well, upon my arrival at the boat ramp yesterday afternoon, the air temp was 49 degrees and the wind was howling.  Whitecaps all over the lake, and just 3 or 4 motor boats out in it, plus one crazy pontoon guy (he looked to have anchored in hopes of the wind dying down).  After a few minutes of deliberation, the dog and I decided to explore a bit more, and headed off to drive down a logging road that partially circles the lake.  The wind was coming from the west, and the boat ramp is on the easternmost bay... my thought was that the areas to the west might be a bit more sheltered.

Well, sort of.  The drive was a bit of an adventure for several reasons.  First, the "dispersed" camp sites looked a bit like a scene from deliverance at times.  Second, there was a big emergency services truck on the road that appeared to be lost (I tried to head down a spur to the lake, and halfway down saw a giant Dodge diesel truck with an ambulance "box" on the back trying to swerve between trees and climb back up the road.  Did some hasty backing up to get out of his way... then found him again a mile or so down the road, trying to turn around.  I stopped and waved to see if they needed some help with directions (not that I would have been a ton of help), but they just waved and kept on going.

Our new Jeep is a great vehicle for this kind of stuff, but Chrysler being what it is, they didn't equip the thing with skid plates under the transfer case and transmission as standard equipment (those are part of the "off road group" optional equipment package).  Anyway, ours is a diesel and the oil filter is on the back of the engine, pretty exposed between the oil pan and transmission... not a nice place for rocks.  And there were a LOT of rocks on these access roads.  Kept having visions of my wife waiting for me at the Jeep place in Gresham, asking how it is I managed to kill our new truck within 2000 miles of us taking ownership.

The dog and I managed to keep the oil inside the engine and make it to the lake, but the weather was beyond nasty by that point.  Drops of rain had begun to fall, and the wind was still howling.  The southwest bay on the lake was more sheltered, and I don't think my Hobie would have had any trouble trolling in the light chop and wind.  But was cold, and the rain looked like it was really going to come down.  After a brief walk around the lake, the dog beat me back to the Jeep was ready to get in and get out of the wind.  We timed it just right... within half an hour the bottom fell out, with a huge rainstorm that even had big wet snowflakes mixed in.

Bottom line -- Clear Lake looks kind of promising, but it is not on my short list to go back to.  Laurence Lake, Lost Lake, Timothy, etc... seem like much more scenic alternatives.

Well, look at it this way... reading about the trip was enjoyable.

May not have been directly related to fishing but a fun read. Nice adventure and thanks for the report!

Z

 I did what 3wt did, except it was last Saturday and Sunday at Timothy. And I actually got in the water. And the air temp was pretty warm. And the road was paved. And there was no adventure,,,
Okay, we were both in Oregon.

 I was looking for mudbugs and trying new stuff. I didn’t fish but I should have. I went initially on Saturday with the family, but it was blowing at bit too hard to take the kids out.  So I set and ran a couple of strings of traps and did surprisingly well (about 6 lbs for a couple of hours). It was getting late, so I moved both strings to the other side of the lake and left them to soak overnight. That was about 7 pm and some hatch went off and the surface was dimpling and smacking all over the shoreline (Now I needed a 3wt).
 I returned Sunday morning and brought spinning gear (just in case). The wind was blowing white caps most of the time and the Hobie performed almost flawlessly. I also played with a sail I've had for a while that I made for my inflatable. It was considerably less flawless, but it has potential. The Mirage fins made pretty good keels and for a while I could actually get the thing to point a bit under sail.
 But the drive really shined in the chop and wind! A couple in a canoe and a couple of life raft style inflatables were blow backwards and turned around and came in. I pedaled right into the teeth and the gps said 4 mph with little effort. The waves crashing over the bow made it look like "Victory at Sea" (except these waves were maybe a foot and a half). It was great!
I ran the traps for about 8lbs and that was all for the crawfish. I ended up with about 1/2 a sack or so. Not bad, but not particularly good for 8 hours of driving (total time)
 Oh, I also practiced re-entry in deep water and not by accident (well, more or less) I was already in the water fiddling with the sail near shore and stepped a little farther out before I remembered that the bottom falls off very quickly here.  The neoprene waders and dry top worked fine and were not too uncomfortable in the heat. My neck seal leaked a bit and I’ll have to fix that before winter.  I also found that I can’t swim as fast as the boat can drift.  The boat was tethered to the traps so it didn’t go far and I was not all out sprinting to catch it. But it quickly got father away than I could reach with a casual stroke.  (Time to reconsider the leash to the boat).

 Overall it was a nice couple of days on the water. This looks like a great place to cut you teeth in yakfishing. Nice campgrounds, clean water, nice launch and its very accessible.

Maybe we ought to plan a group outing or a day in the water?

>Maybe we ought to plan a group outing or a day in the water?

This sounds like fun. My son has been bugging me about getting a chance to ride in "dad's new kayak" since April. This would be perfect.

If there's interest, we should start a new thread on this outing.

--
Mike

The fly fishing community over on the Westfly site occasionally organizes fly fishing "rendezvous" at various locales around the NW, where folks get together to fish, drink beer, and swap lies...er... tell stories.

Would be interesting to try a similar format for a kayak get together.  Timothy would certainly be a great locale for Portland-area folks.

The fly fishing community over on the Westfly site occasionally organizes fly fishing "rendezvous" at various locales around the NW, where folks get together to fish, drink beer, and swap lies...er... tell stories.

Would be interesting to try a similar format for a kayak get together.  Timothy would certainly be a great locale for Portland-area folks.

Just do it!   

-Allen

Make it a Sunday and I'll have one of Joe's fine rentals out there too...

Unfortunately, I'm the worst guy in the world to organize it (at least in the near future).  Between work and chores (somehow I got suckered into repainting the exterior of our house) fishing time is a mythical thing to me right now.