Lake Billy Chinook

Anyone else yak fish LBC for bull trout? I've been fishing it for years from a boat, last year was the first from a kayak. Fishing was slow, but was rewarded with 1 9 pounder.

Nice fish!!  How do they taste???  On a par with rainbow or lakers???

They actually eat really good (kind of between rainbow and mac) nice orange flesh. I prefer smoking them. They were a local favorite up here in Idaho before they stopped allowing harvest.

Nice feesh.  Can you keep them on LBC?

-Allen

Allowed harvest is 1 bull, 24 inch minimum. Rumor is that the limit may increase or change to slot limit (e.g. 2 fish 16-26"). There are some management changes in the works to re-introduce sea run steelhead, chinook and sockeye, so there may be an effort to reduce the bull population. We'll see when the 2009 regs come out.

More LBC porn. This bull was 15 pounds caught in 2005 (exeptional year), before my kayak days.

Jeez, that second fish is a pig.

Greetings Kam,  I have fished BC for years.  Lot's of fun to be had on this lake.  I prefer the Deschutes arm above the bridge.  I start my fishing where the river and lake temps collide, creating that mat of debri ontop the water.  I like to cast black/silver rapala 5" to the shore and retrieve.  Quite a mixed bag of fish, Browns, Redside, and of course the predacious Bull Trout. 

My best choice for success is during spring when the rivers are off color, the edge of the current to the shore usually has a nice 5-10 feet of clarity.  I find the big predator trout hanging in the edge waiting for a meal, and bam! 

Ever set any crawdad traps?  Nice addition to the table fare!
Tight lines,
Scott   

Hi Scott, From a boat I usually fish from the narrows area to the dam and on up the Metolius arm as far up as the inflow targeting bulls specifically. We do get an occasional brown. From the kayak I've been from the Cove park up to the point where the Metolius arm starts. Next year I plan to fish further up maybe ferrying up in a boat to the island and fishing back to the Cove.

Yes, I've done some crawdad'n.

What's catchable in the lake right now???

kokanee and small mouth in the lake, rainbows, browns and an occasional bull where the rivers flow in (the Crooked, Deschutes and Metolius).

We used to fish Lake Billy Chinook for Kokanee, particularly in June.  Seems some sort of algae or planton bloom would put the fish on the bite and a limit of 25 from a boat was just a matter of time.  Been a long time though and not sure of the regs or bag limit anymore.

A wedding ring spinner with white or yellow corn worked and locating the proper depth was important.  We liked the Metolius arm better as the water was clearer at that time and the food bloom in the water was visible.  A Tribal Permit was required to fish the Metolius arm from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.  I would guess it's the same now.

I never got into the other trout in the lake but heard stories of divers seeing big fish stacked on the bottom.  Good to see somebody doing well on the lake! 

i was born in madras and lived there and bend most of my life till i moved to vancouver 3 years ago.  done plenty of fishing on LBC.  tons of kokes and a few choice bulltrout.

the second pic is what you get when you cross crescent or odell lakes, a herring, and a downrigger