Henry Hagg Lake

With the recent trout stocking, and some warm sunny weather, I decided to troll for rainbows this afternoon.  This was my third trip to Hagg over the past 3 weeks, and didn’t get so much as a tap on my last two trips.  The surface temps have been averaging 42-43 degrees, so I figured that the water was just too cold to troll lures.  I was really hoping that the water would warm up enough to turn the bite on in the afternoon.  When I got to the boat ramp, I was greeted by extremely stained water, and tons of logs, wood, and huge mats of grass and debris.  Quite a few boats out, but nothing being caught.  I spent 30 minutes glassing the lake, hoping to see just a single fish caught, or any fish activity on the glassy surface.  Absolutely nothing!  I’ve never not launched due to water quality issues, but today was the first!

Just giving a heads up to anyone who is planning to head out there over the next few days.  Not sure how long it will take to clear up, but I’ll probably give it another try the middle of next week.

Found a website for the water temp at Scoggins Creek, which is the outflow from Hagg lake.  It appears to run a couple of degrees colder than the surface temp, but at least provides a baseline.
 
https://or.water.usgs.gov/tualatin/monitors/scoggins_t_14.html

There was a group of three of us who went Friday the 28th and the report was pretty similar yours.  Dark water and lots of debris in the water. Trolling was difficult.  I had 2 rods setup, one setup for deeper trolling, and one for just flatline.  The only action I got was on the flatline setup.  I had a couple of drive-bys and I got one to stick.  We fished for about 8 hours and I was the only one that managed to catch anything.  I didn't even see anyone else land any fish.  I did see some caught from shore but nothing from boats.  It was a beautiful day out there though and I got to try out my new Autoboat trolling motor setup, which was the main reason for going out.

There was a group of three of us who went Friday the 28th and the report was pretty similar yours.  Dark water and lots of debris in the water. Trolling was difficult.  I had 2 rods setup, one setup for deeper trolling, and one for just flatline.  The only action I got was on the flatline setup.  I had a couple of drive-bys and I got one to stick.  We fished for about 8 hours and I was the only one that managed to catch anything.  I didn't even see anyone else land any fish.  I did see some caught from shore but nothing from boats.  It was a beautiful day out there though and I got to try out my new Autoboat trolling motor setup, which was the main reason for going out.

Do share more about your motor setup? I have a Motorguide Xi3 with GPS on my kayak but I am interested in the autoboat setup.

There was a group of three of us who went Friday the 28th and the report was pretty similar yours.  Dark water and lots of debris in the water. Trolling was difficult.  I had 2 rods setup, one setup for deeper trolling, and one for just flatline.  The only action I got was on the flatline setup.  I had a couple of drive-bys and I got one to stick.  We fished for about 8 hours and I was the only one that managed to catch anything.  I didn't even see anyone else land any fish.  I did see some caught from shore but nothing from boats.  It was a beautiful day out there though and I got to try out my new Autoboat trolling motor setup, which was the main reason for going out.

Do share more about your motor setup? I have a Motorguide Xi3 with GPS on my kayak but I am interested in the autoboat setup.

I'll make a new post with info on it so I am not hijacking this one