Hagg Lake

New to Oregon!
Curious about fishing Hagg Lake! Any suggestions would be appreciated. Or if that's not a great idea, where would you suggest. I'm looking for smallmouth or largemouth bass. Tackle, lures, locations, that's all I'm asking for. (Not much, I'll actually do the casting)

Thanks
Steve

Hagg is a great place to fish.  It's a challenge (for me) to catch anything of size out there, but I've seen plenty of huge bass landed.  The state record Small mouth has come from that lake twice! 

If you are looking for trout, troll from boat ramp A to the dam along that side with the normal trolling gear like wedding rings, spinners, spoons, flasher/dodger with a worm, other small wobbling critters. 

Again, suck at bass fishing but Senko's work along the dam, and grassy areas inside the coves like Tanner Creek, Sain Creek and Scoggins Creek.  They hit other jigs like top water poppers, and seem to like trolled broken Rapala's and Shad Raps. 

Crappie are out there too, but kinda hard to find.  Just need an ultralight rod/reel combo, 2-4 lb mono and a myriad of small Crappie jigs.  The smoked clear flecked curly tail grub works best for me on a 1/8th ounce jig head.  Toss it along weed beds that have a steep shelf out front and reel back in at a slow to medium speed.  If you find one, you can start to find more.  Look for them in the creek arms and coves as well as any underwater structure you pick up on sonar.

Perch at this time of year will be like magnets and you can catch them just dropping a small jig head down tipped with worm or a maggot.  They'll also hit many many other bits of tackle that you may be using for other fish species. 

The lake itself is kind of split in half.  The west side is shallower @10-30 on avg in summer and includes all the creeks and most coves.
The east side is the deep end, and many boats will be out playing as that is the "Wake Zone".  The water is 30-100 feet deep out there.

Early mornings in the summer can be solo and absolutely serene with a light lake fog over the water.  No speedsters yet and a few birds out getting fish for breakfast.  Bring a camera along, as there is a nesting pair of Bald Eagles to see.  I've seen them several times now on the southeast side of the lake.  Also there is a healthy population of Osprey that you'll see and hear all day.  Occasionally you may see a turtle or two in the creek arms, but is rare enough. 

Good luck and post some pics of your day.

I'm less bass-talented than INSAYN, but I've had luck in the creek arms and along the weedy patches of the north shore. Lots of little guys nipping at Senkos; if you want to catch them, size down accordingly. If you're tossing lunker gear, be prepared for lots of hookless nibbles from the wee fellas.

The nice part about bassing Hagg from a kayak or SUP is that you can get pretty far up the creekarms. Way farther than the bass boats. It's shallow up there, and you can sight cast with appropriate polarized glasses. Pretty fun.

Ok, here's the scoop on Hagg Lake. Fishing was pretty slow for bass. Mostly small fish, nothing of any size at all. After lunch, the place went crazy with boats. Reminded me of "Caddy Shack".  People were going everywhere, No Wake means maybe 10 mph. I thought Lake Pleasant in Phoenix was bad, but this was really bad.
Went Sunday to the Willamette around Goat Island. Fishing was outstanding for Smallies. Caught at least 3 over 3#. Lots more good size fish. I didn't take pictures. Someone has to show me how to hold up a fish and take a picture of any quality while in the Hobie.
Thanks everyone for all the help on Hagg. I'm sure there are better times to fish it.
Steve

Gopro on a Scotty gear arm.


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Just let us know when you want to go out. Insayn, DTS and I are off Wednesday thru Friday and we live close!