Odell 6/5 & 6/6

Cold, windy & raining off and on. Fish didn't mind. Unlike the usual, the west bay was almost devoid of fish. Most boats went east down to the railroad slide where there were about 20+ boats anchored & jigging in 80 to 100 ft. We did the same. Mostly fished at 95 ft. We were jigging pink/white nordics w corn soaked in krill & shrimp oil. Most of our fish were caught within 3 ft. of the bottom. We tried on the various depths of suspended fish but got very few. The bottom was where the "biters" were. We had a steady bite on Sat ending up with 46 fish for the two of us in about 4 hrs of fishing. Sunday was very windy and harder to fish. Went back to rr slide. Could only fish a few hrs because we had to check out of our cabin. We ended up with 25 fish. Trip total was 71. Good enough for 2 guys. Fish ran from 11" to 13" with a few at 14. They were fat and in good shape. We tried a variety of other jigs, but pink/white or orange nordics with a sparkle strip were what worked best. There were only a few trollers catching a fish here & there. Very few people casting to jumpers and very few jumpers to cast to. Although there were few jumpers, we saw one boat surface blind casting & picking up quite a few shallow fish. Good trip for such lousy weather. Will be back there on the 18th.

Thanks for the report.
101goodpost101

great report John Ward. The wife and I are heading that way at the end of the month, first time at Odell hope we can find the fish...thanks for the info. Will look forward to your report from your next trip.

Great report, John! Curious about your efforts for suspended fish. Did you happen to try for them without the jigging motion? I usually find that either very little or even no jigging motion on the suspended fish will buy me the most strikes. I have no idea why but this is how it always is for me. I'm glad to hear that you had so much luck with the bottom jigging. I almost never have any luck with that. Glad you had a good time out there.

Skookum,
Re jigging suspended fish: we were jigging for the suspended fish (mostly at 45 to 70 ft. over 100 ft bottom) with the usual active motion. Next trip, I will try the passive approach for suspended fish. Do you use the same type of jigs for this method?

Good to hear of your success jigging John! Up at Paulina yesterday the jiggers weren't doing too well...it was the trollers picking up the fish. I can't wait for some jigging action as the fish on the bottom up there are usually the larger one's. Do you tie directly to the jig or use a duo-lock?

SilverBullets said:

Good to hear of your success jigging John! Up at Paulina yesterday the jiggers weren't doing too well...it was the trollers picking up the fish. I can't wait for some jigging action as the fish on the bottom up there are usually the larger one's. Do you tie directly to the jig or use a duo-lock?

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I personally use a duo-lock to aid in the speed of changing lures.

I usually use a small duo lock but also fish directly tied. can't say I've noticed any difference and duo lock makes me more willing to change up if needed.

John, the jigs I use are the same unless it's windy. If it turns real windy I just go heavier so my jigs will pull straight down and there won't be a big belly in my line from the wind. I have had pretty good success fishing this way once I started learning to not jig very much or sometimes not even jig at all but just let it sit there. I usually don't do as well with the duo locks on my jigs but wished that I did because they do make change ups easier. Although, I mostly don't change anything up anymore now that I pretty much hit them most any time they are on the surface. Good luck out there.

Great post - Thank you.
Four of us fished Odell out of Trapper Creek CG on June 6-9.
Mostly jigging with some jumper casting also.
nice fish and ended up with limits for all.
Pink/white nordics and red nordics with brined corn worked best.
Fish shallow - 50-75 ft in am, then deeper as the sun comes up.
Large shouls of kokanee everywhere.
Looking forward to another trip soon.
RW