Just Back From Paulina and East Lakes

We stayed in a cabin at East Lake. Most of the lake was still frozen. Maybe about 80 - 100 acres was open. Quite a few rainbows were being caught. A few browns and a few kokanee. Water was 38 degrees. Since it was hard work getting fish at East we loaded up the boat and went over to Paulina. The ice was all gone there and the fishing was so so. We caught fish at both lakes 12 - 13 inch kokanee, but very few. Not worth the time we were putting in. We were trolling mostly. There was 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground yet. Had a good time anyway and it was really something to see East Lake iced over. Beautiful. I think it is still too early/cold for good fishing at either lake.

awesomereportThanks for the report Kokaneegal. I took a drive up there last week just to check things out. I'm hoping they get the public launch at Paulina plowed through in the next few weeks if the weather warms up. Are you mainly a troller? The reason I ask is jigging can get some fairly fast limits up there in the early season.

SilverBullets - Everything is supposed to be open on June 17th. They were plowing campgrounds when I left. The first ramp at Little Crater was open when we were there (6/5 - 8). We put in at Paulina Resort. Our boat is small and was easy to do there. We do jig but prefer to troll.

Thanks for the heads-up Kokaneegal. We usually put in at the campground launch right past the resort turn-off. I'll be in that area tomorrow with the truck doing some 4-wheeling and might head up to the lake to check out the plowing progress. We did well at Ochoco Reservoir last Thursday (kept 9 trout, lost around 6) but hoping next trip will be for the kokes up at Paulina. thumbsup

We were at Paulina on Sunday the 12th. Had to use the resort ramp as the campground ramp is still very much snowed in. Unless they plow the campground roads/ramp, I suspect it will be closed for at least a couple more weeks. There were quite a few boats on the lake when we arrived at 9:30ish. We didn't get any bites the first couple of hours. But, starting at about 1:00 the fish started biting. Ended up catching eight while trolling. Most of the boats were gone by noonish so we had the lake pretty much to ourselves in the afternoon (as usual). It was good to be back up at Paulina. It's our favorite lake in Central Oregon. So beautiful up there!

bertschb - Did you catch Kokanee and how big/small are they?

We caught Kokanee. I didn't measure them. A couple were decent sized. The rest were pretty small.

tooexcitedtooexcited We are heading back up to the lakes this weekend. We will be spending a week at each lake. Will write a report when we return.
Kokaneegal