I'm seeking advice on timing and techniques for fishing East Lake near Sunriver, OR. If you know it, when you do you like to fish there...spring? Summer? Fall? Do you fish near shore or deep? Any advice is greatly appreciated!
East Lake (Central Oregon) - who can tell me about fly fishing there?
- Thread starter Para_Adams
- Start date
Ditto on Perin's status as a good man.
East is a big deep lake with plenty of weedy shoal areas, so it has a lot of variety. The summer midge, cali and damsel hatches are the most popular but if you like to dredge for big browns that is also possible. There's no one "best" way up there. I like to fish dries but nymphs, indos and slow trolling all work (often better than whatever I'm trying).
Anyway, it's popular with fly fishers, close to Bend, has 3-4 boat ramps, camping and a resort. You won't be lonely but you will find fish.
Fished it several times in the last few weeks.
Callibaetis hatches have been 'cloud' thick, son and I did best with nymphs and emergers pre-blizzard, casting in 5" of water from our skiff.
When the wind comes up a bit we switch to balanced leeches, chroms, red bead San Juan worms, wind drift along the 12' to 20' dropoffs.
Float tube used to be my fave way to fish this lake, at the very SE corner of the lake, fish inshore along the weed beds. In the evening it can be a hella fun dry bite, hit the trifecta of bow, brown and kokanee.
Pauina next door is also a fine fishery. Tends to be windy in the afternoons on both, avoided by staying close to the western shores.
Lake level is low at East, the launch at Hot Springs pretty much sucks...single float, big rocks underwater just past the float, common for boats to rub bottoms or outdrives on same.
Callibaetis hatches have been 'cloud' thick, son and I did best with nymphs and emergers pre-blizzard, casting in 5" of water from our skiff.
When the wind comes up a bit we switch to balanced leeches, chroms, red bead San Juan worms, wind drift along the 12' to 20' dropoffs.
Float tube used to be my fave way to fish this lake, at the very SE corner of the lake, fish inshore along the weed beds. In the evening it can be a hella fun dry bite, hit the trifecta of bow, brown and kokanee.
Pauina next door is also a fine fishery. Tends to be windy in the afternoons on both, avoided by staying close to the western shores.
Lake level is low at East, the launch at Hot Springs pretty much sucks...single float, big rocks underwater just past the float, common for boats to rub bottoms or outdrives on same.
SE corner near the Hot Springs area?
drive past Hot Springs to the Cinder HIll campground, fdrive through it to the SE corner, can park and put in 50 to 100 yards from from the docked boats.
If it's windy and the SE corner is getting the fetch, can put in before Hot Springs, keep your eye for a dirt road that goes down towards the lake, usually less wind there.
And don't discount tubin on Paulina...have had some excellent sessions there, parked by the Lodge, and put in a couple of hundred yards north of it, slow kicking a leech produced some dandy bow's.
And for a changeup, the Bull Trout are on the nod on the lower Metolius, big fish taking big streamers.
Thanks! We ran up there this afternoon for an hour. Not the best timing and we missed the hatch by a half hour. But we had a good time fishing from shore and I'm looking forward to hitting it again when the fish are working the shoreline with more interest. Tight lines, Ron