Odell Lake Labor Day Weekend 2011
First off I would like to apologize for taking so long to get this post on my website. I like to do them right away so people can take the information and head up to the lake to catch a boat load of kokanee.
So after the Odell Lake derby my wife and I decided we needed to bring some more people with us on this adventure so we wouldn’t have to worry about the 100 fish limit just the two of us had to deal with during the derby weekend. So we invited my father In-law Jerry, who will go fishing with me at the drop of the hat, and I had to talk my daughter Sadie into coming along. She hasn’t fished with me much but I figured if I had a good weekend of fishing she would get the kokanee sickness just like her old man. We drove over on Thursday in the late afternoon so we could get camp set up and be ready to hit the lake first thing Friday morning. My Wife got us all up early in the morning for our first day of fishing and we were all excided to hit the lake. First day of fishing was kind of slow and not what I was expecting. R & K micro hoochie worked well for us along with silver and orange spin and glow, all 8 inches behind a UV Blue Sling Blade. The all pink spin and glow that I hammered them on during derby weekend didn’t catch a fish and I was surprised. This just goes to show you how things can change from weekend to weekend. We ended the morning fish with 30 kokanee, but I was expecting a lot more. We all had fun, and I think my daughter enjoyed showing off the catch at the cleaning station even though I told her to lay low because I didn’t want to make people feel bad or have people think I was rubbing my success in their face. We ended up doing a short evening fish that day and picked up another five.
Showing off the catch at Shelter Cove…
Sadie’s first kokanee of the trip…
I had mixed up four batches of corn, but plain corn with Pro-Cure kokanee magic was the top scent for that day. 1.2 mph a 15 foot setback in 50 to 65 feet of water seemed to be the best combination. Saturday morning Debbie got us all up 30 minutes earlier because she thought we hit the lake to late on Friday, and Saturday was a different story I think the fishing would have been better but there was a really strong East wind hitting the late first thing in the morning, and a lot of boats didn’t even make it out to fish that day. But if you know me it would take a hurricane to keep me off the lake and I had come to Shelter Cove to catch fish so we struggled through the wind and picked up 30 really nice fish in the morning and another 5 on a short evening fish. It was difficult to keep the speed down at times and I had to be on the controls all day long but we did our best. The fish moved up with the wind so we targeted them from 40 to 55 feet of water and again used R & K orange super micro hoochies and a variety of Spin & glows 8 inches behind a mix of different types of Shasta Tackle Sling Blades.
Sadie with 30 nice kok’s caught on a really windy day
Sadie showing off a nice kok…
Sunday we got up at the same time as Saturday and with no wind I was expecting a banner day of fishing and I wasn’t disappointed. We stayed on the lake longer than I normally like too but we got 50 kokanee and the action was really consistent. Again hoochies and spin & glows with me also trying a variety of other tackle with little to no luck. Sunday the kokanee started to like my Pink Corn mix along with the Orange corn mix over anything else. 1.1mph 50 – 60 feet of water, even though I did target a few of them at 110 feet just to see how big they were and I wasn’t disappointed, and a 10 foot setback. No evening fish on Sunday I think we all needed a brake so we picked Huckleberries instead, man was that a good decision. Debbie made huckleberry jam when we got back and it was fantastic!!!!
Almost need a bigger Dog House had a hard time putting 50 on it..
Daughter giving me a bad time at the Shelter Cove cleaning station
Top Lure for the Trip “R & K Super Micro Hoochie – Orange UV Purple Haze” This was fish number 41 and as you can see the lure has seen better days, but still catching fish.
Kokaneekid Late season Corn recipe:
1 cup White Shoepeg Corn – put ½ cup in your container and sprinkle in some Pro-Cure Wizard Kokanee Killer Korn Magic then add the other ½ cup of corn and sprinkle in some more.
10 drops Pro-Cure Magenta Red/Pink Bad AZZ UV enhanced liquid dye.
Add some Pro-Cure Anise Krill Super Gel
Add one big piece of Salmon eggs to the mix
Shake well and let set for at least 16 hours
The fish I have is next years fish and they are already running 10 inches… Can’t wait for next year!!!
My daughter was really excited to bring 50 fish into the cleaning station and really enjoyed seeing all the people talk to her about the banner day of fishing she had. One thing I enjoyed about bringing Sadie with me on this trip was seeing her excitement on the boat and her willingness to help clean and scale the fish when we got the back to Shelter Cove. Our last day of fishing was right ahead of us so the plan was to try and pick up 20 fish by 10:00am and then head for home. We got up at the same time thanks to my wife and hit the lake with our goal in mind. Started the day off with Orange R & K hoochies and Pink on the other side with Shasta Tackle Sling Blades and we did really good first thing in the morning, but then things really died off so like every time when things start to slow up I start breaking into my trusted tackle box and start going though tackle to see if I can come up with a winner.
Picture of my trusted crew…
My wife wanted to try a wedding ring I had and it isn’t my favorite color, but I thought I would fish it for 10 minutes and then change it out. It was a gold bottom stack bead, White middle, glow top stack bead, silver 2mm bead and then a #2 gold Colorado blade. As soon as I got it in the water we had a fish on and I was thinking to myself ok that was lucky, but it won’t happen again. We got the fish in the cooler rigged up the lure and put it back in the water. Again before you could count to ten we had another hook up with all the other rods not making a move. I was thinking ok maybe we have a winner but I wanted to see it again so again fish in the cooler and lure back in the water and like the last two times before BAM another fish. Of course my was wife rubbing it in my face that she knew that wedding ring was going to pick up a ton of fish and of course that is the only one I had made up in my tackle box. I have learned my lessons on past trip in that I now caring lots of components so I can, “MATCH THE HATCH” when I find a winner. I made up enough lures for all the rods and it was some of the best two hours of fishing we had the whole trip 10:00am came fast and we had 35 fish in the boat 15 more than our goal. I’m sure that if we didn’t have to go home that early I could have picked up 75 kok’s really easy on Monday. Boat speed 1.4mph, 22 foot setback, and we fished in 55 – 70 feet of water.
Sadie in at the docks with 35 fish by 10:00am
We ended up taking home 155 kokanee, a ton of great memories, adding another kokanee addict to the family, plus lets not forget about the jam my wife made.
Odell Lake is the perfect late season lake for kokanee fishing in Oregon. The fish stay in great shape though the month of September and weather is fantastic, and if you get a chance pick up some Huckleberries they are normally ripe that time of year. If you are looking for a place to stay check out Shelter Cove Resort and Marina http://www.sheltercoveresort.com if you do end up staying at my favorite resort in Oregon make sure you tell Jim Kielblock that the kokaneekid sent you.
My dog Chester taking a quick nap…. Sadie said she was just resting her eyes…
Still lots of time to pick up a limit of kokanee so head out a get you some.
Fish On kokaneekid