Lake Billy Chinook, OR

April 1-2, 2021

     Streamer fly fishing for bull trout continues to produce good results on LBC and as the water warms up (it was 47-48 F), they seem to be more aggressive on the grab!  Six inch streamers and sometimes smaller are still the norm.  Fishing two days in a row produced very good numbers.  On the second day, my buddy hooks and lands his first bull trout at 7:10 am.  As the old saying goes, “early bird gets the worm”, and so it is on finding the fish close to shore first thing in the morning before more anglers show up!
     But the big bulls were hard to find as I only managed one nice bullie over 7 lbs. and my buddy BG Erlentson took a 4 lb 10 oz-er.  Very good trout none the less.
          Typically, I'm not much of an evening fly fisher on LBC, but day two taught me otherwise.  At mid day the fierce west winds turned the reservoir into white water, YIKES!  Fortunately, we found shelter to take a break for a little while.  By late afternoon the winds digressed enough to make good casts.  A couple of moves and we were into fish again.  The day finished off with a nice quiet evening bending the rods on a few more bullies while everyone else had left.  So if you're not in a hurry, and can duck out of the wind for a while, I would not discount the evening bite!
         

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     Last but not least, please show courtesy towards other anglers by not “low-holing” them, i.e., cutting them off on a stretch of shoreline as they fish down the line!  Cutting off another boat is a no-no.  It’s a big reservoir, SO SPREAD OUT!  By doing this, hopefully you will be given the same respect.
 
Tight lines on your fly fish pursuit!
 
Joe

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