Opening the New Year

Lake Billy Chinook

1/16/2023

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    With a break in the cold blustery weather, it was time to go see what was happening on Lake Billy Chinook.  Fly fishing friend, BG Eilertson, joined me for my first fly fishing trip this year to go hunt for bull trout.  Since the Metolious arm is closed, that leaves either the Crooked or Deschutes arms open to fish.  We chose the Deschutes side.  Not much happened below the bridge crossing, so we picked up and headed upstream to the narrows.  It did not take long to find grabs.  The upper reach has always produced browns in the winter, but mostly smaller ones in the 12-14 range.  However, the bull trout venture in and out and at times you might catch a decent pack.  We managed only a few as seen in the photo above.  A couple of rainbows also came to the net as well.  I suppose one could say that BG and I caught the LBC trout slam!
     Streamers worked very well on the small side like 2-2 1/2" long in olive and white, although my largest brown did grab a 4" streamer.  We used about a 250 gr sinking head on intermediate running line casting with 7 weight rods.
     It was nice day to get out of the house, catch a few fish and think about the next trip to find the big bulls!

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Tight lines in your fly fishing pursuits!
Joe