05/09/2026
A Day Late report, technically 5 days late as I left on Monday morning. I arrived at Crane Prairie at Noon. I pulled in Rock Creek Launch, it was open but the campground was blocked off!! Bummer. I took my bike out of the boat and did some exploring for a boondock camping spot. Found a couple of decent spots. Went back to the launch, found a great spot to moor my boat on the bank so I decided to just stay in the parking lot!! Not the best but I made do. I didn’t fish that afternoon. I did talk to some people come in from fishing to try and get some intel on the fishing and area.
Day 1, Got up at the crack of dawn the next day and headed out. I got out to 14’/15’ of water off Rock Creek ramp and deployed 2 lead core rods and started trolling. In no time I was hung-up!! Did that a couple of times and decided to go with only 1 lead core line and flat line on a downrigger rod. Not only it being 15’ deep, there are clumps of weeds that are 7’ high in spots!! I thought I was in for a long day as I trolled around for over an hour and zip!! All of a sudden my lead core line goes off!! Fish on!! Got that one in. A nice 13” Kokanee. That rod did get most of the fish that day. I had on a gold arrowflash dodger and a homemade pink spinner fly. My long line did catch a few fish but the lead core out produced it and got the bigger Kokanee. I ended the day at 10 am with 10 nice fish in the bucket.
Day 2, started early again, I didn’t get a fish till 6 am. It was again on the lead core line. Switch some gear on the long line and went with a jet gold color dodger and a homemade pink fly without a spinner blade on it. Set it back about 45’. Wow, it really started to produce!! Caught the majority fish on that setup. The fish seemed to be a tad smaller on the second day but nice size. Finished with my 10 Kokanee at 8 am!! Packed up and headed to Odell to do some jigging.
Day 2 continued, I got to Odell around noon. Stopped at Sunset Cove Cg./ Launch. Got a camping spot, a nice pull-though. Prepped the boat and got it launched. By that time the afternoon wind was in full force!! I just decided to stay in camp, d**k around, gather some fire wood and relax.
Day 3, got up early but not at the crack of day. I had some recent intel from Jay Kendrick of Santiam Fishing Rods and headed to the View Point. Looked around for some fish to jig, I found none!! Went exploring, found zip!! I got a call from Jay and he was at the view point and just put some fish in the boat. Got in that area and found Jay. Yep, he was sitting on a pile of fish. I started getting fish in the boat and the wind was starting to pick up already, that was at 8 am!! It was almost white capped but not quite. I was still able to back troll and get some fish. Then Jay offered to let me tie my boat up to his(He has an electric with spot lock), so I did, we talked and put fish in the boat we gave up about 11 am as the wind was really starting to blow and he had a pile of fish and I didn’t do too shabby either. I did a count and I had 18. Went back to camp and began fileting fish. I just d**ked around camp after that.
Day 4, got out fishing about the same time as day 3. No fish in site!! Looked around, tried jigging in various spots, zip!! Wind did started again by 7:30. Started looking around (still in the view point area) and finally found a pile of fish. This was at 9 am. Started putting fish in the boat. Had to back troll to keep the boat still and into the wind. I could have thrown anchor but didn’t. I put 16 in the cooler and called it a day at 11 am, by then the whole lake was in white caps. The fish are smaller 9 ½” to 11”. If you can find the fish, they were hitting jigs. It didn’t seem to matter what color you were using as long as you had some corn on the hooks. Fished anywhere from 105’ to 124’ view point area. Water was 47*.
Summery, Nice fish at Crane, fairly easy to limit. Downside no camping yet. Water temp 56* and water was turning green. Odell, smaller fish and you got to find them and of course the wind. It was a great trip and got a bunch of fish to smoke, I do have some in brine already!!
And that’s my day late report!!
