Rainier Lakes Fish-A-Long Report

First a BIG THANKS to the Oregon Fishing Club for letting us fish the Rainier Lakes this weekend!

We met at 8am in the Tualatin Cabela’s parking lot then convoyed to the lakes, which took about 90 minutes. We had some heavy rain during the drive and it was starting to look like more of the rain gear test than a fishing trip. Fortunately when we arrived at the lake the rain had tapered off and we could see fish rising as we geared up—a good sign for sure!

This year the lake had been stocked with a good number of large size Albino Rainbow Trout. They really show up in the water, making for some interesting sight fishing. But, these albino trout are very finicky. Even when you do everything right they mostly just follow your fly without taking, but it really gets your heart racing.

Everyone caught fish today and one club member caught his biggest rainbow ever! Most of the trout we caught were healthy rainbows in the 14 to 20+ inch range.

The hot flies were dark colored Chironomid patterns in size 12 & 14. Both indicator and sink & slow retrieve presentations worked. Later in the day the Chironomid bite died and the trout started hitting woolly buggers with green patterns being the most successful.

We had intervals of rain, sun, wind throughout the day; it was typical crazy spring weather!

The water temperature of the lake was 52 degrees. The water had a nice green tint with about 4 feet of visibility.