On the Thursday of our Crater Lake expedition, Paula and I headed north from Bend toward our next campground at Lake Simtustus. Along the way, we passed Lake Billy Chinook, which looks a lot like Lake Simtustus from this height with the deep canyon walls.
The Deschutes and Metolius Rivers, along with several other streams and rivers join together to fill Lake Billy Chinook behind a giant hydroelectric dam. LBC goes for several miles down the canyon. Below the hydroelectric dam is Lake Simtustus, which has its own hydroelectric dam. As you can see, the Dodge Stratus managed to hold it together for yet another 10 miles of gravel roads.
Once we arrived at the Pelton Park campground, we quickly set up camp, ran into the town of Madras for some fresh ice and cold drinks, and made it back to rent a boat for the afternoon. Then we headed out onto the lake. The canyon hillsides in the background are part of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. We would head to the Indians’ resort at Kahneeta later in the week. We also had to get a special tribal fishing permit to fish in Lake Simtustus.
I got things started off with a Northern Pikeminnow. These predatory native fish eat everything including salmon and steelhead smolts. The Pacific Northwest dams stop the flows and make great environments for these fish to thrive. As a result, to protect the salmon in the Columbia River, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife put in place a bounty on Northern Pikeminnows from the Columbia river, paying about a buck per fish. I believe this is the only bounty of its kind in the whole country!
Paula showed that she could catch Northern Pikeminnows, too, and hooked up with her own pikeminnow.
Then, she hooked up with another Pikeminnow! This one demonstrates that she can not only catch Pikeminnows, she can also catch BIG Pikeminnows! After we released this one, a bald eagle swooped down and snatched him from the water and carried him off to eat him. Then, a golden eagle swooped in and stole it from the bald eagle. We decided to move downstream, since we wanted to get some good fish, rather than play catch and release with these scrappy pikeminnows.
Once we moved down past one of the campgrounds, Paula got the party started and hooked up with the first rainbow trout of the day!
Then, she got another!! Her little blue trolling lure proved to be the hottest lure of the day!
Some of these Lake Simtustus trout were tough! In this picture, she’s clubbing one with her sandal that is flopping around!
I got a trout next (no pic), but Paula was red hot and matched my trout with another one. She was ahead 3 rainbows and 2 pikeminnows to my 1 trout, 1 pikeminnow, so she started the celebration!
Since entering the canyon, we started an exciting stretch where we would be trolling along, and suddenly, Paula would declare “Fish On!”, and I would stop the motor, reel up as quick as possible, and then help her land her fish! Then, we’d get the boat moving again, get her line back out, and I’d be almost out to trolling depth, when she’d declare “Fish On!” again, and the process would repeat! It probably did this 4 or 5 times! Finally, I broke up the pattern and landed one!
But Paula wasn’t done yet, either! She landed this one….
…and this one before we wrapped up for the day! She had totally beaten me with 4 nice trout to my 2! We also forgot our net, so we had to grab them at the boat! She easily lost 10, which I lost 2 or 3. Her lucky lure that she picked out for the pretty blue turned out to be the deadliest lure on the boat!!
We headed back in and proceeded to roast two of the fresh trout over a campfire, which were very delicious! The remainder got soaked in my secret brine and smoked when we got back home. The smoked trout did not last long, since they were so tasty! I admit, that is my new favorite way to eat trout.
The heat of the day followed by the dry, cool night at Lake Simtustus made it very easy for both of us to sleep well that night!
I see this blog is about a year old but we are going to try this lake for opening weekend this year (april 24 ). Have you fished this lake a lot if so what mathod do you recomend trolling and with what spinners? plugs? and what was that blue thing.? how about jigging? still fishing? what. I will be our first time at this lake so any help we will take it.
wally and louise
Help catching fish at lake simtustus
Yes, we were trolling at Lake Simtustus. What town do you live in? We used
simple trolling lures (wedding rings), but we were kind of novices at what to
use. Some others used swimbaits and ford fenders, but we did just fine
without them. We’ve since learned a few things about trolling so we’re going
to tip our lures with night crawlers next time. We just rented a boat from
the pelton park campground store. We’ll probably be back there this summer,
too, but we’ll bring our canoe next time.
Thanks for checking out my blog! Not sure if you were planning on checking
back sooner, but I thought I’d reply to your email at least! Have a good one
and good luck if you try it!
Here was Wally’s email reply:
Thank you for the reply we live in La Pine Oregon and will be at pelton
park for ten days begining on the 23rd of April. Thanks for the tips we
will try them, good luck fishing.
Don’t be afraid to just kill those pike minnow and not release them. Just like you said, they eat the salmon and steelhead eggs and therefore are bad. So don’t release them.
Thanks for sharing your trip though.
Jeff