Fishing Carmen Reservoir

We've been experimenting with bank fishing this summer and not having much luck at all.  I was raised on boats, so this is a whole knew technique for me.  

Today we decided to try Carmen Reservoir here in Oregon.  It's located up the McKenzie on Hwy 126 between Trailbridge and Clear Lake.  I had never fished there before, so we had no idea what to expect.  We just bought some worms and hoped for the best!

We started in the least likely spot where it's shallow (and close to the bathroom) and after about an hour my intuition told me it was a waste of time and we moved.

Next, we tried fishing under the bridge where the river flows in and letting our bait drift the current into the lake and waited....nothing.  I also lost our last swivel here when I got hooked on the rocks.  We pondered driving back to the small store down the road and getting more but just opted to tie on to our rigs and keep fishing.  It was a hot sunny day, so logically, we wanted to go deeper and lure those lil' guys out of the vegetation.  

Finally, we walked clear to the other end of the lake by the dam and found a little rocky beach to make day camp :-)  THIS, my friends, is where the fish bite!  In 2 or 3 hours, we caught our limit and were headed home!

I know we fisherpeople always ask one another what we used as far as bait.  I am a firm believer in worms.  Worms, worms, worms.  Worms with a bobber, worms with a weight ... worms.  Though I personally detest bobbers.

Today we caught our beauties with worms and krill oil, a weight about 24" above the hook.  We just cast toward the dam and out and let the current carry our line out into the lake, natural-like.  This was perfect for me - it was like bank trolling!  My specialty!  Once we had that down - we just started reeling 'em in!  It was a lot of fun and we got to cook our biggest two trout for dinner!  You can read about that here.  

We always (since I was kid) have cleaned and frozen our fish in ziploc bags, staggered as you see here and fill the bag oh ... 3/4 full of water and seal it.  Then lay it flat in the freezer.  When you freeze them IN water and then thaw them - they still taste fresh, I swear!

We'll share more about our fishing here, since it's one of the staples we keep in the freezer for our winter cooking and recipes ... but we're still learning all about the banks along our favorite places.  It's a new experience for sure!  Stay tuned!