Submitted by The Fish'n Magician (ip 67.171.186.246)

Date Fished: 3/5/2005
Water Temperature: 39
Water Clarity: 6 inches

Hagg Lake Opening Day: March 5th, 2005

Like most of you out there, winter is a time where the only fish we hook are from Memory Pond. Water is just too cold - in this case, Hagg opens in March now rather than April.

I arrived just south of "Put'n Take" cove (by the dam) at 04:30. An old high school buddy of mine was supposed to meet me there so we could shoot the gab until sunrise.

After rigging up two rods I fumbled my way through the dark to the water's edge. I had decided upon fishing a texas rigged lizard as my first bait of the year, and envisioned fish inhaling it as I let it fly into the cool dark air.

This area is where I usually fish topwater plugs in spring, but this year the water is down about 20'. No cover but a few ridges and trofts that may hide a few fish.

No such luck. Tried a topwater plug, both ultra-slow and noisy-slow - but to no avail. Somewhere in close proximity I could hear the stocker trout jumping, and realized I might do well fishing a rappala. However I finally made contact with my friend and learned he hadn't even left Portland yet.

What would normally cause dismay actually charged me up, as I normally catch more fish when by myself. So...standing at the shoreline in the early misty morn - I decided to make a dash for the spillway.

As I made my way down the rocks I could both see and hear fish jumping. I knew from previous years these would be trout, holed up where the lake water runs out, picking off morsels at their whim.

I tied up and tossed:

Lizards Senkos Jigs Topwaters

but got nothing. Recalling past years I rigged up a Rooster Tail, hoping to entice some smallmouth activity.

Second cast nailed a stocker.

Five minutes later I nailed another, and what do you know! My buddy showed up after all! Just in time to witness a stocker roundup!

We stayed for about 1-1/2 hours. My friend isn't a fisherman, and he looked cold, so thought we'd cruise over to the Trout Tournament tent at Boatlaunch C. Also......

I nailed 22 trout. At one point I caught six in six casts. One of these fish was tagged number 57, which I removed before releasing the fish.

Catching this many trout so quick is not unusual. Catching a tagged fish is.

So I turned in the tag and received a nice buck knife and a $10 gift certificate for my prize. I noted the largest trout caught thus far was 16", and the heaviest 1.4lbs.

KUIK radio had previously emailed and asked if I would stop in and say some words about Hagg Lake fishing. I spent 20 minutes yacking before I thanked the reported and departed.

One more VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!!! Washington County wants to raise the Hagg lake dam, basically flooding all our current fishing spots. This will have serious impacts on fishing! Check out the article hear:

http://katu.com/outdoor/story.asp?ID=75024

See y'all on the drink!

Grant Lansing Fish'n Magician HQ fishnmgn@comcast.net http://home.comcast.net/~glansing/fmhq

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