How to fish for Cranebows at Crane Prairie Reservoir?

LadyoftheLake
LadyoftheLake
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Hi all fellow OFFers!

Bob and I are taking our family on a week long RV camping and Ladyofthelake boating trip at Crane Prairie. We need advice from those with success catching Cranebows.

We can troll with Ford Fenders, or anchor and fish with bobbers. What to use? What to use? Worms? White corn? Power Bait?

Cast and retrieve? I have a two-pole license...so I can try two ways to catch 'em.

Any advice will help. We'll be up there all week!

Say "Hey" if you are out there and see us on our Ladyofthelake boat.

I'll post a report with pictures and stats in a few days. Not sure if the RV campground has wi-fi or not. Prolly not. So, at some point I'll go into town with my laptop and find a Starbucks with wi-fi.

Happy catching!

Christy aka, Ladyofthelake
 
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ive done some research lately and it seems people that are not fly fishing use live dragonfly nymphs under a bobber. flip timber and look in weedbeds near the bank for them. Other then that ive never been to crane so sadly thats the only advice i have
 
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You'll need to fish the cooler, deeper channels this time of year like the Deschutes or Cultus. I would give Troutski a PM if he doesn't chime in here pretty soon. I don't think he needs to catch fish anymore. At Crane, he just talks them into giving up.
 
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jim,from what ive been told it's a high water year and fish are not concentrated in channels as much
 
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That might not be the best news then. You're fishing big water so that means fish will be spread out. The Deschutes channel has always had good reports.
 
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Christy I would suggest trolling to cover as much water as possible. There are fish in the channels but they are certainly not stacked up. By all accounts so far this is an off year as far as catching the big Cranebows go. Yesterday the Deschutes and Cultus channels had a dozen boats each anchored up in them with very few fish hooked from what I saw. All that said Crane is a special place and the fish are there. Yesterday my partner Marina broke off a 3# bow right at the boat. The week before Randy had an estimated eight pound fish throw the hook on its first jump.

If you and Bob don't know the resiviour be forewarned that there are lots of dead trees hidden below a heavy algae bloom right now that will continue with the warm weather this week. I would suggest that having a spare prop and key, cotter pin, tools etc onboard is prudent.

Heres a few pics to "wet you whistle" as far as the possibilities go...
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Have fun & bring your sun screen :lol:
John
 
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That first picture is WOW!! John
 
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that fish isn't a football it's two footballs!! jaw dropper for sure
 
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We refer to one like that as "silver pigs with fins" :lol:. I landed that fish in July 06.
 
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that would be fun to hook a fish like that from a float tube.it would drag you around all day LOL.




ladyofthelake, since you might be trolling i read smaller kwikfish get the job done trolling there...good luck to you!! look forward to hearing how you do
 
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Sinkline said:
Brandon, I told ya we are going with the right guy! John has caught more than his share of truly large Cranebows over the decades! Unfortunately, the Rainbows seem to be in short supply this year. I just got an email minutes ago from another guide stating how slow the fishing is this year. To the point he is trying to get clients to not book at Crane as their expectations are not likely to be met this year! Having said that, we do know there are still some large fish in the lake, and there are at least some Rainbows, Brookies, and Kokes, just seemingly not the numbers of 2-3year old fish there should be. Perhaps next week you'll be the guy that beats the odds and pulls a monster to the net!!!

I do hope Ladyofthelake has some good luck with her methods verses what us fly folks do! Would be encouraging to hear at least one good report this season! Seems the early May Crane trip Jim and I had is proving to be exceptional considering how it is going for most folks so far this season.


Randy
Click to expand...

This is leading up to a fantastic Fall :dance:.... I can feel it in my casting finger, its starting to twitch.. ...:clap:

Chuck
 
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Thanks for all the great responses! I'm so excited about our trip. Bob went ahead a few hours ago with the RV camping trailer, and now that I'm done with our Home Office chores I'm ready to drive up with the boat! We will troll a lot and try all kinds of bait. Worms, white corn, wedding rings with Ford Fenders + worm at end, and I'll check under wood debris for Dragon Fly larve. We have 9 days to experiment! I'll keep y'all updated with weather, water temps, and what they're biting...I hope they bite! I don't practice C & R. So far, I have not got to C...but if I did...I'd eat him/her! I brought lemons, garlic, and other things that make good Fish Tacos. I want to eat some Cranebow! (I want to catch my first Oregon fish). Thanks again for all your input! Christy aka Ladyofthelake
 
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Good Luck and can't wait for your report as we are heading up in less than a month!
 
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