Pontoons & cascade lakes highway

[nimzrock]

Greetings all,from the new guy,

My best friend and I both have pontoon boats, in fact mine is still in the box. I am toying with the idea of a week long trip to the central high lakes , this spring or summer. I have fished craine a couple times and looking at a map of the area I think it to be roughly the center for base camp. I thought we would fish a different lake each day. I would love any feed back on the idea and any suggestions ie do's , dont's, bug spray? I would love to hear from other pontooners on thier adventures all over, and possibly forming a "toon" club.

 

[buddah426]

first let me welcome you to o.f.f., the best forum around. you'll find on here nothing but friendly people helping and sharing whenever possible, even when disagreements arise it always ends friendly and "tight lines".

second... get that toon out and put together, trust me it will sit there in the box and you'll just look over it but as soon as it's together you'll find yourself dreaming of your next trip. i speak from experience.

i would definitely suggest some camping trips with the toon as soon as weather permits, i am planning on taking mine up to hood and maybe even wa. this year on some weekend excursions. bug spray is fine and dandy if you dont mind coating yourself with chemicals but i have lived in some heavily bugged areas and the bug spray didn't make a diffrence. all you need is toon, poles, gear, food, first aid and sleeping gear (what ever that may be). i have a wife and 2 kids and let me tell you... when we all go its ridiculous!!! i spend more time packing, unpacking, setting up, breaking down, packing, unpacking and putting away then i do camping and fishing. when i go on my own i take some bare necessities and thats it, the food is just enough to survive on if i dont catch fish, mostly BEER

I like the thought of a toon club, check out "free for all" in bass section. a lot of the people are planning a big get together on here down south in eugene i think for the end of this month... thinking of going myself if i can get away.

well good luck and welcome again and "TIGHT LINES" ray:ray:

 

[steelheadstalker31]

Pontooning those lakes sounds like a blast, just watch out for the wind on Crane Prarie. It can whip up in a hurry. If it gets windy you can go over by the damn on Crane its pretty sheltered, or the Descutes and Davis arms of Wickiup also tend to not be to bad on a windy day. If that doesn't work you could float the Deschutes river below the Wickiup damn. Its nice slow meandering water down there with lots of browns.

 

[Irishrover]

Craine Prarie is a great place for a pontoon. I like the Rocky Creek camp ground as a base. It's not to far from the dam and on the othere side of the lake from the resort. I just bought my toon last spring and had it up at Timmothy lake, Haystack reservior and Walton lake. What a kick and they really do cover the water. I had a float tube and boy are they slow compared t the pontoon not to mention other disavantages. What size toon did you get?

 

[Raincatcher]

Pontoon floatilla sounds good

Pontoon floatilla sounds good

nimzrock;
Welcome to a very friendly place to find answers and friendly fisher folk who love sharing all sorts of information. I am picking up my used pontoon this next Friday and am pretty excited. I think it would be a great experience to visit some of your local water, I am going to try in July. In the meantime, let us know how it goes for you and your buddy. Be safe.
Barb

 

[Troutski]

Too many...

Too many...

Greetings all,from the new guy,

My best friend and I both have pontoon boats, in fact mine is still in the box. I am toying with the idea of a week long trip to the central high lakes , this spring or summer. I have fished craine a couple times and looking at a map of the area I think it to be roughly the center for base camp. I thought we would fish a different lake each day. I would love any feed back on the idea and any suggestions ie do's , dont's, bug spray? I would love to hear from other pontooners on thier adventures all over, and possibly forming a "toon" club.

There are just to many places to fish on the Cascade Lakes Hwy, North and South Twin are great for a toon, along with Big and Little Lava; then you have Elk lake and Hosmer - geeze don't even get me started on Hosmer lake... You will need 10 days to do that area right. Another great place is Little Cultus, then again there is Davis...god my head is swimming, I think I am getting dizzy.
As you can tell it is a paradise for some one with a magic carpet of any kind, best of luck and take your camera..as for bugs, I use an electric Mosquito repellent made by Sunbeam , takes one AA battery and no chem's. You can pick them up at Bead/Bath and Beyond for under $7.00 and they work great, even in July at Waldo lake where the Mosquito's have been known to fly off with small household pets:shock:

Chuck

 

[tnffishman]

I also own a pontoon boat and have had some mixed success with it. It worked great at harriet lake where I was just fishin eggs on the bottom or a bobber as well as flies. But at Clear Lake it was horrible as I tried to oar and drop back a spinner to troll and I ended up just throwing some powerbait to no success as well as dropping a walkie talkie into the lake as I tried to troll, oar, and talk at the same time.

My suggestion is to troll small spinners or flies, or fish bait if it gets windy, which it probably will where you're headed

 

[ICamel49]

I think Chuck (Troutski) hit most of them, but I will add a few...............
Charlton Lake
Gold Lake (fly fishing only)
Miller Lake
Paulina Lake
East Lake
The above are not on the Cascade Lakes Hwy, but all within an easy drive from Crane.
Sparks Lake

 

[mikeredding]

If you are going to be in that area the Twins are a definite "must fish". Small but there are enough fish to keep you busy all day.:dance: I trolled a small spinner or spoon with my toon and had great success. A rod holder is a must though.

Chuck: Thanks for the tip on the mosquito repeller. I will check into that. I don't like chemical repellents and used to take garlic tablets until I could smell it sweating out of my body. Works well but wife doesn't care much for it!!:lol:

 

[oldhippie]

Don't neglect Wickiup on opening day and a couple weeks beyond. Fish the west side in the drowned willows. It can get windy but if you hit it at sun up and stay in the shallows you'll get some huge browns.