K
kornphlake
0
I went up to Harriet Saturday and before I could even get a rod out of my car, locked the doors with the key dangling from in the ignition. I talked to at least 20 people asking for a coat hanger or slim jim, met two people who were locksmiths, but nobody had any tools so I ended up breaking a window with a rock. Fishing on Harriet was slow, very slow, Saturday morning, with the thoughts of a window needing repair in the back of my mind I just couldn't enjoy fishing where nobody was getting any bites so I packed up around 10:30 and thought I'd take a look at some of the higher lakes.
Shellrock Lake looks to get the best stocking of the high lakes in the area but doesn't have road access so I thought it may not be fished as heavily as some of the other lakes. I drove up the road quite a way, until I was about 1/2 mile from the campground at Hideaway lake, at that point the road was covered in snow as far as I could see and no tracks were made ahead of me. I decided it wasn't a day to be pushing my luck in a 2wd sedan and parked as far up road 130 as I could get. I hiked up the road maybe 1/2 mile to where the creek crosses the road near a gravel pile, then followed the creek up to Shellrock Lake. I was looking for slow stretches in the creek or deeper holes but, the creek seemed to be moving pretty good, nothing made me want to unpack my rod. There wasn't a huge amount of snow on the ground under the trees, but there were spaces on the north facing slopes that had a couple feet still, around the lake there was a substantial amount of snow and about 1/2 the lake was still covered in ice with only a couple stretches of shoreline that didn't have ice on them. I did watch the patch of exceptionally clear, open water, I could see near the creek flowing out of the lake but couldn't see anything more than a couple of Oregon Newts. Again it didn't look promising enough to make me want to unpack my rod.
I was back home in Portland by 4:00 and made it to the pick-a-part and back to have the window repaired by 6:00. I've made provisions so that I won't have to break a window again should I leave my keys in the car with the doors locked. Now I need to do the same thing for my wife's van...
I'll probably return to the area in a few weeks once the snow has had a chance to melt off, to try fishing the lakes in the area, but at this point in the year it's hardly worth the drive unless you're going to view the scenery.
Shellrock Lake looks to get the best stocking of the high lakes in the area but doesn't have road access so I thought it may not be fished as heavily as some of the other lakes. I drove up the road quite a way, until I was about 1/2 mile from the campground at Hideaway lake, at that point the road was covered in snow as far as I could see and no tracks were made ahead of me. I decided it wasn't a day to be pushing my luck in a 2wd sedan and parked as far up road 130 as I could get. I hiked up the road maybe 1/2 mile to where the creek crosses the road near a gravel pile, then followed the creek up to Shellrock Lake. I was looking for slow stretches in the creek or deeper holes but, the creek seemed to be moving pretty good, nothing made me want to unpack my rod. There wasn't a huge amount of snow on the ground under the trees, but there were spaces on the north facing slopes that had a couple feet still, around the lake there was a substantial amount of snow and about 1/2 the lake was still covered in ice with only a couple stretches of shoreline that didn't have ice on them. I did watch the patch of exceptionally clear, open water, I could see near the creek flowing out of the lake but couldn't see anything more than a couple of Oregon Newts. Again it didn't look promising enough to make me want to unpack my rod.
I was back home in Portland by 4:00 and made it to the pick-a-part and back to have the window repaired by 6:00. I've made provisions so that I won't have to break a window again should I leave my keys in the car with the doors locked. Now I need to do the same thing for my wife's van...
I'll probably return to the area in a few weeks once the snow has had a chance to melt off, to try fishing the lakes in the area, but at this point in the year it's hardly worth the drive unless you're going to view the scenery.
