May 16-20
Antelope Flat Reservoir
Yellow Jacket Lake
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Chickahominy Reservoir
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Antelope Flat reservoir is the lesser known cousin to
Chickahominy Reservoir, they share very similar ecologies and
produce very large Rainbow trout (over 20 inches) in good
years. Chickahominy is one of Oregon's "poster" fisheries which
means it's managed by several government agencies and miraculously
you can still drive in and fish there. This also means that
Chickahominy gets lots of attention from ODFW and Antelope Flat
doesn't. In dry years Antelope Flat can draw down farther than
Chickahominy but Antelope Flat is much more scenic and "out of the
way" up in the top of the Maury Mountains compared to Chickahominy
down on the desert floor amid the stark sagebrush. In Recent years Chickahominy has been drained and sanitized to remove destructive junk fish like goldfish which inbred fisherman use as live bait. This spring marks the first year since the refilling that the fishing has been decent! We caught six in under two hours, five of them were over 16 inches! Sadly in recent years similarly inbred fisherman have introduced catfish to Antelope Flat and another nearby pond. The result is a catastrophic decline in the trout fishery as the catfish population has grown and out competed the trout for food resources. It is unlikely that ODFW will take any steps to restore the Antelope Flat fishery since the Reservoir is managed as a "irrigation" reservoir. Yellow Jacket Lake is a reservoir that we had considered a "kiddy pond" usually only yielding small stocked trout. This turns out to be a misconception on our part as we spent two days here and caught enough over twelve inches (including several over fifteen inches) to permanently add Yellow Jacket Lake to our spring fishing tour! I have to say we had a really good couple of days between Yellow Jacket and Chickahominy Reservoir. We returned home with our legal in possession limit and caught and released at least that many again. It's really satisfying to be "that damn boat catching all the fish" on the lake and I have to admit it's been a couple of years since we've had a trip like that! |