Travel Log: Olalla Lake

After my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the blustery Oregon coast, we drove back home on 34 and took a side trip up to Olalla lake. Olalla lake is supposedly stocked with tasty fishes, and is a great swimming hole to boot. Unfortunately, we were there on a Sunday and the lake was being overly used for swimming by many groups of rambunctious youngsters: not so great for 'not scaring fish.' We're still a little Texas acclimated and weren't too keen on jumping in the water, though it was a very pleasant temperature and we may have to jump in one of these days. Pocket had a nice swim, and we had a frustrating fishing session. It is time for me to call up my old friends up in Portland and Bend to take us fishing: we need some instruction on how to catch trout!

My husband has spent his life fishing for bass. Bass in the ocean. Bass in rivers. Bass in lakes. Many of the 'trout' referred to in Texas are actually just bass. Bass, bass, bassity bass. Trout are a whole different story. Then there's me. I love fishing. I used to have some reasonable amount of skill in trout fishing, but then i was also generally accompanying a boyfriend with LOTS of skill trout fishing. That never hurts. Now, it's been over 10 years (high school and early college days) since i actually fished myself. I'm feeling like a fish out of water. Har har har.

We had fun, just the same. Me with my new Daiwa fishing pole i named Darla (she's pink!) and the type of reel i'm familiar with. My husband had his Grandfather's fly fishing pole that he couldn't use as it was too windy and tree surrounded. I finally got to get mad at him for messing up MY reel that he's unaccustomed to using instead of the other way around. Ha! We also lost a few hooks and lures to nasty, snaggy trees at the bottom. Rest in peace, little pinky (brand new lure on her first trip into water, sigh). Hey, at least my husband found a bunch of newts to play with! Pretty awesome!

We'll be back soon, Olalla lake. Preferably when there aren't teems of teens swimming and thrashing about. Even more preferably would be getting our hands on a boat....

Hey, Oregonians: give us some tips on catching trout?