Detroit Lake sits above the dam on the North Fork of the Santiam River just Southeast of Salem. While it's commonly overlooked by kokanee anglers, it consistently produces quality sized kokes in the 15-18" range, and is stocked with rainbow trout and a population of landlocked chinook. ODFW Biologists Jeremy Romer and Fred Monzyk believe that Detroit may be the second lake in the state where a population of landlocked chinook may begin to naturalize and spawn on their own as they have in their first documented case at nearby Green Peter Lake.
Arriving with my friend Mike Esparza just as the twilight began to light up the sky with hues of orange, violet, and blue, we were the first boat in the water at around 5am. Due to the presence of pleasure boaters and wind, being on the water early enough can make or break your day. We began just beyond the Mongold boat launch, trolling east in a trench that runs close to the shoreline of Piety Knob island. This area is popular among the pleasure boaters as the day heats up, so it's best to start there first and put some distance between yourself the boat ramp as the morning progresses. It seemed like on that particular line, we couldn't keep the rainbow trout off the hook at about 40 feet, the bottom depth being around 60. Wedding rings and light pink hoochies with brass blades were the most productive in the area, tipped with tuna soaked shoe-peg corn and 1/2" pieces of nightcrawlers.
After fishing there in the shade of the rising sun, we opted to move somewhere else in search of kokanee. The rainbow trout were a lot of fun, good sized and healthy fighters, but sometimes finding a good school of kokes takes some looking around.
Moving west, within sight of the Detroit dam, we started trolling a point that led to a cove on the south side. We spotted some schools on the fish finder at 50 feet or so in 80 feet of water. Once we noticed a sharp drop to well over 100 feet, we began to turn along the ledge, and that's when the action started. After Mike landed 2 nice kokanee, I decided to change up my presentation to match his since I wasn't getting bit and spending most of my time being a netman and un-doing tangles from fish straying into my other two lines.
The addition of a strand of lake troll spinners to our downrigger weights seemed to catch their attention at greater depths. Pro Cure's Kokanee Special oil was outfishing the water soluable krill scent I had started with earlier in the day. A prism blade with a trout pattern (pink and green) and pink and chrome wedding ring seemed to be what was getting the kokanee bite to turn on around 9am. We kept running the line along the point of that cove, with the dam within sight in the distance. The majority of the bites seemed to come from that dropoff, with a mixed bag of rainbows and smaller fish, included several landlocked chinook. The kokanee we got to the boat were all healthy, football shaped, 14"-16" slabs that put up great fights, jumping and pulling line at times.
By 11am, we were one short of a limit, and although the wind hadn't began to pick up, we started to notice pleasure boaters exploring the cove, as well as a seaplane that even landed near us, then took off again before finally climbing back into the sky. After pulling in the last fish to get our limits, we started heading back to the dock among the maze of inner tubers, skiiers, wakeboarders and such. By the time we pulled the boat out just before noon, there were nearly a hundred trailers in the parking lot with more vehicles pulling in to launch boats. The wake from pleasure boarders turns the lake into a washing machine by noon, but the action was steady all morning and we brought home quality fish before lunch.
With so many other lakes in the Cascades drawing the bulk of kokanee anglers during the summer, Detroit is an option that mid-valley anglers shouldn't overlook, and the lack of fishing pressure makes the atmosphere a little more relaxed than more popular fisheries.
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