anyone fish Tahkenitch lake ?

ovb · Mar 29, 2019

Hello Friends, I am just getting back into fishing since I just retired and many years ago a friend took me fishing on Tahkenitch lake on the coast...it was good time ..What do you guys know?...when is the fishing best?...is it stocked?...you know average fishing questions...thanks

Otter · Mar 29, 2019

We used to fish it years ago too and catch big trout. Rainbow and cutthroat. If we were at Winchester Bay and the ocean was too rough or too foggy to salmon fish, we would hit that like, so time frame would have been summer.

I went a few years ago during the summer and it was a total bust for trout. We didn't try bass. We also tried Siltcoos and all we could catch were hundreds of really small yellow perch. I believe both of them are stocked with trout, so maybe we hit it wrong.

I fish a few of the lakes north of Florence now, and they are only good for trout after they have been planted. Catch a few bass, but don't try too hard.

BTW - ODFW has a complete planting schedule on their website.

Timbertodd · Mar 29, 2019

Ive fished it for bass from my kayak a few times. I think the local bass clubs down there hit it fairly regularly with tournaments. The largemouth should begin staging for he spawn before too long now that the temps are warming.

CountryGent · Mar 29, 2019

I did so a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (1980s). I hike around there at times now, but haven't fished that lake in decades. According to the Intratubes, it is stocked.

RVNvet · May 3, 2019

Great fly fishing for large bluegills around the boat launch area. Did well on nice-size trout (native cutthroat and stocked rainbows, 14"-16") with spinning gear, using small flatfish lures, across the lake, by the train trestles. MAKE SURE you know the difference between trout and young coho salmon, as both are in the the lake, and you'll pay dearly if you're caught with the latter. There's supposed to be good crappie and perch fishing at times, though I've never targeted them. Of course, bass fishing (both largemouth and smallmouth) is probably what the lake is best known for, though I don't fish for them there myself. Go to youtube and run a search for Tahkenitch to see some good videos.

Watch out for the wind...it comes up pretty stiff from the west in the afternoons. Last time there, I was fishing from my float tube all day and ended up across the lake; when the wind came up I couldn't make any headway against it and had to beg a motorboat to tow me back!

Flymph · May 3, 2019

Tahkenitch Lake Fishing

I just might stop by here and stay for a day or two. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Timbertodd · May 3, 2019

Flymph said:
Tahkenitch Lake Fishing

I just might stop by here and stay for a day or two. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

If your in that area hit Eel lake also. Its south of Reedsport. Its fairly deep with a good trout population with good size to them and some nice bass. It will also get rough when the wind kicks up, usually starting about 11:00 am.

Flymph · May 3, 2019

Timbertodd said:
If your in that area hit Eel lake also. Its south of Reedsport. Its fairly deep with a good trout population with good size to them and some nice bass. It will also get rough when the wind kicks up, usually starting about 11:00 am.

I'll keep that in mind, was reading about that one on the fish america website. It's going to be hard to hit all the spots I want to go to. Between surf perch, rockbass, spring chinook, largemouth, crappie, crab, and trout... I'm going to have my hands full!

Mikej · May 12, 2019

ovb said:
Hello Friends, I am just getting back into fishing since I just retired and many years ago a friend took me fishing on Tahkenitch lake on the coast...it was good time ..What do you guys know?...when is the fishing best?...is it stocked?...you know average fishing questions...thanks

I get a kick out of the links to these articles.....They're all like ancient history anywhere from 20 to 40 years ago. I can only speak to about 10 years past. There are no large trout in Tahkenitch. Unless you consider 9"-10" inches large. I suppose it's possible that some bigger sea run cut throat come in. All three of those lakes lakes go in cycles. I'm including Waohink where you'll find perch, cut throat, and to a lesser degree than the other two lakes, large mouth.

As far as I know Tahk isn't stocked with trout. Check the stocking schedule. Siltcoos gets very few trout from what it did 15 or so years ago, can't have competition with those native coho ya' know. Tahk may, or should, be into an upswing? It fell off about four years ago for perch and catfish (brown bullhead). We didn't bother fishing it last year when we were down there in Sep. As far as Crappie go in Tahk, there are some in there. We've caught them. We target the perch, bass and catfish when we fish it. If you're a crappie junkie and really know how to fish them you might find some. I'd say a big crappie on Tahk would be 9". Never caught a bluegill at either lake. They might be there? We just never fish bait in bluegill type weedy stuff.

As far as bass go.....I'm not a gung-ho large mouth guy. I like playing with them. I don't go to the trouble of really dissecting the fishery. Tahk has INCREDIBLY beautiful bass water. The whole lake looks like bass water to me! I struggle to do well though. That's why I only fish bass for a couple/three hours first thing in the morning and then sit down and fish perch/catfish. Siltcoos went in the crapper 8-9 years ago for perch, bass and catfish. It came back well and now there are tournaments there almost every weekend. The bass are much harder to catch now with all that pressure than they were when it first cam back 4-5 years ago. The perch were waning last year when we were there, but you could get decent eating size cat fish. Crappie in Siltcoos Lake the articles say? :s0112:

I've heard the stories, and the map that shows where what fish are where, (That map by the way has been getting photo copied for probably 30, maybe more? years ago!)

We fish those lakes from September into October. From what I hear the lake will fish good until hard winter rains come. Maybe into November? My advice for perch and catfish in September is to fish flats and deeper water. Trestles hold bass, maybe crappie. We fish a single hook strait down within 1'-6" of the bottom. People troll for trout, but we seem to catch a fair amount still fishing. We don't want trout trough, but they are plenty clean tasting.

Gotta' go now. Lemme know if you need more info.