Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Just five years after being devoid of fish, Mann Lake has re-established itself as the only place in Eastern Oregon to catch trophy-quality cutthroat trout.
Located beneath Steens Mountain, the remote lake had long been known as a destination for catching stocked trout heavy with Lahontan genetics, a large desert subspecies that was native to the area before poor water practices drove the local population to presumed extinction.
But the fishery collapsed in the mid-2000s thanks to a destructive villain: the lowly goldfish. Presumably escaped from live bait fishermen, the goldfish multiplied rapidly and nearly exterminated the resident trout. In 2010, when Malheur district fish biologist Shannon Hurn and her crew poisoned the lake to kill all the fish in it, they collected the carcasses of roughly 10 trout and 170,000 goldfish.
A productive, unique fishery filled with a rare subspecies of trout was wiped off the map for Oregon anglers. Until now.
After five years of selective stocking and breeding, large cutthroat are flourishing again in Mann Lake. And luckily for Eastern Oregon anglers staring at swollen and off-color rivers, they are biting like mad.
The picturesque desert lake is located east of Steens Mountain, just 20 miles from the Alvord Desert and about 80 miles south of Burns. It is chock-full of freshwater shrimp and a number of macro-invertebrates that trout feed on with gusto, allowing the predatory fish to grow quickly and then grow some more. Landing a 16-inch cutthroat in the lake won't impress your fishing partner, but a 20-incher will — and that is well within the realm of possibilities. Cutthroat trout up to two feet in length are present in Mann Lake in good numbers for the first time in a decade.
I visited in early March and the lake was already free from ice. The cutthroat, readying to spawn, were cruising 3-10 feet off shore in the shallow and murky southeast end of the lake.
The real skill of wade fishing for lake trout is timing. If you are there when the bite is on, there isn't much to it. I rigged a basic set-up and proceeded to slay fish for the better part of the day. I used an 8-weight rod and with a size 12 pheasant tail nymph weighed down with a heavy, fluorescent orange bead head. Using a lighter 5/6 rod sure would make the catching more fun, but a larger and more stout stick makes casting into the all-coming wind much easier.
Yet on my trip there wasn't much need for big casting. I caught fish close to the bank with a slow retrieve method that featured plenty of long pauses. The goal when fishing near the bank during spawning season is simple: Choose something heavy enough to get near the bottom, if not on it. Once you are there, it's a patience game. For fly fishermen, streamers could work well and even Callibaetis nymphs, too. Dry fly fishing can be had in the late summer and fall, though hatches are infrequent and don't last long, according to Hurn. When traveling to Mann, fill your vehicle with plenty of artificial bait options. There are no bait or fly shops nearby.
Hurn said fish will go off the bite during the height of spawning season, when they have more pressing needs to attend to. But early summer fishing can be excellent before petering off under the height of the desert heat, then improving again in the fall. Ice fishing is allowed, but generally is a hit-and-miss game, said Hurn.
Overall it's a tremendous fishing opportunity, but it is important to remember how remote and susceptible to the elements Mann Lake is. Humility and respect are required when fishing desert waters.
A long day in the sun can be brutal to the skin and eyes and Hurn warned of whole campsites being ripped away by the notorious wind that curls along the base of Steens Mountain. Don't skimp on water and gasoline; the closest convenience store is more than 50 miles away and, depending on which direction you go, more than half of that distance must be traveled over washboard gravel roads.
There are two boat launches on the lake that are in excellent shape and motorized craft are allowed on the water.
The limit is two fish per day larger than 16 inches, fewer than the normal limit in rarely visited and rarely fished southeast Oregon. That means there are plenty of trout for plenty of anglers, but still the possibility for a fresh-caught dinner at two of the free campgrounds that rim both sides of the lake. Live bait is prohibited, obviously, after the goldfish debacle.
Although Mann is a long way from everywhere, fishing it is worth the tank of gas (or two, or three) it takes to get there. Being a long way from everywhere is one of its charms, in fact.
Five years after it would have been like fishing in your kitchen aquarium, the lake is once again the only one in Oregon filled with trophy-quality Lahontan cutthroats. Now is the time to get there, before it's back on the radar of Oregon anglers willing to travel for a thrill.
___
The original story can be found on the East Oregonian's website: ttp://bit.ly/1ii0yKn
___
Information from: East Oregonian, http://www.eastoregonian.info
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
