Located just East of Oregon’s Cottage Grove Dorena Lake is an acknowledged bass factory. There are several features that have made Dorena Lake a genuinely great bass fishery.

Pressure is minimal, even though it’s easily accessed from Oregon’s Interstate 5, this is due to strict regulation on the lake that only allows bass under 15” to be kept. High levels of mercury in the lake have tainted the larger fish making them dangerous to eat. This mercury, by the way, is the result both naturally occurring and flushed into the lake by the several small creeks and one river that enter the lake.

Dorena’s a man-made reservoir that at full pool is about 1,800 acres. Bass to 4 pounds are common with fish to 9 pounds showing occasionally. Great habitat, ample feed, and strict conservation have combined to optimally balance this lake in a manner that grows big bass.

Oregon bass fishing expert Ray Currie inspired our trip to Dorena Lake. Ray’s an accomplished tournament angler who’s logged literally dozens of tournament wins over his long tenure as a bass fisherman. He’s got an honest passion for bass fishing, works at it hard, and is constantly learning.

Just prior to our trip to Dorena, Ray had logged some pretty phenomenal catches. The weather had been stable and warming, the level of the lake had been rising 4” to 6” a day, the water was clear, as weeds were beginning to stretch toward the surface big largemouth were stirring in their annual pre-spawn mood that often results in catches of mammoth largemouth to 9 pounds. Things were looking very very good for us going into our trip.

The night before we’d arrived, the weather had unleashed a torrent of wind and water that brought the level of the lake up 6 feet, muddied the otherwise gin clear water, and dropped the lake’s temperature several degrees. Cold fronts rolled through on the hour as the weather changed dramatically bringing more rain, hail, wind and clearing periods. If you were writing a textbook on tough bass fishing conditions, our day at Dorena would have certainly made the first chapter.

We’d done some soul searching early wondering if we really wanted to spend the time shooting a show with such awful conditions, but we bit the bullet and took to casting Carolina-rigged lizards across expansive stump fields out in the main body of the lake.

As we’ve said before on several shows, there’s no replacement for local knowledge. The tendency most anglers have bass fishing is to cast along the shoreline. Local knowledge helps you find area’s out in the main body of the lake that don’t receive the pressure these shoreline areas get, and, over time teaches you the subtle nuances of the lake that are important to catching fish under all conditions.

Ironically, most of our fish came from the shoreline. The bass had “moved up” under the protection of the now muddied lake and were on the bank where the water was apparently warmest.

We caught all of our fish on Carolina-rigged 6” lizards in green pumpkin and watermelon seed. Ray prefers a 3’ leader tied to a size 7 black barrel swivel with a bead and large egg sinker (generally no smaller than 3/8 ounce with ½ ounce as the favorite).

My rigging, which included a strong crawdad scent (Pro Cure) was: Rod: All Star Elite 7’ Carolina Rig rated 12-25 lb. test Reel: Medium Duty Casting Line: 15 lb. Yo Zuri Hybrid Weight: 3/8 and ½ ounce egg sinker Leader: 3’ / 15 lb. Yo Zuri Hybrid Hook: 4/0 Tru Turn Tracer Lure: 6” Green Pumpkin or Watermelon Seed Lizard

When the lake conditions allow several other baits work well too like: Yo Zuri crankbaits, especially the magnum Crank’n DiveÔ in the Ghost and Perch patterns. The technique dubbed, “rippin” is another very popular spring pattern, the 2 ¾” Pin’s Minnow by Yo Zuri in the Perch and Rainbow Trout patterns are excellent choices. Ray threw a large tandem spinnerbait in white and yellow off and on throughout the day and indicated that under these conditions when the water’s a little off-color (it was a lot off color…more like chocolate when we were there) spinnerbaits work well in Dorena Lake.

There’s a couple of launches on the lake, some camping facilities and several nice places to stay just a few minutes away in Cottage Grove. I’m looking forward to my return to Dorena when the water conditions are more stable to see if I can coax one of the lake’s big bass into biting. Maybe you will too.

Good fishing.