Diamond Lake Trip Report 2024

Diamond Lake is the forgotten lake of Oregon stillwater anglers. Oh, I’m sure there are fly anglers that fish it religiously, but not like East lake or Crane Prairie Reservoir. Those lakes are obsessed over and the resources to understand those lakes are plentiful. The die-hards of Diamond are few and far between. I think that will change over the next few years. The lake has everything you need for a great fly fishery. I was able to fish it twice so far this year and I’m hoping I’ll get down there at least one more time this fall. Because there is virtually nothing on the internet or in books on this lake regarding fly anglers, let me tell you about my trips down there hoping to shed some light on the lake that most of us have forgotten about.

My first day down there was at the end of May. Water temp was sitting at about 50-52 degrees. This will become important later. Ice off for the lake was April 22nd and we know that because Diamond is the only lake I know of in Oregon that has a camera pointed from the boat house on the water live streaming 24/7. It’s really nice to see the weather and the general activity at the lake. To sum up the day all my fish were caught stripping flies, mostly on a fast intermediate line and only a few on a slow 12’ tip line as well. I fished it with two friends that are from the competition world, so we fished it loch style the entire day.

My setup was with the Echo Stillwater 10’ 6wt and the Airflo Sixth Sense 2 Intermediate Fast Intermediate 6/7wt and I ran with a blob as my point (color didn’t matter because no fish took any of the 6 different ones I tied on), then I settled on a gold beaded thin mint and pink beaded thin mint as my droppers. I caught 65% of my fish on the pink beaded thin mint and 15% on the gold beaded thin mint. My other setup was the Echo Lago 10’ 6wt with the Airflo Superflo Sink Tip 12’ Slow and the flies were a red apps worm, red ice cream cone, and a small callibaetis emerger. 20% of my fish were on the red apps worm on the point of my setup. I did get one fish on the callibaetis emerger only because I think it was taken as a scud and one on the ice cream cone.

We fished the north west corner of the lake focusing on the 8’-5’ of water in that area. The fish were holding in that water in between weed beds and the shoreline vegetation. As we drifted more fish were hooked in the shallower water. The biggest fish was caught inches from the shoreline vegetation. This was a 26” tiger and it really shows you how big these things get when their diet is fish and shrimp. This fish was planted in 2016 and in 8 years has grown to this size. This fish was caught on a pattern called the gold jigger which is produced by Rio. That being said, this was tied by my friend Hann and he has his own special color formula he likes. My friend Luis caught as many fish as I did, but to be honest it was probably more than me with his version of the gold jigger but with a hot bead and custom body. I was allowed to disclose one hint, chartreuse bead. (if you don’t have hot fluorescent beads on your flies you need to)

The day ended late close to 7pm but we probably landed 60+ fish that day between the three of us and a healthy mix of browns, tigers, and rainbows.

The following weekend in the early part of June I ventured out there again with another friend and recurring feature on this blog, Gabe. Gabe and I wanted to repeat my success from the week previous, but it didn’t happen the same way. We did all the same stuff even had the same lines I used the week previous and the same flies and we caught nothing as the morning progressed. We had no idea what changed. Gabe was convinced that it was air pressure and I was convinced it was water temp. Pressure was virtually the same as the week before, but the water temp was nearly 60 degrees. We did get one follow and one hook up at the boat. The hook up was on a pop fry and if you don’t know the fly totally understandable. It is way more popular in the UK.

Luckily we asked a fellow fly angler what he was doing, because he was catching fish. He was someone we both met at the NW Expo and he was generous with the knowledge. “12’ down under an indicator, any balanced leech with a chartreuse bead” was the answer. So we kept a healthy distance from his boat and started catching fish. Well I hooked fish that’s for sure. The first five fish I hooked came off before I could even grab the net. That was frustrating. Finally I started sticking and landing my fish. My rig was my Echo Lago 10’ 6wt with the Airflo Superflo Stillwater Floater. I had an indicator leader tied on and blank saver leech and an olive and gold leech with a chartreuse bead. We explored a bit more but most fish were caught on the 10’-12’ drop off for the rest of the day.

Over a two day period I landed probably 50+ fish and lost another 20+ fish. The lake is incredibly productive and continues to be so. Friends have gone back and had success at the south end where the river comes into the lake and near the pizza parlor. The lake doesn’t have much information on it, especially for the fly guys out there. The other big tip I would give is to move around. The first few times I fished it I tried to catch fish where I wanted to fish, not where the fish actually are. If you start in the North and nothing is happening try the West, nothing in the South try the Northwest, etc. The fish are there and the lake is only 40’ or so deep. They can’t go too far. The one big perk is you will have the lake to yourself from noon until dusk. The gear anglers limit out by lunch and they don’t stick around after that. So if you want the chance to catch monster tigers, tank browns, and football rainbows, put Diamond on your list and escape the crowds at places like East Lake or Crane Prairie.

If you want to read about last year’s fishing trip at Diamond look here.