The last couple years I have written about fishing Diamond Lake. The lake deserves all the love it has been getting over the last few years from fly anglers. For some reason Oregonians have not fished Diamond Lake. I don’t think that’s on purpose. Oregon is one of the best states in the country when it comes to stillwater opportunities. We have some incredible water closer to population centers than Diamond Lake. Diamond is a southern Oregon fishery for the most part so it’s a bit out of the way. It’s four hours from Portland, over two hours from Eugene, and just under two hours from Bend or Medford. It also doesn’t have anything close by as far as amenities besides the resort/lodge that is on the north side of the lake. All of these factors make it far less popular than fisheries like Crane Prairie or East Lake. That being said, I think people should make the drive because there is no better place in the state of Oregon to have a shot at a 30” trout.
This year I was able to hit Diamond lake on a few occasions. I also received so many reports from fellow anglers just because they were able to fish the lake for the first time themselves this year. For the most part I did not see any giants pulled out of the lake this year. I know some in the 24” size class were landed but beyond that nothing. Some years are like that. The lake is also incredibly difficult and does not let up its fish easily. ODFW does creel reports every year and they average most anglers have to put in two hours for every rainbow trout they catch out of the lake. So in an eight hour day you should expect to catch 4 fish to hit the average. That would just be rainbows and they stock nine times as many of them than they do browns and tigers combined.
Those comments don’t mean that the fishing was poor this year. On the contrary, it was great. The rainbows were as fat as always and the tigers and browns were aggressive. My best fly this season was the black leech with a chartreuse bead.
There is something about a black fly and a chartreuse bead that really get these fish frothing at the mouth. The runner up was the thin mint. That fly has done excellently for me at Diamond. Even though it wasn’t the best fly this year it is still the fly I have the most confidence in.
Other flies have caught fish this year like tan scud patterns, brown micro leeches, damsels, red ice cream cones, apps worms, and more. These fish like to eat flies and they like to chase them. I even saw a shop post on instagram that they caught a fish on an orange “butterfly” pattern.
@flyandfieldoutfitters on instagram.com
The main story I will share (video proof on my youtube channel) is while out with some friends I was able to catch a fish twice on one cast. The story goes, we were fishing the northwest corner of the lake and I was pulling flies. I had on a damsel with a chartreuse bead, a thin mint, and a sunburst blob on the point. The water was so clear we had 6-8’ of visibility and I watched as I hung my flies, a fish came from left field and t-boned my thin mint. I set the hook and immediately broke off but in the excitement I foul hooked the tiger with my blob. The best part is I was able to get the thin mint out of its mouth and re-tie it on! I got to watch the eat, fight, and release because of the clear water.
If you have never fished Diamond Lake and you’ve been wanting to, I highly recommend it. The lake is always a challenge and I really like that. Some lakes become too predictable but I have never gone to Diamond and it was the same as the last time I was there. I would bring your heavy equipment; I use a 10’ 7wt when I fish there, I have a large net specifically for Diamond, I use 0x-3x tippet, and I use heavy wire hooks on nearly all my flies. Don’t go under gunned because you truly have the chance to catch a 30” trout.
If you have any questions about Diamond Lake or anything else please reach out below, through the comments page, or on social media. Good luck and hope to see you out there.
