Klamath County

Klamath County fun facts:

• County seat is Klamath Falls (population 42,000 and home of Oregon Institute of Technology or OIT).  
• Home of Crater Lake, which is the only National Park in Oregon.
• Willamette Pass ski area (background in the photo above) is a ski area.  In Klamath County.  Fun!
• It touches, and almost fondles, California!  Fun!

I visited Odell Lake on several occasions in 2010, specifically Shelter Cove Resort, and most recently in May with my brother, Kenny.  We were on a fishing junket up in the mountains and had been wrestling with windy conditions.  The resort staff were friendly, helpful and the rental rates were great and it was mid-week so there weren't too many people on the lake.  We had bald eagles fishing there, too.  They (not the bald eagles) told us what to fish kokanee (landlocked salmon) with, where they were biting and technique to use.  We rented an old motor boat that looked really nice.  From 200 yards.  The wind started picking up as soon as we got on the lake and was still brisk, 50 degrees or so.

The first 90 minutes were as disappointing as the prior day, when we got skunked. I ate plenty of Cheez Its to help keep my spirits up.  Our luck changed when we adjusted our jigging technique. Combined we caught about 10 kokanee, which I understand is delicious. However, we were equipped for catch and release only.  One them came off the hook in the boat and flopped around and got behind the gas cans and trying to grab that little guy was not my finest hour.  I got it back in the lake and I haven't heard that it didn't make it.