Paulina Lake Fishing Report — 8/25/2026
PURPLE, PURPLE, PURPLE! If there’s one color you need on Paulina Lake right now, PURPLE is it!
Purple Pearl Twirlee-Gigs, purple hoochies, purple Hot Tails, and purple spinners have all been putting fish in the boat. We’ve been getting limits of nice-sized Kokanee or coming darn close on just about every trip. Fishing has been excellent!
Early starts are still a great bet, but don’t overlook the afternoon bite. Most boats are off the water by 11:00 AM, and by around 1:00 PM the lake settles down and the fish turn back on. I’ve been running two trips some days, and believe it or not, the afternoon bite has actually been better than the morning on a few trips!
We’ve been running 3- and 4-ounce weights, 50–100 feet behind the boat. There are plenty of small fish around, so if you get into a school of little ones, move on and keep looking. There are schools of much better fish out there.
A few Kokanee are starting to show signs of getting closer to spawning, but 99% of the fish we’re catching are still bright, silver, and in great shape.
September is right around the corner, and I’ll start running more trips on Lake Billy Chinook while continuing to fish Paulina and the Deschutes National Forest lakes through the end of October.
There is still a lot of great Kokanee fishing ahead!
Deschutes National Forest Trips:
Day One Outdoors
Ask for James
Lake Billy Chinook:
Baddfish Guide Service
James Hinton — (530) 334-0120
*Day One Outdoors operates under a Special Use Permit from the Deschutes National Forest *
James Hinton BaddfishGuide Service
(530) 334-0120
Baddfishguide.com
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