Anyone fish the small lakes around Coos Bay Oregon?

[Ben McMurray]

Hi everyone. I recently moved to the Coos Bay area and there are a ton on little lakes around. I tried one of the Empire lakes and didn't get a single bite, Supposedly there are warmouth sunnies in Butterfield Lake but I haven't given them a go yet. Anyway I was just wondering if anyone had any input on the local situation. thanks

[Nathan]

Can't say that I have, let me know how you do though! :D

[Ben McMurray]

tried Saunders lake today. apparently they just stocked it with rainbows, lots of small rainbows. Was catching a small rainbow almost every cast, tried jigging the bottom (not very deep) with a small chartreuse grub to avoid the rainbows and still caught rainbows. I hear there are bluegill and yellow perch in here. When I asked a guy, he said definitely perch but he didn't know about bluegill. Just seemed to me that if bluegill are in the water people would probably know. May have been stocked a long time ago and have a small naturalized population competing with a huge number of stocked fish. The lake also flows under a rail bridge so the other (definitely bigger) side warrants some exploration. I'll try again tomorrow if the weather isn't terrible, Butterfield is next on the list. Would be really nice to get some warmouth sunnies. -Ben

[Nathan]

Nice report Ben, right now it's still so cool around here that the bluegill are not  quite awake for the most part so the reason you're not catching them could be due to colder water. I went today and had my first interaction with bluegill for the year, missed a few bites and landed one. First one of the year though so I am happy, I was exploring a new pond in the valley too so I have a new fishing spot next to my house which is always good.