Ray Currie on Hagg

Hagg Lake, for most of the country, would be considered a small lake...it is certainly no pond, but the lake can be fished in its entirety over a long day. For bass anglers, the attraction to Hagg Lake has been the rash of state record smallmouth bass that have been produced over the last four years or so.

Fish in excess of 7 pounds are caught each year, with fish over 8 pounds reported. The growth rate of these fish is relatively fast with a rich food base that includes hatchery rainbow trout, an overpopulation of perch, bullhead, bluegill, crappie, and crawfish.

Our goal in filming this show was to spend a couple of days during the time when catching a trophy smallmouth bass was best. Unfortunately, an unseasonably long winter, a late spawn, and bite-killing fronts moved in to make fishing difficult at best.

My guest, Ray Currie, is, without a doubt, one of the most gifted anglers I've ever met. His string of tournament wins throughout the N.W. is as impressive as the dozens of trophy fish he's landed and released over the years. His knowledge, intensity, skill and love of the sport and fish make him one of the area's most productive bass fishermen, and I felt lucky and privileged to have spent two days, one-on-one, with this talented angler.

Ray has to his credit two Oregon state records, both for smallmouth bass, and is the current record holder with his most recent 1998 catch of 7 pounds 9 ounces.

Ray's ability to distill his knowledge into a few simple frames is another feature of his approach that really opened my eyes to the skills necessary in catching trophy bass.

Here's a sampling of the information I gleaned over the time I fished with him.

Ray likes points, road beds, and flats with boulders..all the typical smallmouth bass habitat. He generally focuses on water that's less than 20' deep and prefers to fish plastics rigged either "split shot" style or "Carolina-rigged."

The plastics he prefers are 4" hand poured worms in drab colors (i.e. "green weenies," ox blood, brown, smoke salt and pepper.) He fishes these baits with a size 3 split shot pinched 18" to 22" ahead of the hook. This allows the bait to float up off the bottom and imparts a subtle action to the presentation, as he picks it up off the bottom, reels in a foot or two of line and allows it to fall.

He likes to fish these baits relatively fast and prefers 8 lb. test line. By fast, I mean as the weight touches the bottom and a belly develops in the line, he picks it up and continues to work it back to the boat.

Ray also relies heavily on crawdad scent to mask his odors and attract fish.

The second method he prefers is to "Carolina-Rig" 4" plastic lizards in watermelon. He feels these represent the perch that are in the lake and uses a medium heavy casting rig with a 3/4 ounce egg sinker and about 30" of leader.

Again, he fishes this relatively fast, using a glide/rest approach that involves him lifting his rod about 6", allowing the lizard to glide above the bottom and then drop to bottom. As it touches bottom, he lifts his rod again, and continues his retrieve back to the boat using this lift, glide, and drop method.

On any given point, or target, Ray will generally work both presentations.

That's only half the equation though. When hooked-up to a trophy fish, Ray uses a back reeling method to play his fish and doesn't rely on the reel's drag to do the work. He says the power and speed of the fish, more often than not, will quickly break 8 lb. test. To prevent break-offs. he back-reels to give the fish line quickly and keep up with speed and strength, while still applying adequate fish-tiring pressure.

Hagg Lake opens with the state wide trout opener and closes at the end of October. It's a very well maintained and supervised Washington County Park.

As a final note, Ray indicated that the number of trophy fish at Hagg Lake has been significantly reduced over the past couple of years with the notoriety the lake has received with its state record catches. Ray is a strong advocate for catch-and-release and is sure that Hagg Lake's continued success as a trophy bass lake rests in the general public's willingness to practice strict catch-and-release on all bass in the lake.

I agree. The downfall of many N.W. bass fisheries has been overharvest. With relatively slow growth rates, N.W. bass populations have difficulty recovering from heavy harvest years, while others thrive because they are either little known or are aggressively protected. We encourage you to capture your catch on film and take only what you need - - the future of N.W. bass fishing is everybody's responsibility.

Guest: Ray Currie
Location: Henry Hagg Lake is approximately 20 miles west of Portland, Oregon and just south of Forest Grove, Oregon.
Species: Trophy Smallmouth Bass
Equipment: Rod: Lamiglas IM700 6"6" Medium Light Spinning and Casting rods.
Reel: Spinning Reel or Casting Reel with excellent drag system.
Line: 100 yards (minimum) of 8 lb. Trilene Tournament.
Hook: Tru Turn 1/0 Split Shot.
Lures: 4" straight tail hand poured worms or 4" Lizards in watermelon