Fish for big trout in the ‘disappearing river’ of Lookout Point

In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness goes fishing in an unusual place — the bottom of an empty reservoir on a stream that only appears for a few weeks every year.

The place in question is Lookout Point Lake, a reservoir southeast of Eugene just off Highway 58. The reservoir undergoes a deep drawdown each year to help endangered fish, and in the process exposes reservoir bed — and an ancient river — that’s been mostly submerged for almost 70 years.

Urness and Greg Taylor, a fish biologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, headed out to fish this “new river” for trout last weekend, in the process hiking past ancient ruins and sweeping mudflats. They talk about where to go, what you can catch and what fishing the “deep drawdown” is all about.

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Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Fish for big trout in the ‘disappearing river’ of Lookout Point