Fishing at Officers Reservoir, Grant County, Oregon

• Overview

  Grant County in Oregon is where Officers Reservoir sits. It sits at 4,524 feet above sea level. The water measures roughly 20 acres, so nothing here is far from anything else. Some 33 miles away sits Burns, the nearest settlement. Beyond it, Hines at 33 miles and John Day at 37 miles. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Officers Reservoir

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. Points where the flooded channel swings in are the reliable ones. Rip-rap along the wall holds fish that the open bank never does. Open biodiversity records for Grant County list rainbow trout, bridgelip sucker, largescale sucker and smallmouth bass. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. At Officers Reservoir light and wind decide more than tackle does.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Typical August readings run about 61°F; by January the average is down near 26°F. The freeze here is occasional rather than annual. It is not guaranteed even in a cold spell, so check yourself. Late winter often fishes better here than midsummer does. The season on Officers Reservoir rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. No made access appears within a short radius, so plan to park on a verge and walk. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Rickman Reservoir, 4 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat access at Officers Reservoir as something to verify.