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Bret Martin
called me and ask if I wanted to join him fishing at Crescent Lake on super bowl weekend. That was a pretty easy question
to answer. In the past Bret and I have fished LBC on super bowl weekend with pretty good success for the Bull Trout. I had
read about some good Mackinaw fishing over the winter at Crescent Lake but as most of you know my passion is fishing for hookjaw
brown trout.
Bret and I arrived at Crescent Lake Saturday morning a little late but was on the water by 7am. We started
trolling just out in front of cabins and down towards Simax beach. I had one good strike that took me for a long run and then
one head shake and the fish was gone. We have a saying "that it only takes one" I did not know it at the time but that
would have been my only good brown trout strike of the weekend. I took a look at my line and it was a clean cut at the end.
Most likely the lure came back on the line during the head shake and the hook cut my line. After a few more passes along Simax
Beach we started the long troll towards Tandy Bay. We did not have a strike after all that distance. Around 11:30 we went
deep and started to fish for Mackinaw. Bret caught the first fish of the trip, a 14 pound Mackinaw off a BettenCourt Assassin.
| Bret Martin with the 1st fish of the Trip |
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| Nice start with a 14lb Lake Trout |
One of the things I like most about Bret's boat is that it has a huge live well. Bret put the fish
directly in the live well as I got the rods and net out of the way. After a few photo's of the fish Bret released it back
in the water and we were back trolling deep for the Mackinaw. It was my turn next. I was trolling a Joe Bucher lure that has been good to me the last couple of seasons for both mackinaw and browns. I caught a 9lb mackinaw that had a unusually
large head but still had its spawning colors and look good to me.
| Jimmy Lewis got into the next fish! |
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| A post-spawn colored Mackinaw weighing in at 9lbs. |
The next two Mackinaw were twins. Just over 32 inches and weighing in at 16 pounds each. We were both
using the same lures as early and a great way to end the afternoon fishing for Mackinaw.
| Bret Martin with another great catch from Crescent |
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| This Mackinaw Measured 32 inches and 16 lbs |
| Jimmy Lewis catches the twin to Bret's fish above |
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| Near identical, 32 inch, 16 lb laker for "The Godfather" |
We fished the last couple of hours of the day fishing for browns with only a small strike for Bret.
A layer of fog covered the lake just after sunset and made for a interesting trip back to the resort. Good thing Bret has
a gps on his boat.
Sunday morning we tried the same drill for the browns. This time we were on the water by 6:30. We
went hours without a strike at all. We had not one brown to the boat for the weekend. Not wanting to get skunked we started
fishing for the mackinaw. We both had planed to be back to watch the last half of the super bowl. On our last hour of fishing
I finally hook up with a 21 pound 35.5 inch Mackinaw.
| Jimmy made up for a tough day on Sunday with this! |
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| A 35.5 inch, 21 lb Laker will make anybody's day. Great Catch, Jimmy!!! |
It only took that one fish to make a tough day on the water to having a great end of a fun trip. A
big thanks to Bret for inviting me on this trip.
Jimmy
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