All I Wanted For Christmas....A Christmas Story

My brother Monte joined me for a fishing trip to Crescent Lake for our Christmas. We arrived at the resort around 2:45 PM on Friday. We checked in and got the boat on the water by 3:20 PM. The wind was blowing pretty good from the South. We had been on the water about 20 minutes when Monte let me know I had a fish on. When I grabbed the rod I told Monte it was a laker. I reeled it in and we got it in the boat. It weighed in at 8 pounds. Not a large fish as far as lake trout go but a fish in the boat so quickly was a positive start. After some pictures I released it unharmed.

As we fished on Monte noticed that his rod wasn't "twitching" the way it usually does with the lure he was using. He got up and ripped it 4-5 times to get it swimming. On the slack he got slammed. Fish on! He reeled it to the boat and in the net. A nice looking brown trout. That made it 4:10 PM, less than an hour on the water and two fish in the boat this was shaping up to be a very good trip. We put the fish in the live well to let him catch his breath. We fished on while he recovered. A short time later we took the time to weigh and measure it. He weighed in at 4.5 pounds and went 21 inches. That would be it for Friday.

On Saturday we got up in time to get on the water by first light. We were feeling fairly confidant after the start we had in the two hours we fished Friday. We fished until around noon without a bump. We decided to go in to have some lunch and check on how dinner was doing in the crock pot. The wind was blowing very strong and trying to tie the boat was quite a challenge. From the weather predictions we had seen all week we felt fortunate that the sun had been out several times during the day. The temperature was very mild for late December. The thermometer at the resort showed 45 degrees. Snow was melting very fast around the resort. We were back on the water shortly before 1:00 PM. We down rigged for the lake trout to no avail. We started flat lining right around 2:30 PM. Even though the days are short this time of year they seem long when there is no action. What a change from the day before. Around 4:00 PM I gave the old "it only takes one" speech to my brother. We trolled on and I had taken us in to some very shallow water, about 9 feet. About where my lure would be getting to the 9 foot mark it bent over and I thought I had hooked the bottom. I grabbed my rod and felt big head shakes right away. It was a great feeling as it has been quite a few trips for me without a large brown trout at the end of my rod. This was a very strong fish that took several good runs. I got him to the boat where my brother did a great job putting the net under him and scooping him into the boat. What a beautiful hook jaw!! Its head was blue with green depending on how the light hit it and very nice colors and spots over the rest of it. It weighed in at 7.5 pounds and measured 26 inches.

After a short photo session I released this fish and he swam away strong. All though the fishing was slow on Christmas I did end up getting what I asked for. That would be our only fish for Saturday. When we got to the docks they were really jumping as the wind continued to howl from the South. It was all we could do to control the boat and get it secured for the night. When we got up on Sunday the wind was blowing harder and we decided that we would wait until it was light and evaluate what we were going to do. After light we decided the bite seemed to happen in the evening and we would be better off to try to get the boat on the trailer. Now not only was the wind blowing but the predicted weather had hit and it was snowing sideways.

I would like to thank the staff at Crescent Lake Resort, in particular Gil (the manager) and Robert for keeping the boat ramp plowed so that the couple of boats that have been coming to the lake are able to get in and fish this time of year. They also helped me get my truck unstuck a few weeks ago with nothing expected in return. Thanks guys!!!!