It’s been 7 months (sans a small trip to Crescent at Thanksgiving) where I’ve really been able to get into some trophy trout fishing.  RD and I had talked for about a month and had tossed the idea around of a few lakes that we may try.  After awhile, it seemed like the fishing gods were pointing us to go to Lake Billy Chinook to pursue trophy bull trout.  RD and I hadn’t been there for a couple years as it seemed like the fishery was in a downward cycle.   We’d heard of a few reports that it sounded like it may be starting to turn the corner with a few decent bulls being caught up to 26 inches.  LBC it was.  Our goal, (1) keeper-sized fish (24 inches) a piece (with no intent on actually keeping them).  Were we in for a surprise!

We arrived late on Friday night, set-up our camp at Perry South, had a couple beers, and tried to fall asleep.  We headed out at first light on Saturday morning.  It was very cold and quite a brisk boat ride down by the island.  We figured fishing around the island would be a good indicator of what was happening with the bite.

On the next pass, RD caught a 4 lb twin to my first fish.  HOLY COW, what a hot bite!

On the very next pass, RD and I were reflecting on how good of a bite it was when it happened.  It looked like “The Hand of God” grabbed a hold of my line and just pulled down gradually.  I grabbed the rod, set the hook immediately.  My hook-setting was welcomed with a very heavy, deliberate head-shake.  “FISH ON!” I yelled.  RD looked at my rod and stated “DUDE, look at the bend in your rod!  That looks like a good one!  How does it feel?”  Honestly, it felt heavy, but it wasn’t like I had a line-peeler on.  Just every now and then a heavy, very deliberate headshake.  It was as the fish didn’t even know it was hooked. 

RD had cleared all the gear and just waited patiently as I slowly brought the fish in.  As many of you can attest, the anticipation of seeing “WHAT IS IT? HOW BIG IS IT!” is almost unbearable.   RD got the first glimpse…….<GHASP>…”OMG!!!!  IT’S A MONSTER, BRIAN!  IT’S A FREAKING MONSTER!!!”  The fish finally came into my view.  With it swimming right to left, the sun piercing the water it illuminated the largest bull trout I’d  ever seen in person!  The bull’s mouth was agape, looking like a giant blue whale trying to fill it’s mouth with krill!  It was a monster.  I just started saying aloud “Stay Calm and we’ll get him.  Just stay calm and we’ll get him.”  RD kept reassuring me “Brian, you have him hooked good.  Just play him out, and we’ll get him.”

The fish saw the boat and then he started to get really hot!  It was a give and take battle of small runs going underneath the boat, staying deep, running to the shallows, running back to the deep, running to the boat.  It was tremendous fight.  As he stubbornly approached and I so ever gently reeled in, RD had the net and I slowly lowered myself into the boat and leaned back on the rod.  RD scooped him up and he was ours!!!  RD and I had tagged teamed on the largest bull trout of my life!!!  A 13 lb, 29.5 inch HOG!!!  The girth on this fish was 19 inches and just stacked from nose to tail.  As we don’t get out to Lake Billy Chinook very often, and knowing this was one of the larger bulls that had been caught from the lake in the last 3 to 4 years, I decided I’m going to mount him.  After several photos and both RD and I thanking the “Big Man Upstairs” for blessing us with this fish, we got right back after it.

We both said right after we got our lures back in the water, it’s all gravy.  I told RD “Hey, man it’s your turn!” 1 minute later, RD gets slammed by a nice bull!  It was headshaking and bulldogging.  I was ready with the net and after about a 5 minute fight, RD had landed a 25 inch, 7 lb bull!!!!  AWESOME!  This bull trout bite was ridiculous.  After some pics and release, we both hurried and went “Who knows how long this will last, let’s get going!” 

We get going, and RD’s rod had been set in the holder for 10 seconds when he yipped “FISH ON BABY!!!”  I looked at his rod and sure enough, he was into ANOTHER nice bull?  How was this happening?  This was getting to be absurd.  He kept fighting and fighting.  He said “Man, it feels just like the last one!”  He got to his mono, and I caught a faint glimpse of a flash of it.  It was NICE, it was definetly over the 24 inch mark!  All the sudden, it took an angled run on RD and 2 headshakes later, it was gone!  DANGIT!  But we were into a hot bite.  After that one, RD caught a 6 lber and then I caught a dink.

As fast as the bite was on, it was off like a light!  We pounded it for about 2 more hours but with a fish that we needed to get prepared and ready for a freezer for the taxidermist, we headed back to camp.  We were able to go the store that’s on top of the ridge.  We asked the owner if it would be alright if she had a freezer we could use for a day to store a fish that we wanted to keep.  She was very obliging and we were able to take care of the fish.   We thanked her emphatically and gave her some business by buying a couple celebratory beers for a morning that we’d never forget.

That afternoon, we discussed if we were going to go out again as we were on such a high from the morning.  We both decided that heck, we’re here, we don’t get to fish as much as we’d like, let’s hit it.  On the way down to the dock, we met a local guy that said he had some success earlier in the day as well by getting a couple over the “keeper” mark.   We congratulated him, compared pictures, and RD and I headed out with a bounce in our step.  “Could we get another one?” I thought to myself.  Off into the lake we went.

He released him and about 10 minutes later, I caught a 2 lber.  After a couple more passes with nothing doing, we headed back to camp for some well-deserved dinner and beers to celebrate a terrific day.

20 minutes later, RD hooked into a great bull.  It surfaced on top of the water and I saw a boil about 30 yards away and went “OH, that’s a nice fish!”  All the sudden, it came unbuttoned.  DAMMIT!!!  We scratched out a couple more dinks and we were in bull trout bliss. 

On our way back to camp, RD said “We’ve got to try this one last spot!  Otherwise we’ll be kicking ourselves if we don’t.”  I completely agreed and we got our gear in the water.   We fished for about 30 minutes with no bumps but a ton of fish on the graph.  It got to the point where RD’s transducer couldn’t pick up the bottom because it was so thick with fish.  Nice problem to have, but no bumps.  Then lightning struck my rod!  I saw it bounce and set the hook.  A rock-solid return to my hook-set allowed me to say those heralded words “FISH ON!”  The bull was coming in slowly but surely.  It almost acted if it wasn’t hooked.    I filled the reel to about a ¼ of the way past my mono (which meant I had about 30 to 40 feet left to get to the fish) when the fish decided to wake up.  My rod bent over hard, with multiple headshakes and then a blazing 150 foot run.  I showed RD and went “DUDE!  LOOK AT THIS!”  It was just peeling line off my reel.  I may as well have been free-spooling!!!  It finally stopped.  I’d gain about 30 feet, he’d take 20 feet.  I’d gain 10 feet, he’d take another 40 feet.  I battled this fish non-stop for 10 minutes like this.  It was an epic battle.  I was getting nervous!  “HOW BIG IS THIS? WILL I BE ABLE TO GET HIM IN?”

About halfway into my mono, RD and I both finally got a glimpse.  We instantly knew this bull was over 10 lbs!!!  I even marveled at “HOW THICK HE IS!” After about one more minute, we had him landed!  We were both in awe that we’d got our 2^nd bull over the double digit mark for the weekend.  And out of a lake that hadn’t been really producing a bunch of 10+ lbers like it had in the past.  We weighed him in the net and got a measurement on him.  10.5 lbs, 28 inches with an 18 inch girth.   After some pics, we went to get an underwater release movie.