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Met my Dad, Kim, at the Costco in Eugene around 9 am last Thursday for our Annual Dad’s Weekend Fishing trip with
the Wildishs’. This was going to be the 5th annual since Brian and I started this little routine with our “old
men”. It has been a great event and we hope to keep it rolling as long as we possibly can. Even with work, marriage,
and overall life commitments, we recognize how special our time is with the men who raised us and took the time to show us
everything we know, so we make the extra effort it sometimes takes to set aside everything else for this 3 to 4 day annual
weekend. For that, we have our wives and families to Thank for this fun time with our Fathers. Dad and I quickly commuted
over to Gary’s house to pick him and his gear up before heading up the Willamette Pass. Gary was excited and anxious
to get going on our TTH adventure, so we loaded up his stuff and headed out. Since this has been such a crazy spring, there
really was no surprise to see snow on the Pass as we drove over with fresh powder still in the trees. At 6,300 feet elevation,
we knew that Newberry Crater would be that much worse. I brought my truck chains, but was really hoping to not have to use
them. Fortunately, as we started up the crater, the wheel tracks were bare pavement with a small mound of snow in the center
divider. As we passed Paulina Lake, she looked amazing with a light ripple on the water and ice free. We were all anxious
to get our gear unloaded at East Lake Resort so that we could get to fishing. Pulling into East Lake, it was no surprise to
see 95% of the lake still frozen with ice. There was even less available water to fish than we had in 2010! Well, so much
for fishing East, I thought. We were greeted by Dave and Kathy Jones just after pulling into the resort and they got us checked
into our quaint little cabin. Dave and Kathy are extremely nice and grateful folks, and I highly recommend booking a cabin with them if you plan on heading up there. We stayed in the Teal, which had a couple of queen sized beds, a full kitchen with stove,
microwave, fridge/freezer, and a full bathroom with shower. Super nice accommodations compared to our “typical”
TTH trips of sleeping in the back of the truck and cooking over a campfire! Both ways are fun though!
| Fishing in Comfort! |
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| Lots of Snow, but East Lake Resort counters that with Great Lodging!!! |
We launched my Alaskan Smokercraft around 2:30 or so, just after being greeted by Karen Brown, owner of Paulina Lake
Resort. Karen is a super great lady who really appreciates the fisherman who travel to Paulina Lake, if you haven’t met her already. Once all the gear was put in the boat, we motored on out in front of the resort just
off the shelf and took a look on the graph. My goodness were there arcs and koke balls all over the place!
| Arcs, Arcs, and MORE ARCS!!! |
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| Now, just how do we go about catching 'em?!?! That's the challenge of a TTH'er!!! |
We quickly put down our plastic offerings to try and trick an old brown trout. For an hour or two, we hadn’t had
a bump. So we took a lap around the lake in search of more arcs on the graph. Along the way, I picked up 3 dink browns over
by the Hot Springs area. We worked the area over hoping for a quality brown, but to no avail. After another hour or so, we
eventually worked our way back around in front of the resort. Once again the browns were all lockjawed! After trying some
deeper water stuff, I made the call to move in a little tighter to shore. Boy did that decision pay off! While making our
first pass, my rod slammed over hard just 5 minutes into trolling this water. I quickly got the rod out of the holder and
immediately felt 4 to 5 quick hard headshakes of the fish! Then line started peeling off the spool!! I hollered at Dad and
Gary that this was a “good one” and to clear their gear. The guys got in there lures and then waited in anticipation
to see what was on the other end of my line. This brown made a few more runs, and I was getting pretty excited. I told the
guys once again, I really think this is a big fish as it stayed deep and slowly came in to the boat. As it was bulldogging
around the boat, Dad said oh yeah, that fish will go 6 to 7 pounds. He had his polarized glasses on, and I still couldn’t
make out the size of the fish. In my mind, I was like “really??”. Sure felt like a helluva lot bigger fish than
that, to be quite honest! But as I got her up off the bottom, he was definitely correct. She swam around in a big circle then
was ready for the net. Dad perfectly slide her into the net, and we all hollered with victory as I just landed a magnificent
Paulina Lake Hen! Instantly we could tell she was short but VERY stout! I was impressed by how THICK she was, and as Dad hoisted
her into the boat he said “Boy is she heavy”! After a few quick pictures, we put her back into the net and into
the water to stay oxygenated. She was doing fine and I let her rest for a bit. Knowing that my rubber net (thanks Jimmy Lewis!)
weighs 5.5 pounds, I put the Boga Gripper Scale on the net and weighed it with her in the net so as not to hurt her jaw or
hold the fish in the vertical position. I couldn’t hardly believe my eyes when the scale read 12.5 pounds!!! I hollered
out 7 pound hen boys! We high-fived and soaked her in the net once again. I then put a tape on her and she was ONLY 23 inches
long! What a PIG of a brown.
| 7 lbs and ONLY 23 inches long! What a stout fish!! |
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| RD holding his catch in front of BEAUTIFUL Paulina Peak! |
The only fish that I know of that was similar in size but heavier was Eric Cole’s KILLER Paulina Buck that went
8-1/2 Pounds and was only 23-1/2 inches long! That fish had a girth of 16-1/2 inches!! Incredible. Unfortunately, I forgot
to get a girth measurement on her before watching her swim off back into the crystal clear water of Paulina Lake. I was totally
pumped and stoked, but quickly said “Let’s get back to fishing!” The big bite could be ON. We trolled around
for another couple hours without a single hit. Past Lodge Owner and Brown Trout Legend, John Hofferd, showed up in his boat
working the same water so we knew we must be in the right spot! It was great to see John again, and we chatted a few times
in passing.
From then on out, I knew this trip had been made. I really wanted to get Gary and my Dad into similar or better fish,
but unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Gary got into a quality brown, however, that will be in BWild’s report. Over
the next 3 days, my Dad and I racked up some nice numbers of smaller browns to a couple pounds or so. We ended up with 20
browns to the boat for the weekend, and Dad caught a really pretty male rainbow that was probably 18 inches and a couple pounds.
This rainbow was the only fish kept for the weekend, as my kids love to eat fish. All the browns were released to get bigger.
We caught fish down to 30 feet deep up to 10 feet deep all over the lake. The resort area seemed to be most productive for
my boat this trip. Bombers and Trophysticks were our most productive lures in Koke and Chub patterns.
Hope y’all
enjoyed my report! Best of luck on your next trip and be sure to send TTH a report or send pics in to Brian or Dan. We LOVE
to see any and all photos of your trophy trout!
Until next time,
R.D.
“Browns – Coyotes of the Fishing
World!”
| It's June and this much Snow at East Lake Resort?! |
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| Not that snow isn't up here this time of year, but this much is a rarity!!! |
| Paulina Peak in all her Beauty over Paulina Lake |
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| Dad's Weekend V - What it's ALL about! |
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| Kim Daniels on the left, Gary Wildish on the right. Way to go, Dad's!! |
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