4th of July Starts with a "BANG"

Fourth of July weekend started like a rocket!

I left Salem early afternoon on July 1 still undecided on what lake I was going to. I was fortunate enough on the drive to be just a few cars back of a wreck on I-5 that I got by quickly and made the road ahead fairly clear, which gave me time to debate with myself on where I was going to stop. I finally decided I had never seen Crescent Lake when it was 97% full so I was set to stop there.

When I arrived at the camp ground I was met with the black cloud of very hungry mosquitos. I dosed myself with enough deet to keep them at bay. I set up camp at a leisurely pace and launched the boat by 6:00 PM. That gave me almost 4 hours of legal fishing time.

I ran the SE shore and was marking plenty of fish. I was relaxed and just enjoying the peacefulness of being on the boat again. At about 8:30 my rod went off with drag screaming. When I grabbed it out of the holder I could tell this was a decent fish. lots of head shaking and full of energy, it took several nice runs before tiring. I got it to the boat and in the net and was surprised that it was a female. She had given it her all and every hook on my lure was bent and or broken(owner hooks). I set her in the live well and set up for weighing, measuring and a quick photo. She was 5 pounds and 24 inches

Almost exactly an hour later I was on the phone with my brother Monte giving him the scoop on my fish when, BAM, gotta go fish on! Again line was screaming off the reel. When I grabbed the rod and gave a hook setting jerk this fish decided to take the fight to the air. Several attempts to throw the lure while jumping and some great head shaking runs tired this one as well and I got it to the net. Again I was surprised that this prize fight was given by a great looking female. This one weighed in at a little over 6 pounds and right at 26 inches long. I was on a roll. By the time I got everything ready to fish again I only had about 5 minutes of legal time so I packed it in figuring on picking up where I left off in the morning.

Saturday I woke up just after 4:00 AM. Legal fishing was at 4:32 AM so I got on the boat and got my line in right on the money. I was pumped and ready for some great early action to match the previous night. Not as many fish were showing up on the screen but there were still some decent arcs in the area. To my disappointment not even a bump in the morning "prime". That was a sign of things to come. Saturday legal hours were from 4:32 AM until 9:53 PM. A long day that fizzled like a dud firework. i fished a lot of the 17+ hours available without a single strike. A short overnight "nap" and I was back out Sunday in time to be fishing by 4:35 AM and fished until shortly after 8:00 AM without a bite. With the kokanee fisherman all gathering in huge numbers again I decided to get off the water. Even though all my action was in the first 3 hours of my trip I still consider it a successful one for July.

- Bret Martin