Once again, our family was off to our favorite destination……. East Lake!! In addition to the outstanding fishing, there’s so much to do up in the crater that a week isn’t long enough to cover it all. Between the camping, hiking, mountain biking, swimming and just hanging out, I still managed to get some quality fishing time in.

The first two days were very slow. We fished mornings and evenings with the middle of the days reserved for family activities. Friday and Saturday’s totals were very low for this time of year. We caught 11 browns in all with the best being a 3 lb’er. Tyler and I both knew we were on the tail end of some unsettled weather so we were optimistic that it would change in our favor soon enough.

Sunday proved to be the turning point for us. I started things off by sticking a chunky and heavily spotted 5 lb’er.

On our next pass, Tyler followed up with a 5 lb’er of his own.

We nailed one more 5 lb’er but didn’t get any pictures of that one. We tallied 12 fish for the morning which included three 5 lb’ers, one 3 ½ lb’er and two 3 lb’ers. Things had definitely taken a turn for the better.

The evenings weren’t really producing much but I still went out anyway. I did manage one 4 ½ lb’er on one night but most were devoid of fish. Tyler took that opportunity to spend some time in his pontoon boat fly fishing and he did very well in that endeavor. He landed over 30 fish which included 15 Browns.

Since the advent of the 2-rod license, Tyler and I are regularly running 4 rods. It can be challenging at times as conditions change, but I think it has definitely helped in our catch percentages. One of those challenged happened the next morning. As we were passing through a productive area my downrigger rod bounced. I grabbed the rod and at the same moment Tyler’s rod went down too. I set the hook and the fish started bucking and taking line. Tyler was also into a decent fish but we still had 2 more rods in the water. Once my fish settled a little bit, I put the rod back in the holder and maintained pressure on it by increasing the throttle on the trolling motor. I then reeled my other rod as fast as I could to get it cleared while Tyler struggled to work both of his rods alternately. Fortunately we were able to clear them without incident. Unfortunately Tyler’s fish, which was much closer than mine, had swam into my line and the braid was wrapped around his lure and fish. We bought his fish in first and cut the lure off. I grabbed my line to provide a little slack so Tyler could free it from the lure. That was an anxious time as I knew it was a good fish and I was hoping it didn’t decide to make another run. Tyler finally freed my line and put his fish in the livewell. I initially thought mine was gone as there was no longer any resistance. I reeled frantically and luckily was able to catch up to the fish. About 25 feet out I could see that it was barely hooked by only one barb in the lower jaw. I was praying that the big hookjaw would not shake his head any more. He slid right into the net without any further struggle. What a fire drill that turned out to be!! We also put him in the livewell and ran back to shore for some better quality photos prior to the release.

Here's Tyler with an absolutely gorgeous 3lber.

And the other half of the double………. A 27” 8 lb hookjaw!

The next morning was slow and I dropped Tyler off at 8 so he could fly fish. I continued on and about an hour later I had a hard strike on the downrigger. It made a few short runs and then finally gave way to the net. I was alone so I put him in the livewell and motored over to Tyler’s pontoon for some decent pictures.

A super chunky 6 lb’er

That pretty much sums up our trip as far as the fishing portion of it goes. We were content with our results and did not fish (for browns) the last day and a half.

On a related noted, I observed another fisherman working the same routine as us and catching a good number of fish. I had never met him before but I had an idea of who it was. I had gone to shore for a few minutes and when I returned he had another fish on. I took that opportunity to cruise over to his boat and chat for a few minutes. He introduced himself and we chatted for 30 minutes or so and he then invited Tyler and I over to his cabin on Paulina Lake. We eagerly accepted the invitation. The “other fisherman” turned out to be one of the legends of Brown Trout fishing, Mr. John Hofferd. He is also a former owner of both East and Paulina Lake lodges. We spent a couple of hours one evening at his cabin admiring his amazing trophy wall, swapping stories and comparing techniques. He is also an avid duck hunter and is eager to talk about that and his love for hunting dogs. All in all we are very grateful for being able to spend a few short hours with him. He’s a great guy, easy to talk to and very humble about his accomplishments. I want to extend a special thanks to John for providing us with the highlight of our trip.

Tyler with John Hofferd in front of his Brown Trout wall of fame.

One last thing, if you have kids this is a great side trip that is only a short distance from East/Paulina Lakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWHFz9HIXsw