It’s been a whirlwind of a summer of mixing good times and a fairly heavy workload, and I just haven’t had time to write up fishing reports along the way. With the last big trip of the summer behind me, I’ve decided to throw out a report covering all three trips since my last write up in June...

East Lake - July 28-30

Boy was I ever excited for this trip! My girlfriend, Lynn was showing more and more interest in joining me on trophy trout hunting expeditions, and my experience of late July at East Lake has been some of the most consistently successful fishing I have experienced. We arrived late Thursday afternoon and fished thru ‘til dark with very little to show for it. We got off the water feeling a bit discouraged, and I was frustrated that the wind had been blowing steadily from the east to west. The wind almost always blows west to east in Newberry Crater and I’ve never had good success when it blows from an unusual direction. That was my excuse anyways…

The next morning there was no wind at all and my confidence was riding high once again. The early morning bite didn’t happen, but as the sun came over the hill the fish woke up and we got into some slow but steady action. Finally at about 7:30, as Lynn was ripping her lure aggressively, a big brown pulled back hard! This was Lynn’s first good take while rip trolling and it took her by surprise to say the least! Luckily the hook up was solid and a few minutes later there was a good fish bull-dogging below the boat. It was such a thrill to coach her thru the process of tiring the big guy out and soon enough I slid the net under him…  A nice golden hookjaw approaching 5 ½ lbs… Lynn’s first trout over 5 lbs! The slow bite continued thru almost noon and we had racked our total up to 10 fish to the boat. Mostly smallish fish aside from a 4 ½ pounder, also for Lynn. Then the wind kicked up again… from the west… and the bite fizzled to nothing. Hours and hours past without a bump and just as it seemed a complete waste of time, my rod went off hard! I grabbed it from the holder and line was rushing from the spool with powerful thrusts and then the heartbreaking give to nothing as the monster trout threw the lure. That was it for the night.

Saturday morning gave us flat water once again, but the bite never kicked in. We fished til about 7:00 pm and scratched out 3 small browns. The fishing might have been slow, but the weather, scenery, and especially the company were all amazing. How lucky can a guy get to have such a bright and beautiful woman who actually enjoys spending countless hours with me in a boat chasing these elusive fish?

Crescent Lake – August 10-14

Lynn and I decided at the end of last summer that an extended camping trip needed to be scheduled to include my now seven year old daughter, Ellie. We rallied a bunch of friends and I chose Crescent Lake as the destination. The goal had been a full week, but work would not allow. We ended up with a nice 5 day run and had upwards of 15 people in our camp by Friday night. Fishing was by no means the primary focus of this trip, but I knew there was great potential, so I was out there every morning and little runs here and there throughout the days and evenings. The bad news is that the fishing was painfully slow. The first morning I went out solo and stuck a few browns up to 4 pounds, but that was the only decent action of the whole trip. There were 3 other good fish hooked here and there, but none of them stuck. It was really disappointing because there were a few guys who had real interest in seeing my fishing game in action and I really thought that I could show off some quality fish… Ha!... The joke was on me…

Wickiup – August 25-28

After having 4 trips pass with no trout over 5 lbs for this trophy trout hunter, I found myself in my biggest big fish slump in several years. Late August at Wickiup is typically a money trip, but as I observed the water levels I was a bit concerned. There was about twice as much water in the lake as normal for this time of year and a big difference like that can change everything. I was blessed once again to have sweet Lynn raring to go, and we also invited along our good friend Erik who had gotten a small and disappointing taste of the game at Crescent just a few days prior. We got on the water late afternoon on Thursday and headed up the high waters of the Deschutes Arm. After trolling three solid lures through several great late summer holes with nothing, I decided to head out to the main lake to work some ridges. Once out there, we saw some familiar boats of other skilled Wickiup anglers and I knew we were on the right track. We got to a deep trolling drill and I did my best to hug the winding walls of the channels, and before long Lynn was in a tug-of-war with a strong fish. Soon enough we had the skunk removed from the boat with a long lean hookjaw pushing 6 lbs, Lynn’s biggest trout to date. Erik was pretty impressed as he laid his eyes for the first time on a gorgeous big brown trout. The evening kicked down two more fish, a 4 lb for Lynn and I finally broke my slump with a nice hookjaw approaching 5 ½ lbs... Yes!!

Come Friday morning, there was no question of where to begin. We hit the same run and to our dismay, there was no action to be found. It prompted me to wander out further towards the dam and see if I could locate the run that put up my 10+ and a 8 ½ last August, with all of this extra water changing up the scenery.   Luckily, there were just enough willows sticking above the water that I was able to see the main point of the run. As we approached, my lure got tagged and I stuck a nice 4 lb brown. I was itching to hit that point and have a chance at something bigger. Something told me there was one waiting for us off the main point. Sure enough, at almost the exact spot where I hit the big hen last year, my rod did a sudden deep bob and then the tip rose briefly as the line popped from the downrigger clip, and then folded solid under the weight of a big fish as I got the rod in my hands. The fish held strong as my partners cleared their lines, and then the big hen began to cooperate until she was close to the boat. Erik aced the net job and the trophy fish came aboard. 9 pounds and 28 ½ inches. My slump was over, indeed, and I had just landed my biggest brown of the year. She took some time, but eventually swam off fine into the algae clouded depths. Okay, someone else’s turn!  Ah... it was Erik stepping up to the plate with his first brown ever, a nice 3+ hen. Soon after that one he put the hooks to an even better fish that was right at 5 lb. Poor Lynn was left out of the game for a good spell as Erik and I put up some numbers of quality fish. All of the fish we were seeing were over 20 inches long… “Where are the dinks?” I wondered.  We just kept working the same run and hooking up on almost every pass. Finally, Lynn got to play… I had killed the motor at the end of a run and we were all reeling up our lines. Lynn was the last line out and as her lure approached the surface, right next to the boat, a beastly brown exploded on it. I heard it and saw the splash out of the corner of my eye, and as I came to attention I saw her rod tip in the water with line peeling from het spool! I asked how big it looked and she said with wide eyes “…BIG!” I checked her drag as she fought it like a champ, and soon enough the piggy was on the surface about 15 ft from the boat. It was a big male and he wallowed for a few seconds in the chop. We could see that the single rear hook of her lure was stuck to the fish’s dorsal fin… far less than a solid hookup and this fish was not done with the battle. Down he went once again. I backed the drag off a little more and told Lynn to take it real easy. She very slowly worked him back to the top and this time he came up right next to the boat. He was still upright and hot so I held back from attempting to lunge the net towards him. Perhaps I should have because a moment later he exploded in a rage and the hook gave way. All of our hearts sank as we watched the beast swim away. He was under 30 inches but really thick all the way thru. His tail came up out of the water a couple times and it looked to be at least 10 inches deep. I have little doubt that he was over 10 pounds… That was sweet Lynn’s only bite of the day and her first “one that got away” story. It always hurts to lose a fish like that but it is a big part of what keeps up coming back for more.

Saturday was to be a tougher day. We slugged it out for a long day and each of us scored one fish. All three to four pounders. Same drill, same areas, just slow action.

Our final day was now upon us and we were a little beat up from the prior day. Erik had the hot rod and he was hooking up on the regular right out of the gate. I got hit once and it delivered a nice four pound hookjaw, while I think Erik landed five fish, including a nice 3 ½ pound rainbow. Lynn had a couple good takes and got to play a big fish for a minute or so before it came undone. Erik also lost a few short hookups including one where his rod was pinned hard in the holder due to an over-tightened drag. He finally got it out and felt what he declared was the most powerful fish he’d felt all weekend, but sadly there must’ve been a weak spot deep in his braided line because as the fish was running hard the line broke mid-rod and the fish was gone, along with well over 100 yds of line and a very special lure. He stayed right in the game though and continued to put up fish on every pass, including another nice hen that hit the 5 pound mark.

We called it a day at about 4:00 and headed back to break camp. I think the total for the 4 days was 22 fish. 3 of those were kokanee, 3 rainbows, and 16 browns. Of the 19 trout, only one of them was less than 20 inches. Ya gotta love Wickiup for these amazing quality wild trout! Most fish were caught on Trophy Sticks and Bomber Long A’s in kokanee like colors. I’d highly recommend heading that way soon if you can. As the water drops, the fishing should only improve through September… Just sayin’…