Hello All,
Well, as this is a text
only report, many of you may think my results were less than stellar. In all honesty, you can't measure the quality
of a trip just by the size of fish you caught. Okay, it is definitely a significant factor, but as any true sportsmen
knows, there's much more to it than that. This was one of those trips.
I met up with Mike Scott
at the Paulina Lake Campgroung boat ramp at 5:55 am on Friday AM. He had caught a 6 lber Thursday evening casting so
we had high hopes. Usually I wait until the end of the report to state my results. We fished all day Friday, Saturday,
and then Sunday Morning. The boat caught 29 fish. However, our largest was 4 lbs, 22 inches.
That being said, I saw
some of the most amazing browns I've ever seen full-swing into their fall spawning rituals. Mike and I saw
50 browns in the 4 to 6lb range, 6 browns over 10+ lbs and 1 brown that was a BEHEMOTH!!!
She had to have been at least 36” long and 20+ lbs. I am still
in disbelief that was a brown and not a salmon. We tried casting. We threw everything at her, but she was uninterested.
I also saw one of the most
amazing male, hookjaw browns I've ever seen. He was in his full spawning colors with bright bronze/blaze
orange sides, randomly spotted with a dark, chocolate brown back that extended all the way to his kipe. He kept
porpoising like humpback whale migrating south along the Pacific Coastline. He was amazing, and I WANTED HIM!!! We
casted at him several times, nearly bonking him on the head! But to no avail. That leviathan of a hen and
this amazing hookjaw are what brown trout anglers dream of! Even though we didn't get the to strike, the opportunity
to just see them in their natural environment was incredible.
We had a blast and in conversations
on the boat and around the campfire, Paulina Lake legends like Gordon and Ed "Pops" Hahn as well as John Hofferd often came
up. With "Pops" being unable to make the trip up to Paulina for the last few years,
I made a toast to "The Hahns" that they were there in spirit and always in our thoughts.
Catching 29 fish in 2-1/2
days way exceeded my expectations. I was expecting 1 to 2 fish a day. That’s it. So, it was a lot of fun and great to
learn this lake during this time of year. Was also awesome to see the spawning
kokes, seeing them floating in their red-side sockeye colors. . Just seeing
nature in full swing. Really cool.
In terms of lures, we tried
a MYRIAD of things. The side of Mike's doghouse for his motor looked like a Christmas tree with all the different lures
we tried. Best lures were Rapala stick baits, Bombers, Trophysticks (6.5 was our best size), Megabass Stickbaits,
and Luckycraft Pointers.
Sorry for no pictures,
but I hope you enjoyed the read!
Best,
Brian
aka B-Wild
