Dad's Weekend VI - The Daniels Boat

Just after turning off I-5 south at the first exit in Eugene, I couldn't believe my eyes. Could that be, no, it can't be, but sure enough, my Dad was just ahead of me in his Dodge pickup after coming North on I-5 that morning to meet me. I quickly speed up to try and catch him to avoid the unnecessary taking of another exit where we planned to meet that morning. He saw me flash my lights at him and we proceeded on to Brian Wildish's parents house to carpool up to Crescent Lake together for our annual Dad's Weekend trip. I smiled about our incredible timing and knew that this was going to be an extra special Dad's Weekend VI for us and Team Wildish!

We arrived at the lake a little around 10:30 on Thursday morning and got stuff loaded into our Hosmer cabin. It didn't take us long to get the boat in the water and get to fishing. We trolled around the lake with no success. To our surprise, we saw Chuck Jones at the south end of the lake fishing around Tandy Bay. We talked to Chuck for quite a while and he let us know that he had landed a beautiful 8 pound hookjaw brown the evening prior. He said the fishing had been pretty slow, but he was finding most of his success on that end of the lake. As late evening approached, Dad suggested that we do some casting. Never before had I passed up a primetime last couple hours of the day regular flatline shallow trolling routine, but this was Dad's Weekend and I was going to listen to the old man. Afterall, he is the man who got me started on my love for fishing and has taught me so much over the years. Much to my pleasure and surprise, Dad hooked up with a nice big brown after only about 15 minutes of casting in an area near Tranquil Cove. I stood ready hoping to catch a glimpse of this fish. Dad had on 6# test line and this fish was working the rod over good. As the fish swam by the boat in the crystal clear water, I could tell it was over the 5 pound mark. Then, just like that, the fish exploded near the surface and jumped completely out of the water! This was a scrappy male but Dad made all the right moves to steer him into the scoop of our rubber net. We quickly high-fived and we both knew this was the biggest brown Dad had caught in years! At 26 inches and 6-1/2 pounds, Dad had just landed a beauty of a Crescent Lake hookjaw brown! After a few pics, we let him swim away. We landed a few smaller ones after that and then headed back for our cabin.

Friday morning, we headed right back to the same area for more casting. But the browns apparently had hit snooze on their alarm clocks because we couldn't even get a bump. We decided to troll for a while but that too was not producing. We stuck to the same area, and went back to casting again. Within minutes, Dad hooked up on a nice fish that took off screaming drag and headed for deeper water! We looked at each other and went "WHOA!". Just as we were thinking we had a pig on the line, Dad's rod went limp and he say "Oh No!". I asked him what happened and he said I think it spit the hooks. But as he reeled in, there was no lure on the other end! That was too bad because that Lucky Craft lure was HOT! We moved on and went back to casting in the spot that produced the night before. Fortunately for us, this proved to be the right decision. As we snuck back into our spot, we started spraying lures around the area. Wham! I got slammed and had on a nice buck male brown. This was another scrappy nice brown and I could tell it was over 5 pounds. After a short but explosive battle, a really pretty golden hookjaw of 6 pounds and 25 inches came to the net.

I soon followed with a 5.5 pound mackinaw. All from casting kokanee colored lures around 5 inches long. This was by far the most productive casting that my Dad had ever been apart of. He loved the instant hookups and how you can feel the fish pickup the lure as you rip it back to the boat. The evening was really slow for our boat but we looked forward to another day on the water.

Saturday morning came early, but we were eager to give it a try. Once again, the morning fishing was slow for Team Daniels. We tried casting, flatlining and downrigging over deeper water in search of that one big brown. But to no avail. As conditions became challenging with not a breath of wind and blue bird skies, we made the call to go big or go home by going deep for the chance at a 20lb lake trout. We started in Tandy and headed for Boy Scout Camp over 120 feet of water with lures at various depths from 80 to 100 feet. We trolled for an hour or so and it was getting close to 11 am. As we were coming up on Simax Beach while over 130 feet of water, I saw my rod bounce hard in the holder. Before I could get up and get it, the line was out of the clip and line started screamin off my reel. I gave a quick set jerk and it was "FISH ON!". Boy was this a heavy fish. For the first 5 minutes, I couldn't gain 5 feet on this brute. This was a tussle, and my dad was really enjoying the show once he got his line cleared and both cannon balls up to the boat. We both marked the time on our watches just to see how long it would take to land this beast. And I'm sure glad we did because after 20 solid minutes of give and take, we finally got our first glimpse. Just about the same time the air bubbles started appearing on the surface from the behemoth purging his air bladder. Dad gasped at the sight of this big laker. I knew it was my best one to date as Dad slid the rubber net under him. WOW, what a fish! Dad guessed him at a little over 20 pounds but I wasn't sure either, so we weighed him in the net with my boga gripper scale. At 24.5 pounds in the net, he was a solid 19 pounder! I actually had a goal that I told BWild before the trip that I wanted to get a 20 pound laker, and we got oh so close with this fish. At 36 inches long, this was the largest trout of my life to date and a killer male laker for sure! After some pics, we video'd the release as he swam back to his domain. What an amazing mackinaw and battle too. My arm was completely worn out after that! Haha!

To our surprise, this fish was the start of an EPIC 4 hour window of incredible lake trout fishing for me personally. As each hour passed, we landed on average one fish. Dad had the hot lyman lure, and the big lakers couldn't leave it alone. Dad landed a 10, a 12, and finally his personal best laker to date a 17-1/2 pounder that went 34 inches long before the action stopped. It was nice to see my father having such a good time and to put a really big smile on his face. I finally felt like all my years of hard work with trophy trout hunting were paying off in spades and to pay that back to the man I respect the most just made it feel oh so good! Congrats Dad on a super fun day of catching big lakers and doing everything right. Thank the good Lord above too!

I landed a 9 pound laker late Saturday evening to end our day. Sunday morning we tried again for browns but couldn't find them. Instead we were catching lakers in the shallows. I landed a 28 inch 9 pounder off Simax Beach pretty early in the morning. It wasn't long though before we switched to the mackinaw drill. Conditions were just right for it, and with the success we had the day before, could ya blame us!?!??? It wasn't long before Dad's rod went off and we were hooked up with a good lake trout. That same lyman lure was still on fire. After 10 minutes or so, I slid the net under another dandy laker. This one was 32 inches long and weighed in at 16-1/2 pounds. So, in less than a 24 hour period, Dad had just landed back to back personal best lakers!

We gave it a few more hours with no more luck. However, we did meet Jeb and Ryan Burton on the water and swapped greetings. It was a pleasure to meet both of them, and we traded some fishing tips and information. In fact, I tossed Ryan a black/silver lyman lure as they didn't have one. As it turned out, I later found out that Ryan caught his personal best lake trout on this same lure! I was tickled to death and it made me feel great that I could help them out. Both super cool guys that fish hard and treat the fish with respect. That's what TTH is all about right there!