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I drove down to my parents late on Wednesday evening. It was going to be “Dad’s Weekend – VI”,
our annual trip with the Daniels (father/son duo Kim and Ryan). Thinking back to our very first Dad’s weekend at East
Lake back in 2006, it was astonishing to think how many different lakes and how many different fish we’ve caught with
our dad’s. RD had caught his personal best lake trout ever on Dad’s Weekend. I myself had also met the same PR
as well on the same weekend (Dad’s Weekend III). A 24 fish evening for RD and Kim on Dad’s Weekend I at East Lake,
a 9.5 lb hookjaw on Dad’s Weekend IV at Paulina Lake. We’d fished different lakes, all with fantastic memories
and stories.
But this trip…..RD and I wanted it to be special for our dad’s. As we fish more and more, we’re
beginning to hone our craft a little better. We fish with a lot more confidence now than what we did just 6 short years ago.
It’s not a question of “if?”. It’s a question of “when?”. When will that 10 lb brown strike
my lure? When will that 20 lb laker rip the line out of the downrigger clip? When? We knew it would happen sooner or later.
If we kept at it and applied the tactics we’ve acquired over the years, we were going to get our dad’s into the
largest trout of their lives!
Day 1 –
Dad and I left the house around 6:30 on Thursday AM with boat in tow to venture out and tackle the beautiful crystal,
clear waters of Crescent Lake. Dad has never caught a decent mackinaw before. When I say “decent” for a mackinaw,
I mean something over 10 lbs. I was telling my dad that if the stars aligned and with some of the tips I’d received
from other trophy trout enthusiasts that had been up to Crescent and Odell over the last few weeks, his luck was going to
change.
We pulled up to the lodge around 8 am, unloaded all of our gear in the cabin (it was unoccupied from the night before)
and we launched my 15’ Sea Nymph into ol’ mother Crescent. We ran into a couple of guys that had caught a 10+
lb hookjaw brown a couple days before using a kokanee troll rigged with a kwikfish behind it. Not your standard trophy brown
trout gear, but hey, I tip my hat the man that caught a fish of a lifetime. Congratulations, my friend. With that knowledge
of a big brown being caught, we were excited and off we went and fished around 10 AM.
Dad got the skunk off the boat with a 2 lber around 2 pm.
| Dad with the first fish of the trip... |
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| ...not a monster, but the skunk was off the boat and they only got bigger!!! |
It was pretty slow so we decided to head back in. I received an e-mail from Jeb Burton stating he’d been there
a few days before and was knocking the crap out of the lakers with jointed rapalas. Good Sign! Then Dan Stewart was at the
lake for the last few days. He stated he’d only caught 1 brown in the few days he’d been there but he couldn’t
keep “those stupid lakers off my lures. They love them!” Maybe it’d be a laker trip? I did thank Dan as
he gave me some custom-painted lures as he knew of my misfortune of getting my tacklebox stolen a month prior. In return,
although I had very few, I felt obligated to give him a discontinued lure that had always produced for me. It’s always
in my top 3 of lures, and depending on the day and how the fish are biting, my # 1 lure. He thanked me and told me if he didn’t
do well that evening, he was probably going to bail and go hit Wickiup for a few days. We hit the last few hours of legal
fishing with me catching a 3 lber as I was letting out and then with maybe 5 minutes left of legal fishing, I caught a 4 lber.
| A lil' 3lb brown to get the skunk off for Bwild |
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| A little bigger at 4lbs right at evening legal... |
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| ...still nothing big. But they'd only get bigger!!! |
The browns were getting bigger, but not what we were looking for. We heard from the Daniels that Kim caught an awesome 6-1/2 lb hookjaw brown while casting. RD and I have never casted much, especially during the “prime-time”, but his transducer was
all fouled up on his fish finder so he couldn’t accurately gauge depth thus really hindering his ability to troll effectively
and keep that lure in the strike zone. With than new tip and a great fish to show for it, we filed that away in our memory
banks for future reference and off to sleep we went around 11 pm.
Day 2 –
The alarm went off at 3:45 AM and we were begrudgingly drug ourselves out of bed, slapped on our cold-weather gear, slammed
some coffee and a Danish and off we went into the darkness. Legal was at 4:30 and we placed our lures into the choppy wet
darkness, hoping to fool a wise, old brown. 5 minutes into it I glance at the tip of my rod with my head lamp and it’s
throbbing away. “FISH ON!” After a few headshakes and a 5 minute fight, my dad netted our first 5+ lber of the
trip! A few pics later and the beautiful hookjaw was off to go feed on whitefish and kokanee.
| First 5+lber of the trip! A great looking hookjaw |
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| Released right after the photo! The first of the 5+lb browns for the Wildish's!! |
We hurriedly put our lures out, excited that we had nearly instant success at the start of our first run. 5 minutes went
by…WHAM!!! I jerked the rod and was met with a deliberate, heavier weight! “YEAH BABY! FISH ON!!!” I kicked
the boat into neutral and told my dad “This one definitely has more weight.” As the fish came closer, it was staying
deep, and felt heavy. The lurking feeling in the back of my mind was “It’s not bulldogging like a brown. It’s
probably a laker.” As the fish’s white belly and tail showed itself, my dad went “Fork Tail!” He netted
it and we had ourselves a respectable 11 lb laker netted to the boat. Kind of fun to catch a decent lake trout on the flat-line
troll. Catch….Photo….Release!! Dad and I hi-fived and I said “Dad, it’s your turn now!”
| An 11 lb lake trout while flat-lining Early AM |
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| Kind of fun to catch a decent lake trout while trolling the shallows. Released after photo! |
About an hour passed and no more hits. Dad and I decided to try a new area based off of information we’d heard
from Chuck Jones and then with the Daniels getting some really shallow brown action the evening before. Dad made the call
and said “Hey, let’s try flat-lining really shallow, like 7 to 10’ deep! Chuck caught an 8 lber shallow
and had a bigger one following.” I said “Let’s do it!” In we went shallow. I was standing at the helm,
admiring how absolutely clear the water was. Every rock. Every pebble. Every strand of weed. Every…..”Oh GOD!
FISH ON!” My rod was doubled over. I set the hook and the fish held solid. It took a couple short spurt runs and my
dad asked what I thought. I said “Feels like the weight of that laker, but it’s scrapping like a brown!”
Then it boiled on the surface about 100 feet back. “DAD! LOOK AT THAT BOIL!” At first, this made me nervous it
wasn’t that big as typically, the smaller the fish, they’ll usually surface quickly into the fight. But then after
the swirling reminents of it’s surface-breaking splash subsided, I saw a shadow and saw what appeared to be the tips
of a dorsal and tail fin just barely above the surface. “DAD! IS IT A BROWN?!?! IS IT A SQUARE TAIL?!!?!” Dad
nervously and tryingly said “I can’t tell Brian! It’s too far away and I can’t tell!” A couple
minutes of it bull-dogging, and just staying beneath the surface I saw it! “SQUARE! SQUARE! IT’S A BROWN!!! AND
IT’S A GOOD ONE!” Dad excitedly ready with the net, I slowly turned the golden hen’s head towards the boat
and dad scooped her up! “WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!” I was so excited, we got her in the boat and I looked and knee jerk
I went “Dad, it could be pushing 10!” Then the hand of God slapped me with a cold-hard sense of reality going
“Brian, look at her. She has the girth, but not the length.” I then said aloud “She’s too short, Dad!
She’s doesn’t have the length!” We put her back in the water to let the old girl compose herself (and myself
included). After I settled down, I grabbed my scale and weighed her horizontally in my rubber net. 12.6….12.4…..12.3….12.5.
Deducting the weight of my 4 lb net, I exclaimed “8.5 lbs!!!” My dad yelled “ALRIGHT!!!!” We took
some great photos of the old girl and my dad did a great job of getting the underwater release!!
| A great shot of Bwild with his 26.5 inch, 8.5lber |
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| This beautiful hen was released right after the photo. Love the background! |
Euphoric over our great morning, we saw RD and Kim and wanted to tell them about our success and if they were having
as equally as good of morning! RD and Kim had caught a 4 and 6 lber casting and Kim had lost a MONSTER that sawed him off!
They told my dad and I to give casting a try. I told my dad “If you want to, I’ll do it. You’re call. Rest
of the trip for me is all gravy from here on out!” He said “Let’s do it!” We found a spot that had
some good structure. Dad got a follower on his 1st cast. 3 casts later I hooked up with a pounder.
Then I missed a 4 to 5 lber that struck my lure and was temporarily hooked 3 times. Then a 2 lber. Then a 3 lber. Then the
bite shut off and we decided to head back in for some lunch and a much deserved nap. What a morning!
That evening was much slower than the morning hours. However, I was able to catch my largest brown casting. A weird colored,
24 inch, 5lb brown that had a messed up jaw. I didn’t care. I was just happy I caught a decent brown casting! We went
back in that night and celebrated with a couple beers. What a day!!
| A funky looking 24", 5 lber for Bwild |
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| He didn't care as this was his first 5lb brown casting. |
Day 3 -
It was really cold that morning. I
didn’t have a thermometer on me, but I’d guess 25 degrees. I told
Dad “Look, you’re using my lure that caught all the fish yesterday.”
My dad still hadn’t tied into a big fish yet and I was determined to get him the biggest trout of his life. 10 minutes into our early AM troll where I’d caught the 8.5 lb hen the
day before, my dad’s rod doubles over. He grabbed that sucker and laid
the wood to the fish on the other end. “You got ‘em, Dad?” My dad grunted “Oh yeah! I got
him!” YES!!!! I cleared all
the gear and just looked at my dad’s rod and the way the fish was fighting and knew it was going to be decent. As I scoured the water with my LED headlamp, the fish’s silhouette flashed
acrossed the light beam. “That’s over 5 for sure!” I stated. 2 minutes later, the awesome hookjaw was in the net!.
My dad was excited, we pulled the hooks out of the male’s mouth and my dad posed for the photo op! A gorgeous 6 lb brown for my dad! Finally, my dad was on the
board with a good one!
| Gary Wildish with a superb specimen of a hookjaw |
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| A little over 6 lbs! Gotta get up early to get these! Released right after photo! |
I told
my dad after about another 2 hours of no hits for browns that we had not really tried for lakers. I said “Let’s get ya’ a big one, dad.” No
arguments from him. We trolled in depths from 200 to 80 feet deep trying to locate. We were marking some HUGE arcs about 5 to 10 feet off the bottom. We bonked them relentlessly with various offerings but to no avail.
I called RD up and told him what we were doing and that the lakers weren’t wanting to cooperate. We headed in around 11 to make some lunch and we knew the Daniels would be soon to follow.
As we
put all our gear down, I heard a knock on the door. It was trophy trout legend,
Chuck Jones! He said “Hey Brian! How’s it going? Heard you guys are having some success!” After exchanging
pleasantries, he told me his truck was out of ATF and wondered if I could buzz him down to the junction to get him some at
the gas station. We bombed down there and back.
We checked out his truck and poured the ATF in and it seemed to run okay. He
said he’d give me or RD a call from a pay phone if he didn’t make it home to Roseburg and I said “Whatever
you need, Chuck. Just give us a buzz and we’ll help you out!” We never heard from him so I’m assuming he got home ok!
After
I got back to the cabin, my phone was “blowing up” with texts from RD stating he and his dad were taking the mackinaw
to the wood shed like red-headed step children (no offense to any readers if you’re a redheaded stepkid ;-)) I called
him and he said “Brian, GET OUT HERE! The laker bite IS ON!!!” My
dad and I got out there, used everything Kim and Ryan were doing, same speed, same depth, same area. Everything. NOTHING!
This day was meant to be for the Daniels (be sure to read RD’s awesome report).
I actually was able to get a video from our boat of Kim fighting what ended up being the largest trout of his life! AWESOME and so happy
for those guys.
Day 4 –
This was it. Dad and I headed out and we went to the spot we hit on the morning of Day 2. Both dad and I put on the same lure as it seemed to be catching 90% of what we caught our browns
on. Almost like Déjà vu, within 5 minutes of our lures in the water, Dad gets
slammed and nails a 5 lb hookjaw! WOOOHOOO!!!
After the release, I get slammed 5 minutes later and reel in a 10 lb laker. In
almost the exact same spot as 2 days prior when I caught the 11 lber. My dad
was stoked. I was too, but something was missing.
| Dad with an Early AM 5 lb Hookjaw |
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| Same spot as 2 mornings prior with almost identical results |
| A 10 lb laker for Brian Wildish |
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| Same spot as 2 mornings prior!! On the shallow flat-line! But we needed something bigger.......... |
“Dad,
we’ve got a couple hours left. I know we should be fishing for browns,
but I want you to get a big laker!” Dad didn’t care and said he was
just happy to be out there with me. I was happy too, but I had a goal, and I
was going to try my hardest to attain it for my dad! We put our lures our and
dad started to put the first downrigger down but it had a backlash rat’s nest.
WHAT THE…..? SS Aircraft Cable all tangled up?!?! GREAT!!! So I reel in, kick the boat in neutral and instead
of getting frustrated, we calmly worked out the tangle. It was fixed and
we sent down dad’s lure. During this time, we ventured out into wayyyy
deeper water than needed. I told dad to take the helm and take us to 130 to 140’
depth while I let my downrigger out. As I let out, I had my own cluster of a
mess to deal with. Now I’m really frustrated. Dad turned around and said “You want me to stop?” I
said “No, just fish. I’d rather have one lure in the water than no
lures in the water.” I literally had to take the whole rigger apart. After the tangle was out and me relieved, I began to reassemble my downrigger. All of the sudden, Dad pops up and goes “What the?” I look at his rod and it had popped out of the clip. Although
it wasn’t like it slipped. It was BURIED!!! “FISH ON!” I cleared the rigger and I was giddy with excitement that this could be it! A big laker for dad! Dad brought it in slowly and then I saw
the first glimpse of it. I went “Oh yeah!
It’s a good one, Dad!” Dad was concentrating hard on the fight
as I was singing a song to myself “Dad’s gotta big a laker….Dad’s got a big laker…” . A minute later, the laker was ours. I
examined the fish and went “Dad….THIS IS A FATTYYYYY LAKER!” He
was kind of lacksaidaisical in his response with “Yeah, it’s a good one.”
I looked at him with a confused and questioning tone of “Yeah, it’s a good one? Are you kidding? It’s a FATTY! LOOK AT IT!” He went “Yeah, it’s alright.” Whatever. I weighed it in the net and it was right on at 19 lbs in the net! A 15 lb laker. Respectable, but, it was only 30 inches long! JUST A PIG for it’s length. We
got a few pics and off the hen swam to go gorge herself on more kokanee schools.
| Finally, a PR Best laker for Dad!!! What a FATTY!! |
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| 30 inches long but 15 lbs! No girth measurment, but a pig for it's length! C&R'd! Congrats, Dad! |
We saw
Jeb Burton motor up as my dad and I were doing photo ops. We’d only had
e-mail correspondence through some great reports he’s sent to TTH. He asked
what we were using, what depths, speed, etc. We told him everything as he had
his son, Ryan, aboard and had never caught a laker. They were excited to see
us catch one basically right in front of them. I told him of RD and Kim’s
success and they were really stoked. I later found out that RD gave him one of
his lures to try and sure enough, it ended up getting Ryan his first laker! That’s
what TTH is all about right there. We
told Jeb the drill…….RD gave him a lure……. BOOM…. Ryan Burton hooks up an hour later and gets
a 15 lb Laker to his credit! WOOHOO!!! (Fitting too that it was Dad's weekend
for us and another Father/Son Duo got into some action .....AWESOME!)
| Ryan Burton with his PR Best Mackinaw!! |
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| 33 incher at 15 lbs! Released to go gain some weight!!! |
That
made it a trip for us. My dad was grinning ear-to-ear, as was I. This was by far our best results we’ve ever had regarding quality size of fish and then quantity
of those quality size. Every trip has it’s special memories but this is
for sure one that I will truly never forget. Our hospitality was great with Gil
and Robert of Crescent Lake Resort taking great care of us. Dad and I treated ourselves to a much-needed and well-deserved
breakfast at the Restaurant. If you have a chance to go Crescent Lake, even if
it’s not to fish but just to relax, I highly recommend it.
I know
this was a long report and I can get carried away. It was such a magnificent
trip with my dad, I just wanted to share it with everyone! With that, if you’ve
got about 5 more minutes to spare (I swear it’s worth it), here is a fun video compilation I put together of what sums
up our Dad’s Weekend VI trip for RD and myself! I hope you enjoy it!
With
that…. Thank you, Crescent Lake. Thank you, Dads!
Best,
Brian Wildish (aka – Bwild)
| Our Home for 4 days/3 Nights |
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| #21, The Hosmer Cabin |
| A Bald Eagle Scouring the Lake Surface for Prey |
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| Thank you, Crescent Lake!!! |
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| Dad's Weekend VI is officially in the books!!! |
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![24inch5lbbrownlatepmcl.jpg](/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://www.trophytrouthunter.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/24inch5lbbrownlatepmcl.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=A funky looking 24", 5 lber for Bwild)
