Dad's Weekend VII - The Wildishs' Boat

7 years.

7 years of trying to get “the ol’ man” an Oregon german brown trout over 10 lbs. 7 years of some amazing fishing trips that began with Ryan Daniels and myself conjuring up the idea of getting our dad’s together. An idea that was a way to give back to our dad’s what they instilled in us when we were barely large enough to hold a fishing pole. What started out as a humble fishing trip for an extended weekend at East Lake with our father’s had grown remarkably into something special. Our inaugural trip began with the Daniels catching 24 browns in a 2 hour period at East Lake. A few trips later, both RD and I got our personal best lake trout at Crescent Lake, OR. One trip I lost an easy 10+ lb brown to an anchor rope at Paulina Lake, only to catch a 9-1/2 lb brown not 3 hours later out of what became known as “the anchor hole”. Further along the path, we braved chunks of ice the size of ping-pong tables in a half-thawed lake at East Lake. Most recently, in 2012 we had (3) PR’s obliterated for Lake Trout for Ryan, his dad Kim, and my dad, Gary.

Now here we were. <BLINK> 7 years later. 7 years older? Perhaps. 7 years wiser? Most certainly.

7 years……

A few months ago, RD and I chatted on the phone as we typically do once every few weeks to discuss Oregon State athletics, the price of tea in China, and our beloved trophy trout fishing. He mentioned “Well, I guess it’s about time we start thinking about Dad’s Weekend.” A meager grin appeared on my face, welcoming those words as the meaning of “Dad’s Weekend” has become more and more treasured. I responded “Oh yes. We did well at Crescent last year, but should we cycle through? Maybe go back to where it all began?” RD quickly acknowledged “East Lake?! I was thinking the same thing.” Enough said. I booked our cabin shortly thereafter and the wheels were set in motion for Dad’s Weekend VII!!!

As fate would have it, I transitioned from my employer of 13 years to a new company. Looking for new opportunities, growth, and most importantly a work/life balance. The timing was impeccable with my time off between companies. I had booked 4 days/3 nights at East Lake, but I had 3 days open beforehand. The thought kept creeping into my mind “Go to Paulina! Go to Paulina!” I called my dad up and said “Dad, as I’m going to be off of work a few days before we head to East Lake, would you want to hit Paulina for 3 days and make a week of it?” Enthusiastically, my dad said “Let’s do it! I’m all for it!”

A weeklong trip at Newberry Crater at two of my favorite lakes in the world chasing browns! I was pumped. With a 3 year old and a 9 month old, I knew I’d be hard-pressed to get an opportunity like this for at least the next 15 to 18 years. I only get to get out 3 to 4 times a year as it is. Some of those times, it’s not even hard-core fishing. I knew if I was going to have a chance to catch a brown over 10 lbs this year, this would be my best shot! Coupled with the fact that this was “Dad’s Weekend”, come hell or high water, I was busting at the seams with determination to get my father a brown trout of a lifetime.

On our way up to the crater, my dad and I had our usual talks about work, the stock market, the Beavs, hunting and fishing. We filled up on supplies at La Pine for the week long adventure. I’d hunted with my dad before in Montana several times for a week, but never fishing. This was new territory. I told him as we were driving up, the mood or the theme of the trip is predicated based on a) the wildlife we see on the way, b) the nature of the weather, or c) the music that’s played on the radio when we make the turn towards the lake. Wildlife was minimal. We may have seen a deer or two. The weather was gorgeous. Now for the music. I turned due East off of Highway 97 towards the monument. I turned on the radio. It was like I just hit play on a favorite CD. Literally, the song “La Grange” by ZZ Top started. Dad just went “Ahhh…..”. I said “Dad…this is a very GOOD sign. There’s a video of guy from Lake Michigan with an IFGA line class World Record Brown trout and the music to that video is this very song.” Could this be the beginning of something special?

We signed in with Karen at Paulina Lake Lodge to get the keys to the “Dove”. We were chomping at the bit to get on the lake to do some scouting. We had seen that a couple browns over 10 lbs had already been caught for the year on their board. That is always promising. There was a large amount of water in the main parking lot from the amount of rain and snow melt they’d experience. Karen told me they had a tremendous windstorm around Cinco de Mayo that significantly damaged their docks. I remembered this day vividly as I was at a different lake the day before with my friend Kory as well as Jimmy Lewis and Bret Martin. I can only imagine at 6400+ feet in elevation how bad the winds must’ve been.

After we settled in and scouted the lake for potential areas we wanted to hit in the evening, we had a game plan. Before every trip, I always try to picture myself in different scenarios and strategize how I’m going to attack a lake pending on the conditions. It’s what I do with hunting. It’s what I’d do with baseball when I played. It’s how I fish. I had some correspondence with Gordon Hahn on his thoughts on how he’d attack it and showed him a list of the areas of where I was going, depths I’d attack based on what I was seeing, etc. Gordon, and his father Ed “Pops”, have been so gracious to me, Ryan Daniels, and the entire trophy trout hunter gang and knowing that Paulina Lake is very dear to them, it was humbling to be able to garner a vast amount of knowledge from some well-seasoned veterans. Plus, they are just great all-around men that I’ve been privileged to know. I can safely say they have become an inspiration to TTH’ers all around. I feel even more so with RD and myself as they are a father/son duo and this was our Dad’s Weekend at their old stomping grounds. Something special was going to happen!

It was within 15 minutes before sunset, leaving us a little more than an hour for legal fishing. Dad and I had been pounding the 15 to 30’ depth pretty hard for about 2 hours. Paulina Lake can be very tough, but if you are persistent and stick to your game plan, she will reward you. Sooner or later. I was telling my dad “It’s not a question of ‘if’. It’s a question of ‘when’. It WILL happen.” My dad was in complete agreement. With 6 of these trips under our belts, we knew what it would take. The surface of the lake had a little chop on the water, but not enough to erase the large amount of chub boils that were peppering the surface. It’s going to happen....it HAS to happen. Finally, as I was ripping my rod I felt a solid tug. “FISH ON! FINALLY!” After a scrappy battle, I had a beautiful 4 lber in my grasp. A quick photo op and he was safely released. Skunk is off the boat.

Dad made the comment “Alright, the bite is starting.” I said, “Yep, I’m flippin’ us around and let’s get our gear back in quick. It’s ON!” Our lures were set, my dad in the downrigger and me flat-lining away. I was following the countours of the lake as best I could, trying to stay between 15 to 25’ of water. After about 5 minutes into our run and a few rips of my rod, I get nailed again. “Sweet! I got another one dad!” I set the boat in neutral as the first initial hit felt really good. “Is it big?” he asked. After about 10 seconds of me trying to feel and assess the fish on the other end of my line, I concluded “Eh…not really, feels less than that 4 lber.” He stated “Should I reel in or just stay out?” I said “Leave it out…no reel it in…no….I don’t know.” All the while, I’m reeling my fish in and my dad’s lure is just floating out there.

Suddenly, my dink of a fish felt substantially heavier with a purposeful headshake thrown in. “WHOA!!! Hey dad, I think this fish just came to life! Better reel in.” Like Johnny on the spot, dad began to reel in his slack line and lure. I saw my fish about 30’ back and thrashing a bit on top and I noticed he was about 3 lbs. “Not that big, Dad.” I exclaimed. I then saw a tremendous amount of line that was in front and around the fish. “What the…??!??!” I said aloud. “What’s going on?” I told my dad it looks like my fish may have ran into some old fishing line as I was reeling in. Must be why it felt heavy and could be dragging some weeds with it. I got it into the boat and just looked at the rat’s nest that my fish was in. What a mess!!

I’m knelt down in the stern of the boat as my dad is getting his gear in. My dad then says “Hey Brian! I think I’ve got a fish on!” With leathermen in hand, I glance up at him and look at his pole. Sure enough, it has the tell-tale beautiful bend showing a decent fish on the other end. “Once you get it close, let me know if it’s big and I’ll get the net.” About 10 seconds later, dad hesitantly says “Brian….I think it’s a bigger fish.” I said “Cool, just let me know when it’s close.” He immediately responds “It’s close, Brian! I just saw the dorsal fin.” I look up over the gunwale of my boat while I have tangled fishing line in one hand and a 3 lb brown in the other. Scanning the water, I finally notice a boil about 20’ away. Not bad. Then I see the dorsal fin my dad saw. Nice. Then I noticed the distance of the dorsal fin to the tail. I said “Whoa, this could be a 7 to 8 lber! I’ll get the net.” Then the last bit of twilight flashed across the body of this fish.

“HOLY $#IT DAD!!! It’s OVER 10! It is EASILY over 10!” My dad looked at me in surprise and disbelief. “WHAT!?!?! Are you sure!” I said “I’m 100% positive!!!” I noticed this fish had all 3 treble hooks in her mouth, but she’d already started the big brown barrel roll, with several wraps of mono in her mouth and even some braid around her body. I scooped the rubber net underneath her and instantly felt her weight depress and stretch the webbing. “YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!!” But I knew this fish was in trouble. The way the line was wrapped in her mouth and around her body, she was having a difficult time moving her mouth to breath. I very, VERY careful just started cutting line. My dad and I talked earlier about if he caught his first brown over 10 lbs if he was going to keep it or not to be mounted. He said “Unless it’s over 20 lbs, I don’t have any desire to keep it.” Knowing that, I had to work quickly to save this tremendous fish. As the line was being cut, you could notice less and less tension was inhibited on the fish. With less tension, the more she came to life. Once all the fishing line was removed, I quickly placed her in the livewell. Knowing I had another 3 lb hen I was trying to free, my dad was concerned that fish wouldn’t make it. I told him that it would be a perfect eater if I couldn’t get the quagmire of line off of her. However, in a matter of seconds, the 3lber was free. I swished her back and forth in the lake for about a minute. Finally, a kick from her tail, and she was swimming off like a champ! PHEW!!!

Dad looked at me with bewilderment. An unspoken conversation of looks bounced back in forth between us like a Wimbeldon match. “Did we just catch a 10 lber?” “Did that just happen?” “Holy crap, what did we just do?” I broke the silence with “Okay, she’s in the livewell recouping. Let’s get all our crap situated so we can do this measurements and weights properly.” After getting our gear cleared, I grabbed my flexible, rubber measuring tape. I said “Dad, if this fish is over 30”, we’re talking mid-teens on this hen.” I stretched the tape from nose to tail. 27.5”. I said “Crap.” My dad went “It’s not going to be over 10 is it?” I said “No. It’ll be over 10, but it’ll probably be closer to 11 or 12 lbs vs mid teens.” I measured the girth. 17.5”. I then grabbed my digital scale and the rubber net. My dad grabbed the fish carefully and placed her horizontally in the net. The scale read “15lbs 1 oz……14 lbs 8 oz…..14 lbs 11 oz….14 lbs 10 oz….14 lbs 10 oz…HOLD!” I did the deduction of my 3 lb , 14 oz net. “Dad, you just caught a 10 lb 12 oz female german brown!” What a fish! Dad placed her back in the lake, worked her slowly over for about a minute. She then forced her way out of his hands and she slowly swam away, gradually cruising back to her watery palace.

I gave dad a huge hug and said “YOU DID IT!!” I gave a very large “WOOOHOO!!!!!!!” By now we were about 10 minutes from the end of legal, so we just decided to head in and fix all the fishing line that had been cut. We surmised that what happened was I hooked my 3 lber. While I kicked the boat in neutral, my dad’s lure slowly floated up the water column. All the while, my 3 lber was swimming towards his line which was slack. My fish got wrapped up in his line. Somewhere during the fight, while I was reeling in my fish and unbeknownst to me, my dad’s fishing line is when his fish hit. My dad said “Heck Brian, you probably fought that fish for 70% of the fight.” I said “Well dad, it his your lure on your line. That’s YOUR fish! Congratulations!”

5 hours later after celebrating my dad’s first brown over 10 lbs, it was time to hit the lake again. The trip was already made and we literally had about 4 hours on the water. I told my dad we could not catch one more fish this entire trip, and I’m fat and happy. So was my dad. But we were here to fish so, heck, why not see what happens? And of course, as we caught a 10+ lber the evening before, let’s hit the same spot in the morning. We made 5 passes with a drive by and my dad catching about a 3 lber. The sun was just starting to peak her head over the cinder cone off to the East. I told dad that maybe we should work our way towards a different spot to see what was going on. On that trolling lane, we came across a spot where both my dad and I had caught fish before. Even my dad made mention that he knew RD had caught several around this spot, but nothing big. I agreed, but I told my dad that you never know when that one could be cruising around. Just have to be at the right place at the right time.

As we came across the spot, the serene, mirror-like surface of the water would be intermittently interrupted by a rising kokanee or chub. I knew my lure was close to my desired position. I gave a…. RIP….relax…..RIP…….relax….RIIIIII<ziiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg>…..”OH YEAH!!!”……off! “DANG IT!” I kicked the boat in neutral. My dad said “You miss him?” I said “Yeah…but I’m going to wait about 20 seconds. I want to fool this fish to think he just knocked out a minnow. I’m then going to punch it and rip it to think it came back to life. See if it will trigger something.” I wait the time….I tell dad “Here we go, I’m punching the throttle.” Waaaahhhh……..RIP…WHAMMM!!!! “I GOT HIM!!!” I yelled. My dad responded, “Alright. IT WORKED!” You could see the bend in my rod that this was a substantial fish. We were over about 40 to 50 feet of water and this fish was staying deep and swimming at the boat. All good signs. I got to my mono and told my dad “He’s straight beneath us but haven’t seen him yet.” My dad goes “There he is…ohhh….WHOA!” He then exclaimed “Brian…I think this fish is longer than mine last night.” I finally caught a glimpse. Bigger head, not as deep as my dad’s. But he was right, it looked longer. I went “Hey, it’s a HOOKJAW!” Examining the fish, the head, the tail, the depth, the back…I quietly stated “It’s going to be close. It could be close to 10.”

I quickly said a silent prayer to God saying “God, if it’s over 10, please let it be for sure over 10…no questions. If not, I’m okay with it.” God as my witness, after I said this, the fish coughs out about a 6 to 8 inch kokanee. I went “OH NO! It just spit out a koke!” My dad went “Well, there goes a few oz.” We noticed the fish wasn’t hooked well, with only 1 hook in the mouth. This male was far from being over from fighting. He made several, heart-stopping runs to the bottom. I backed off the drag, knowing if I made too strong of a move on this fish, that’d he’d be lost. I told my dad that once this fish was on his side near the boat, scoop him. My dad realized the severity of the situation, knowing we’d probably only get one shot at this fish to net him. He said “Brian, I’m not doing anything until I know for sure I can get him.” He makes another run….and another…..please God….please…..he’s letting up……get on your side…yess…..yes…he’s laying flat. “GET HIM, DAD!” Dad scoops…”I GOT HIM BRIAN! I GOT HIM!”

My dad handed me the net as I went to place the fish in the livewell. I lifted the net and felt the weight of the fish. I stated “Dad. It’s going to be really, REALLY close on this guy.” We got everything situated. I grabbed the measuring tape and got the stats. 28.5 inches long and 16.5 inch girth. Reflecting back on stats from similar catches, these sounded similar to a fish Ryan Daniels had caught about 3 years ago from Crescent Lake that ended up being 10 lbs 3 oz. I grabbed my scale and the net. Dad asked “What’s it have to be to be over 10 lbs?” “13 lbs, 14 oz in the net will make it 10.” I softly said aloud “Please God….PLEASE…let it be over 10.” My dad placed the fish in and I hoisted the net. The moment of truth….”14 lbs 1 oz…..13 lbs 15 oz….13 lbs 14 oz…..13 lbs 14 oz….HOLD!” I exclaimed “10 lbs on the FREAKING NOSE!!!!”

I placed the fish back in the livewell. Dad and I hi-fived and hugged. I went “Two over 10 lbs in less than 9 hours of each other! HOLY CRAP DAD!!!” My dad then said “Hey Brian….I gotta tell you something.” My heart sunk a little bit and I solemnly asked “What?” He said “That fish is bigger than 10 lbs.” Perplexed, I questioned “What do you mean?” He explained “Brian, when you weighed the fish and were hoisting the net getting the weight, part of the net and fish was resting on you a little bit.” I went “What?!?! So that means…” Dad finished “….that it’s actually more than 10 lbs on the nose. Could be 10-1/2 lbs!” So, I went to go weigh the fish again. Dad and I did the same process we did before. I went to weigh the net with the fish in it. Strangely, my scaled outputted kilograms vs. pounds. No big deal, 2.2 lbs equals 1 kilogram. Well, what was really strange was I weighed everything and it stated 3.3 kilograms. Well, that would only equal 6.6 lbs. Deducting the net, it would mean the fish is around 2.5 lbs. Obviously, that’s not right. Then the scale just flat-lined out to “0”. What the?!?!? I then realized, in my initial excitement of learning I cracked the 10 lb mark for the 2^nd time in my life, I mistakenly threw the scale against the side of my boat. Which in return, resulted in the screwiness of my now digital scale being on the fritz. But, my dad said “Well, we know for sure it’s over 10 lbs, but only God will know of what the final weight is.” We took some pics and released the beautiful male back to go finish his breakfast of kokanee.

We were in brown trout bliss. We hadn’t even been at Paulina Lake for 24 hours and we had (2) german browns over 10 lbs to our boat. This does not happen!!! We were so excited, we decided to head back to La Pine for a huge breakfast. We forgot some dinner items so we had to drop by the store anyway. I sent a text to RD to let him know what had happened and to wet his appetite as they’d be joining us in a few days. He was in obvious disbelief and elated at our success. My dad finally got one over 10 lbs and I caught my 2^nd over 10 which ended up being the largest hookjaw I’ve ever caught. I told dad that, let’s just keep doing what we’re doing and see what happens.

The next couple days at Paulina were difficult, but with hard work and patience comes great reward. I did finally fix my scale and ensured that the weight on it was good (I used my downrigger ball to check it). The evening after I caught my 10 lber, in the last 15 minutes of legal, I caught a really scrappy 5 lber.

Our end results for 3 days of fishing were 14 fish, (4) over 5 lbs and (2) of those being over 10 lbs. Total weight was 51 lbs. The quality of these fish were off the charts and far exceeded our expectations. Our best lures were floating F-13 sized Rapalas and Bomber Long 15A’s in custom-painted rainbow and kokanee patterns. I personally want to thank Karen and Todd Brown for the great accommodations and friendly service we received while we were there. Paulina Lake Lodge is always at the top of the list for fishing as well as incredible scenery!

After chatting with Karen and Todd on Thursday AM, we pulled the boat out and headed off to Part II of Dad’s Weekend….EAST LAKE!!! We were pretty excited. We arrived around 11 AM, anticipating seeing the Daniels around the same time. With about 4 hours before check-in time, dad and I decided we might as well go scout the lake and see where the fish were at. The water temps were considerably warmer than Paulina Lake, by an average of 8 degrees. We knew water volume, acreage, and depth-wise that East was smaller than Paulina so it made sense that it was warmer, but not that much warmer. We were concerned it may be difficult to locate the fish as the thermocline may not be set up yet as we were still about a month from the water column really stratifying. Well, if that’s what we had to work with, then we were going to do our best to make it work.

We started trolling deeper in 40 to 50’ of water with our lures spaced at various depths, just to see where the takers might be. Off the bat, dad caught an 18 incher about 30’ deep. About an hour later, I caught a 3 lber about 35’ deep. Nothing to write home about, but it was nice to see they were biting. Around 2 pm, we was the Daniels coming out just from launching. We motored over to them, chatted with them about our successes at Paulina Lake and then what we were seeing at East. As Dad and I had been hitting it pretty hard for the last 4 days, we decided to head in. RD and his dad, Kim, were chomping at the bit to get their chance at a fish of a lifetime. So we took a much needed nap to reset our engines for the evening.

Needless to say, the next few days, we caught browns. And we caught a LOT of browns. We even caught a few nice rainbows, one that was right at 20”. But it was so difficult to find the larger fish. The average fish we were catching was 16 to 18 inches. Beautiful fish. I firmly believe that the most beautiful browns in the state of Oregon reside in the Newberry Crater. One morning, we had a 90 minute window where dad and I caught and released 14 browns and probably lost 8 to 10. But they were all small clones of one another. I even ran into trophy trout fanatic Vince Cacciottoli to bounce ideas off of him and how he was doing. From what I gathered, we were both in the same boat (no pun intended). But, taking all things in to perspective, my dad and I knew we were very, VERY blessed. There are some people that would die with the results of #’s we were putting up. We were very grateful.

We had some great times with the Daniels, just hanging out. We of course talked about fishing and our tactics, but just about life in general and how special this weekend was becoming to us. One evening, we celebrated Kim catching and releasing the largest brown of his life, a fantastic 7 lb male! To cap the trip off, we celebrated with a savory New York steak and eggs breakfast prepared by the wonderful chef at East Lake’s restaurant.