Wildish Family Summer Trip - East Lake Resort

Family and friends. One of life’s greatest treasures. Often times, wrongly taken for granted. A support network of human fabric that is a necessity for a content and happy life. The magazine “FORTUNE” may measure wealth monetarily. I’d rather my wealth be measured by the quality of people I surround myself with. If that’s how “wealth” was measured, I’d rival the likes of Jerry Jones, Warren Buffett, and Steve Bahlmer.

Family and friends are imperative to creating great memories. My wife and I decided back in 2012 that we wanted a place where we’d create something special for our little family. East Lake became that destination. In 2013, we made our 2^nd annual trip to the lake. Some friends from our church, the Thauts, coincidentally booked the same time-frame we had. We had some great memories made and stated “We got to do it again next year!” Enter the 3^rd annual East Lake Wildish Family Trip – 2014.

We’d spent the week prior in Sunriver. I worked out of my company’s Bend office while my wife entertained the boys by going to the SHARC almost every day. I was able to meet up with some great friends for lunch I’ve met through this website. I met up with Eric Cole and checked out Jackson’s Corner. GREAT food (Highly recommend going there). We headed over to his pad to check out a couple of his impressive Brown Trout mounts. I also met up with Jeb Burton (aka “The Barbarian”). We hit up Baldy’s BBQ. Also, HIGHLY recommend going there (get their brisket)!

With Sunriver and Bend in the rear-view mirror, we drove up the slopes of the Newberry Caldera. As we turned into the Resort Entrance, I saw Eric Cole. When we met for lunch, I told him about how much fun that my family and I have there. He took it to heart and booked a couple nights for him and his small family. I then saw Kory Thaut and his family. Holy cow, there was going to be a gaggle of 0 to 5 year olds running around East Lake Resort!

We got settled into our cabin, the “Canvasback”. A perfect setup for our little family. My oldest son, Jackson, was quite excited about being at the lake. “Hey Daddy, can we go fishing?” and “Dad, I think it’s time to go fishing now” and “I think we could go fishing in a little bit, Dad.” It warms my heart for how bad he wants to go fishing. We ate some dinner, got our fishing gear ready to go, and away we went.

We had about 2-1/2 hours of legal time to fish, so we got after it. There was a stiff wind blowing from the West, creating quite a chop. I figured that once we got to the East side of the lake that it would calm down. It did. I made sure to tell Jackson “Hey buddy, if you get cold and you want to go in, just let me know. I want you to have fun.” “Okay Daddy!” I’m in bliss!

We trolled around for about an hour. I spotted quite a few fish, all setting up nicely in the summer-time thermocline. Most fish were 25 to 40’ deep. Typical East Lake drill for July. Jackson was enjoying himself eating a multitude of snacks consisting of Chips-A-hoy, Gogurt, and Oreos. We weren’t getting any bites. This lead to my mind wandering “Well, this isn’t going to last much longer with Jackson without any action.” As I thought that, Jackson said “Daddy, I’m getting cold.” I asked, “You wanna go back in?” He nodded, and with a chilly undertone to his voice, “Yeah daddy!”.

I told Jackson we were headed home, but would troll back, as you never know what could happen. He agreed and sat in my lap with the hood of his red sweatshirt tied up tightly around his head to keep him warm. I glanced over at Jackson’s downrigger rod on the port-side and it was bouncing away. “FISH ON, JACK! FISH ON!” I grabbed the rod out of the release and set the hook. He was on. I handed the rod to Jackson as he asked “Is it a brown trout, daddy?” I said “I hope so buddy. Just keep reeling.”

I went to clear my starboard rod. I had reeled in 3 cranks when all the sudden I got slammed!! “WHHHOOOAAA!!! I got a ‘Fish On’ too Jackson!” Jackson replied “I need help Daddy. I can’t get him in!” All the while, we’re on the less protected end of the lake, getting tossed in the surf by the wind. I told Jackson “I’m sorry buddy! I can’t help you right now. Daddy’s got a fish too!” So I thought for a second and it dawned on me. Place Jackson’s rod in the rod holder closest to him. That way all he has to do is reel. It worked like a charm!

I was noticing my line was getting eerily close to Jackson’s and I thought “Oh crap! Did his fish swim over and cross my line?” God must’ve heard my thought and answered my question by making both Jackson’s and my lines swim away in opposite directions from one another. “Oh my gosh Jackson! We got a DOUBLE on buddy!” I was able to get my fish in first and it was a nice, thick hookjaw! I’m undoing the hooks in the fish’s mouth while I keep hearing “Daddy, help me!” I’m apologizing to Jackson, telling him I’m going as fast as I can and to keep fighting his fish! He responds with a soft “Okay!” and keeps after it.

I finally get my fish into the livewell. I quickly inspect where Jackson’s at with his fish! He’s almost got it to the boat as I see it splashing in the waves. I get the net and help Jackson guide his fish in! Got him! I gave out a loud “WOOHOO!!” Jackson was grinning from ear-to-ear. I quickly got his fish into the Livewell. I hi-fived Jackson and gave him a big hug and told him how proud I was of him and that he did a great job! I busted out the video camera and tried to take some photos as best as we could. They ended up being a 20”, 3 lber and a 23.5”, 5.5 lber. Both released fantastic.

The next day we caught a few fish in the morning. It was a bit chillier this day. We had heard reports that a front was headed our way with a good chance of Thunderstorms. Fun to see, but typically bad for fishing. Anna wasn’t feeling all that well either (to be discussed later). We decided to do another quick BBQ on the beach, but with the wind and clouds, you could tell the boys (and their mom) were wiped out. I brought them all back to the cabin and told Anna “Hey, I’m going to fish until the weather really kicks in.” She agreed, but said if I saw a single lightning bolt, I had to drop everything and head in. Deal!

I got to my boat and hurriedly motored to a favorite trolling lane. I had both lines out for 5 minutes and the ripping motion from my arm was met with some heavy resistance! “OH YEAH!” I exclaimed. As I fought the fish in, I could tell he had some weight to him. I glanced at my other downrigger rod and noticed it was bobbing away, and it was not in sync with the chop of the water. I thought “Do I have another double?!?!?”

My fish I was fighting was hugging the bottom as he came in. Great sign for a better fish. As I saw a beautiful orange-ish/gold, I knew he was going to be at least a five pounder. As I netted him and felt his body collapse against my rubber net, I examined the thickness of the fish. I thought to myself and grunted as I hoisted him over the gunwale “Definitely over 5!” I unhooked him and dropped him into the livewell. I got on the other rod and fought that fish in. It was noticeably smaller and not as heavy. I got him in and it was a beautiful pale gold brown. These fish at East Lake are amazing.

I took a quick video of what I caught. I thanked God for some of the most gorgeous fish I’d ever caught. And a DOUBLE at that! I measured with my flexible tape the length and girth on the big fish as it was just beastly how thick this fish was for it’s length. He was 24.5” long, but had a 15.25” girth! I weighed the fish in my rubber net, and as I looked, my scale was reading out kilograms! No big deal, I said to myself trying to keep calm. Convert the weight later, just read what it says. 5.08 kg….5.10 kg…. 5.18 kg… 5.08 kg…mark! Alright. 5.08 kg stored in my memory banks. I quickly did a self-photo with the fish and released him back to the depths.

It was really starting to rock with the wind as some dark, ominous clouds lingered over the top of Paulina Peak to the SW. As I began to start the boat, I saw a flash in my peripheral vision. One-one thousand….two-one thousand… thr <CRACK>! “ALRIGHT, TIME TO GO!” I thought to myself. I cranked the boat, got it in gear, and powered down for home as fast as I could. I know there’s a 10 mph speed limit on East Lake, but when it comes to Thunder and Lightning in the high mountains, I get off the lake as fast as I can. 20 minutes of fishing, a double, one of them being darn nice, I can’t complain.

I entered the cabin to find my wife and kiddos soundly asleep. Quietly, I got all my gear put away and I grabbed my cell phone to do the weight calculation on the awesome fish I’d just caught and released. 5.08 kgs x 2.2 lbs/kg = 11.176 lbs. My net weighs 3#’s 14 oz = 3.875 lbs. 11.176 lbs – 3.875 lbs = 7.301 lbs! A 24.5” long hookjaw that weighs 7-1/4#’s!!! WOOHOOO!!! I was pumped and with it’s girth, not terribly surprised but in awe. I thanked the “Big Guy Upstairs” for the fish and was in bliss as the lighting flashed brilliantly through our windows and the thunder rolled acrossed East Lake’s surface.

The next day, it was cold and the forecast was dreary. Knowing the barometer was unstable and we’d been coming off a stable high-pressure system, I figured the fish were going to be off their game. It became a family day. We headed to Sunriver for a pizza lunch. I did bumper cars with my 4 year old (he did AWESOME at it). We then did a nice little hike to Paulina Falls and the boys really enjoyed that. We spent some time at Paulina Lake throwing rocks into it’s serene waters (as that’s what boys do ;-)). Finally, we did a short hike to East Lake’s Hot Springs area. It was a great day.

Our final full day came and I wanted to get some more fishing in. The morning, I caught a few dinks but right before I called it quits, I hooked into a feisty rainbow. I’ve caught probably 20 or so incidental rainbows over the years when targeting browns. Since they’ve introduced the black-water strain of rainbows, I’ve noticed they’ve gotten bigger. However, it is requested that if the fish aren’t fin-clipped that they be released. I think rainbows are typically great table-fare, but I’ve never caught a fin-clipped one so, alas, I’ve never kept one. This changed on this particular morning. I saw the rainbow. He appeared to be like a decent fish around 20”. As he danced near my boat, for a brief second, I thought I noticed “no adipose fin”. “No way!” I thought to myself. I hoisted him into the boat and sure enough, he was fin-clipped. Jackson was amped as he really likes the look of rainbows and when I told him we could keep him to eat (Jackson and Zachary LOVE fish), he grinned and let out a big “YEAH!!!”

We did our final beach day/bbq. We headed over and hung out by the Red Fissure for a while, did a little fishing hear and there. We caught a couple “fishies” and one happened to be an Atlantic Salmon. Without trying for it, I caught my first “East Lake Slam” (where you catch all 4 species in the lake). Cross that one off the ‘bucket list’. As we trolled along, Zachary decided it’d be fun to “chum” the fishies by way of Cheetos. I chuckled to myself as I saw a subsequent trail of these puffy, orange curls spaced in the wake of my boat. “Fishies….where are you?” was the common inquisition by Zachary every minute or so. It was pretty cute.

I went out one more time with Jackson. I told him this was going to be our last chance to fish for the trip. We headed out and got after it. Jackson has grown up a ton in a year. We had great conversations about fishing, about baseball, his favorite movies, etc. This happened to be the worst fishing we’d experienced the entire trip with only one take-down over 2 hours. But where the catching was poor, the fishing was incredible. I asked Jackson if he was ready to bag it in, and he went “I think we’re done, dad!” We reeled in our rods and put them away. I got down to Jackson’s level, gave him a hug and said “I love you, Jackson. You did awesome this trip.” He responded back with “I love you too, daddy!” Talk about a heart-melter.

When it’s a family trip, you can’t plan on fishing a ton. You just take it as it comes. We fished around 11 hours total, catching 18 browns (3 over 5), 3 kokes, 2 rainbows, and 1 atlantic salmon. Our best patterns were chub (gold). Which is hilarious because I know Eric caught 95% of his fish on koke patterns (silver). Whatever, it’s fishing. Best lures were Rapala 13’s, Lucky Craft Pointers 100 and 128, and Lyman #4s.

All in all, it was a fantastic family trip! It was great to spend some time with the Thaut family (as always), as well as hanging out with the Cole’s for a bit. This was the 3^rd time coming to East Lake in the summer. We already booked our week for next year as well. We asked Jackson which place he liked more, Sunriver or East Lake. He quickly responded “East Lake”. That’s my boy!

To conclude, I couldn’t be more grateful and feeling blessed. Great memories were created, my boys had a blast, we spent time with some good friends, and when we returned home, we found out my wife is pregnant with our 3^rd child (that’s why she wasn’t feeling so well). The ‘walk of life’ is an incredible one. I tried to capture some of those memories from our trip in this video. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I had living it and making it.