2006 Reader's Reports

Crescent 11/4-11/5

Dan,

We arived at Crescent Lake a little after 6:00am Saturday morning and our lines were in the water by 7:00am. We started letting our lines out right in front on the resort and headed toward Simax. We were about to the first rocky point when my friend Ryan set the hook on the first fish of the day. It was about a 15in. brown. We had only been on the water a few minutes and already had our first fish, that gave me high hopes for the rest of the day.

We made many passes on Simax, Boy scout, and down by the island without another strike. By that time it was the afternoon and the resort had called me and wanted us to check in because they were leaving for the day. As we were pulling up to the dock we ran into Mark Benke and his friend Justin. They had caught a few, casting flys to the shore. So after we got the cabin stuff taken care of I grabbed my fly rod and headed down to the bank. I had some nice browns check out my streamer but no strikes. I did watch Mark land a nice hookjaw that was around 6lbs.

We headed back out to try and catch the evening bite. On about our third pass on Simax Ryan said "Fish On". Pat and I reeled in and Ryan was not far behind, he said "this one feels a little bigger than the one this morning". The fish came to the surface and I was surprised to see the masive hookjaw! It weighed in at 8.5lbs, we didn't measure the legnth but I guess it to be 29-31in. It had a huge head but it was on the slender side. Ryan was very happy with his catch, since this was his first fishing trip other than a couple of guided stealhead trips.

Sunday was very slow with only one strike for me and none for the other two guys. We headed in to try for some browns with my fly rod. Again lots of follows but no takers, except for one spawned out koke. Pat was casting a spoon twards cruising browns but couldn't keep the zombie kokes off of his line. Not alot of fish but we had alot of fun-it only takes one for a successful trip!

Andy Dahlberg

October 28

Jimmy,

This last weekend I took my girlfriend trophy trout fishing. It was a compromise since I conceded to going to the PSU vs UO game in lieu of going to the USC vs OSU game. However, I don't think I've ever heard so many duck fans cheer for Oregon State. That was pretty cool.

Anyways, so we got to the lake at about 10 am, and were on the water by 10:30 am. It started out just gorgeous with just a slight chop on the water, but nothing too bad. I started out by checking various depths to see where the fish were at. I had a previous report that they browns weren't in the shallows yet and that the only fish that were being graphed were out in the middle of the lake around some koke balls. I putzed around the middle of the lake but never graphed anything to write home about. So I checked the shallows in 15 to 30 feet of water, but nothing really showed up. Then I checked the 40 to 50 foot water depth. BINGO!! I was graphing kokes between 12 to 16 feet deep and the big arcs at 20 to 22 feet. PERFECT!

So I rigged my lures up accordingly and set them at the appropriate depth. 15 minutes later, downrigger pole was bobbing, popped it out of the release and set the hook. FISH ON! It didn't feel impressive, but I told my girlfriend she was reeling everything in today. So I handed her the pole, and she said "Wow, this thing is really hard to pull in. It's fighting pretty good." I said these browns are scrappy and they'll do that. So after a few minutes, she landed a really pretty 20", 2 lb hen. Unfortunately, after trying to right the fish 3 times, it was apparent it wasn't going to make it. I told Anna that this happens. She was concerned that we were wasting the fish, but I told her that mother nature will take care of it. Not 30 seconds later, a giant bald eagle swooped down from a dead snag on the South Side of the lake (I think we all know which one I'm talking about) and snatched it up. She thought that was cool. Not 2 minutes after that, another bald eagle came in and they started battering at each other in mid-air and screeching like crazy. It was like watching a World War II dog-fight. Anna thought it was awesome and I told her that's why I love trophy trout fishing because you see stuff like this all the time.

Back to business, we set our lures back down and 10 minutes later, another hit. Unfortunately, a short lived fight of about 15 seconds and it was off. Oh well, we found the fish and the bite was on! So I started trolling to a part of the lake that I've always marked multiple large arcs, but have never been able to have one hit. Maybe this would be the lucky day. So I'm trolling due north on a favorite trolling lane, cruising through 40 to 50 feet of water, and there are fish ALL OVER the graph. I then saw some ENORMOUS arcs. I showed them to Anna, she was getting excited. I told her, if they're hungry, we'll get a hit here in about 1 to 2 minutes. About a minute later, my downrigger pole gets yanked down 3 times so hard that the first two eyelets of my pole are submerged in the water. I hurry over to the rod, force it out of the rod holder and pop the release. You know how sometimes you'll have some slack on your line right after you pop it out of the release and you have to reel it in quickly? Not on this bad boy! It was heading due East towards the shallows but staying deep and headshaking HARD. All of the sudden, it bolts due West towards the middle of the lake and starts taking line. During this time, the wind was picking up and a gust started to turn my boat around. I then saw my line going towards my motor and I screamed to Anna to kill the motor. Too late. It got caught in the prop and Ploink, the line was broke off. But then I thought it could be caught in the prop and the fish might still be on. I tilted the motor up quickly and about 100 feet of line was already bound up on the prop and actually seized up the prop. But the line was still being pulled off the prop by the fish. IT'S STILL ON!!! So I go to go grab the line, wrap it around my hands a couple times thinking I'm about ready to do some serious old school longshoreman-type fishing. The pressure of the line started to cinch around my hands and then all of the sudden, slack. I pulled the lure in and was shocked what I found. The center Owner treble hook was broke off at the shank! I couldn't believe it. Sounds like a fish story, I know, but has anyone ever had that happen to them? I'm still in disbelief about it.

So, after this little episode, the wind was really kicking up. With me trying to free up the prop and being slammed up into the shallows against a bunch of dead snags smashing my boat, I was getting a little nervous. After a half hour of being pinned to the shore by 20 mph winds and 2 to 3 foot breakers, we got the prop free and got back to safety. We took a break for an hour to see if the wind would die down. It did for a little bit, so we decided to hit it again. Well, as soon as we got on the water, the wind kicked up horrendously again coming from the West, but every now and then, we'd get a huge gust from the North. I tried to hug the west shore line, but the wind inhibited me from being able to fish in 40 to 50 feet of water. I was mapping absolutely nothing in the shallows but it was the only place we could fish without getting tossed around like a tin can. We only got one more hit and as much as I kept telling Anna that usually in the evening the wind will die down, it just worsened. Not wanting Anna to have a horrible experience trophy trout fishing, I decided to call it a day at about 4 pm. She was shivering pretty good, but to her credit, she was gutting it out. When I got to the truck, my thermometer read 38 degrees. With wind chill, it was probably 25 degrees on the lake. The wind got so bad that it reminded me of when we went fishing to Crescent in April for the opener. As you would say Jimmy, "ROUGH".

That's all I have to report. The fish are definitely there, and if the weather cooperates, I know you'll land a pig. We tried Lyman's, Caliburs, Luckycraft, and Rapalas. We got bumps on all except the Luckycraft.

Take care and good luck this weekend. DRESS WARM.

Thanks,

Brian

A.K.A. "The only one of my duck hunting buddies that fishes for trout instead of salmon"

Fall Fishing Trip Oct. 21 & 22

Jimmy,
Left early Saturday morning and headed for the Cascades. Hit a lake I
havent' fished since my teen years, except for a late August trip this
summer, and it has been good getting reaquainted with this beautiful
place. I was fishing by 6:45 a.m. and went to flat lining the
shallows in the 49 degree water. Within 15 minutes I was hooked up
into a descent sized Brown. I got a good look at the 3lb. sized trout
just before spitting the hook in my face. Damn....that one got away.
It would take a number of hours of trolling before finally locating a
hungry fish. Finally around 2 p.m., the bite was on. I landed a
really pretty 19", 3lb. brown. After a few photos and release, I had
another one of about 2lbs. in less than 40 minutes. Nothing really
big, but just nice fat chunky browns! Later in the evening, after
camp was setup, I seemed to have better success. I ended up with 7
browns on Saturday with the biggest being the 3lber. It took quite a
bit of experimenting, but I finally located some biting browns at 40
feet deep. Most of my action was in the middle of the lake in 100 to
120 feet of water. Funny game this brown fishing!

Sunday morning came early after an evening spent with the McAllister
Brothers talking fishing and eating fresh fried blacktail venison! I
was fortunate enough to kill a dandy blacktail buck this season, and
"oh my GOD" were the steaks delicious. Dan and Dave had never savored
such a treat, and I explained to them this was the reason I hunted!!
A lot of folks don't "get" why people hunt.............they've never
tasted anything like that!! Anyways, back to the fishing. The
morning was Painfully slow! I don't think I got the skunk off until
around 10 a.m. or so, and we started an hour before sunrise. Dan and
Dave talked strategy over with me, and I thought it would be a good
idea for them to head out for the Wick. I would continue to fish solo
for three more hours or so and was forced to head home as work was
calling Monday morning. In no more than 15 minutes after they'd left,
I had a fish finally bigger than the 2 lb. class on. This fish had
some weight to him, and finally a Beautiful looking Hookjaw male in
Fall Colors came to the net. He taped in at 19" and weighed 3 lbs. I
got some pics and quickly released him. Within 10 minutes I had
another hookup. Another heavy feeling fish was on, and a nice
struggle of a fight was my reward. This was a FAT 4lb hen brown that
taped out at only 20 inches long. She was one chunky fish. Once
again, I took some pics and released her. Damn, the bite was on and
red hot!! After about 40 more minutes, slam, fish on! This fish felt
really big! He was pulling line and fighting very hard. I thought I
had a really good one on, finally. Instead, a good fish came to the
boat, but somehow I had hooked him in the top dorsal fin!! This fish
taped out at 22-1/2" long and weighed at the 4lb mark. He was pretty
tired, but after working and reviving him, he swam off to the darkness
below. That fish seemed to top off my weekend. I fished for another
hour and a half with nothing. The time had come to break camp and
head for home. I sure will miss the Cascade Lakes during the long
cold winter months as this was my last trip of the year. This was my
first fall fishing trip for the browns, as I'm usually hunting. What
a memorable trip with some good friends. Sure was good to see Dan and
get to meet his brother, Dave. Fall is my favorite time of year, and
the cool crisp mornings are an experience you just can't put into
words. This was a great way to cap off the season for myself. I look
forward to next year, and hope to crack the elusive 10lb. barrier with
a little luck.

All of the browns caught were released, and swam away strongly. I
finished my short weekend with a total of 14 browns. My smallest
brown was 15" but most were in the 17 to 18" range. These were chunky
guys in the 2lb class. Good representatives of an outstanding
fishery. Obviously there is much feed for these predators of the
deep. Take care Jimmy and best of luck to you on your next trip to
the Cascades. Hopefully that 10 lber will be greeting you!
R.D.
"Browns - Coyotes of the Fishing World"

Fishing for Browns 10/13-10/15

Jimmy,

  I went fishing on Friday got there and on the water about 3:30 and got 2 fish @ about 14 and 15 inches nothing big but heck it was fish. Got up at the crack and back at it on Saturday and ended up getting five fish total for the day between 15 and 18inches the weather Saturday was like august but it started clouding up in the evening and we caught the bigger fish also that evening. Woke up Sunday to some nasty looking clouds and caught two more dinks. then it started to rain and boy did it rain. it poured all day and the bite seemed to shut down completely I held out till the evening bite but it never transpired all in all it was a good trip no huge fish but that the way it goes. That's all for now Rick Palo(OREGON BITE FINDER)

Fishing for browns Sep 15 -17

Jimmy,

I took my 5 year old twins and a co worker who graciously helped me paint my house out for a weekend of brown trout slaying. We arrived at are designation at about 4:30 in the afternoon to blizzard like conditions that had me really optimistic for the evening prime. Any way got on the water about 5:30 and commenced to fishing in the winter like conditions and ended up only picking up one small brown at about 14 inches, so much for my optimism. So we called it a night and hopped in to my camper and had gourmet hotdogs for dinner and strait to bed for and early get up to get back after it. we got on the water at first light to find the storm had subsided but was still very cold with gusty winds to about 10 mph. The morning was pretty slow until about 9:30 my co worker Gordon Walters missed his first fish letting out his line so we continued hammering that area and finally got are first fish of the day a nice little 16 incher. He continued catching two more smaller fish that morning to my none notta and boy was I paying the price with verbal abuse . But I kept reminding him that the gear he was using was mine and the guide fees weren't cheap, but didn't seem to matter to him. Anyways we went in to take a break and have some lunch and got back on the water about 3:00 PM and the weather was progressively getting better. We kept trolling the area we were catching fish and I finely caught me a fish it wasn't very big but non the less I was on the board for the day. Then at about 4:15 is when the REEL excitement would happen we were heading towards a couple other boats when Gordon's rod gets hammered. he had the clicker feature on MY reel and let me tell ya what there was no doubt that this was going to be a fish for his life time. I looked at the rod bent to China and quickly looked out in the water to see this hawg of a specimen do a big air show for us and the other angler around us. After a 15 min fight we put that bad boy in the boat, what a awesome 8LB hook jaw. We did couple hoots and hollers and quickly got MY gear back in the water. about 20 to 30 min later again his rod goes off with the same brutal force as before he grabs the rod and reels up the slack and goes OWE YA!! and hands me the rod with nothing there the pig had some how thru the hooks. None the less I was highly disappointed. I reeled up the line to find that the center hook and snap ring were missing. Couldn't tell ya for sure but that very well could have been A fish that would have complimented my 16lb brown on my wall at home. Anyway we looked at the lure that Wildish gave to me and each other in disbelief. After a little crying we got back to work and I started to catch a few nice little shakers then at about dark I came over a nice little shelf that holds a lot of fish and whamo my downrigger released, line was peeling and I knew we had another great fish on. It turned out to be just over 6LBS and had hurt himself pretty bad. I prefer to release my catch but after the picture and about 5min of working to revive him there was no doubt he wasn't going to make it. So he made a new home on my BQ. That was it for the day and we wondered what was in store for us on Sunday. We got up and hit the water with big hopes of more success as the day before and I quickly hooked into a nice little shaker that I let my boy reel in. we let the kids take turns reeling in the smaller fish since there rod did nothing all weekend. We ended up catching two fish that morning. And could not resist passing up the afternoon bite so I rolled the dice knowing my wife was going to be way upset with me, but the temptation was to great so we fished the afternoon with nothing and my conscious was wearing thin and was about to call it a trip when Gordon's rod goes off and my daughter lands a nice 19.5 incher.I then decided it was time to bail and proceeded to troll to the ramp and wham I hook another fish that went about 18inches. All in all it was a great trip and I'm drooling about getting back out so until next time.   Rick Palo (AKA) OREGON BITE FINDER

August 24th thru the 27th

Jimmy,

I met up with RD on the evening of the 24th (Thursday) to do a little late summer time brown trout fishing. I hopped on the boat, gave RD a hi-five, and began fishing. He told me things had been pretty slow for the day, with only 3 dinks boated. We fished the evening rip trolling and downrigging to no avail. Oh well, try the next morning. We discussed our strategy with Max "The Rainbow Umbrella Hat Wearing Freak" Maurer and Rick "Disgraced and Disgruntled with Maurer's Hat" Palo for the next morning over a few beers. We also agreed on a bit of a wager on biggest brown and most browns caught per boat.

Next morning was slow, we stuck about a 2lber from rip trolling with a Luckycraft pointer, but things were just plain slow. Around 8:30 am, after mapping several large arcs and no bites, my rod final did the ol' Muhammad Ali bob and weave. FINALLY! So I grabbed my rod, popped it out of the clip, reeled up the slack and set the hook. BAM! It was solid. I started reeling in and the fish was not fighting at all, but was feeling really heavy and staying deep. R.D. asked me if I thought it was a good one, and I told him I couldn't tell because it wasn't really fighting, but felt real heavy. He said, "It's probably because it hasn't seen the boat yet". Well, I kept reeling for about 2 minutes when I finally saw my albright knot that ties my leader to my main line. Still haven't seen the fish as it's staying deep, but it could only be 50 feet away. I told R.D. to grab the net as it just felt too heavy to be a dink (unless it was foul hooked). So RD turns his back to me to reach and get the net. All of the sudden, the fish starts going bezerk and is tugging on my line hard and stripping line. I thought to myself "BIG BROWN". Still hadn't seen it though and I knew it had to be close. It kept thrashing and thrashing. Then I noticed my line started coming up to the surface. That's when it stopped thrashing, turned and boiled near the surface and I saw a HUGE flash of gold (so indicative of a big brown). That's when I yelled out an "OH $#it". Right when I said that, just like a salmon on the Columbia, it spit the hook. I was cursing and swearing, threw my hat, had half the lake look at me like I was nuts. I couldn't believe it. Although fish always look bigger in the water than they do in your hands, I'm guessing he was an 8 to 10 lber.

It wasn't until about 8 hours later that we got our next strike. Almost over the exact same spot where I missed the big brown earlier, RD landed a chunk of a brown. A 5.5lb, 22 inch little piglet. I'll let RD write up his report on the fish, but it was a dandy, and fun to watch him fight it. For the rest of the evening, we landed 8 browns, all averaging around 2 to 2.5lbs, with a couple 3 pounders thrown in to boot.

Next morning and evening (Now it's Saturday) were not nearly as eventful. RD and I had cluster after cluster after cluster occur during the late morning early afternoon. I don't think I've ever heard RD swear that much in my life. The biggest cluster that occured was when we got our downrigger ball hung up in 60 feet of water, although our cannonball was only at 30 feet. Our lures were all tangled, and the lure that was nailing fish the evening before was on my line and I did not want to lose it. After about 15 minutes of trying to get RD's braided line unscrewed and get my lure off of whatever it was hung up on AND the downrigger ball unhooked from whatever it was hooked up on, we finally were free. I did get my lure back with an added bonus of a Rogue Smithwich Black and Silver Stick bait and HALF of a luckycraft live pointer in the aurora black pattern. What was funny about the luckycraft is I noticed that the hooks on it were not factory hooks, but Owner hooks. I showed that to RD and said, "I wonder if this is a lost lure from one of our boys?" He said probably, and wouldn't it be funny if it was Jimmy's. Well, it was!!! We got a good laugh out of that.

After the cluster of a day we landed 2 fish the entire day. With RD nailing a 3 pounder and I getting a 4.5 lber. Still, was tough fishing for about 12 hours on the water that day.

Sunday morning, we stuck 3 more fish, with the largest being a 3 lber. We landed a total of 15 fish, with the largest being RD's 5.5lber, a 4.5lber, and about (5) 3 lbers. We faired better than most, but it was some tough fishing. I'm guessing we trolled a total of 40 hours. However, we spanked Palo's and Maurer's butts (but the prettiest fish was definitely caught by Palo). It was hard to pattern the fish and figure out what lures they liked. We caught fish on luckycraft pointers (all different sizes and patterns), the 'caliburs (you're welcome Palo), J-plugs, and an AC Skinny. That's a first for RD and Myself to catch a fish on an AC. What's even funnier is the smallest trout on the trip was caught on an AC. We got a kick out of that.

Hopefully, I'll get in one more trip this year. I may hit East in early October, but I'm still undecided.

"The loner out of my duck hunting buddies that fishes for trout instead of salmon",

Brian

July Browns

Jimmy,

Jim, my friend Tom, and Got on the water about 3 PM Friday July 28 and started down rigging. After about one hour Jim caught a small Brown . We got the skunk off right away, I sunk into a brown that was about 3 and a half pounds then like 10 minutes later Jim hooked into a 5 and 3/4, after that we were feeling pretty Good about ourselves at this point, we caught about three more that night. Tom had still not caught anything yet this was his first time fishing for browns, but his luck will soon change. Saturday morning we hit the lake about 4:30 am We flat lined for a while with no luck but after while we went back to down rigging the we started to hook them right off. Tom hooked his first brown with a big grin on his face, That day he caught 3 Browns fro 3 to 7 pounds . The seven pounder was part of a double, that was pretty fun Jim caught 4 fish between 3 and 3/4 pounds one had a kokanea in his mouth which pretty cool. Then I caught 4 fish all around like 3 pounds Great Saturday Sunday I caught 5 more fish about the same size. Jim caught a 3 pounder.

We had a great trip fishing for browns In about 2 weeks we will be back , hoping to find just one 10 pound brown. Check out these pictures from the trip we caught this week end.

FELIX

East Lake 1/2 Day 7/8/06

Jimmy,

Wanted to send you a report on a half day outing Brian Wildish and I took to East Lake this past Saturday. Brian and his girlfriend, Anna, met my family at a coworkers cabin we rented in Sunriver on Friday night. Brian and I were stoked to hit East early in the morning, so after a few margaritas, we called it a night around 11 p.m. and knew that 3 a.m. would come fast. Wildish and I arrived at East by 4:20 a.m., got the boat in the water and were downrigging by 4:40. Within 10 minutes of trolling the 30 foot column, and spotting multiples LARGE arches, my rod popped off the release and I jumped up and set the hook. Fish on!! This felt like a much bigger fish than anything I landed with Dad earlier in June at East. I was excited, but the fish was not taking much line. It just slowly came to the boat but felt pretty heavy. To my dismay, a dink brown of about 16" or so, surfaced sideways! The little guy must have hit the lure so hard, he got one in the mouth and another Owner in his side. I was disappointed, as I thought this was a bigger brown, but the Skunk was
OFF! Wildish and I trolled the path in front of the resort, and we hooked up on every pass. I had the early edge with three browns to the boat, but it didn't take Brian long to get into the act. Around 5:45 a.m., Brian's Rod banged off the release and line started rippin'! After a hard hookset, we thought this fish was Big and on to stay. Brian worked the fish perfectly, and I got my line cleared and both cannonballs up. The net was ready, and then "OH S#%%^!". Spit the hook!! Damn, we both looked at each other with dis-belief. Another missed opportunity. That fish was probably the best of the trip, but we'll never know. We worked the west side of the lake later in the morning and caught a few more dinks. We finished the day with a total of 10 browns. The biggest was probably around 19" or so and in the neighborhood of 2.5 lbs. This was all in 6 hours of fishing. We were both very pleased with our results. All fish were caught on downriggers and all fish were released. Brian and I did have about a 15 minutes adrenaline rush over in front of the cliffs around 9 a.m. My rod went off HARD, and I jumped to set the hook. Everything come up tight, and HEAVY. This thing wasn't moving and was hanging tight to the bottom. I knew I wasn't hung up on the bottom, and was assured this fact by my humminbird fishfinder. No way could my lure run that deep and be hung up in the 40 foot of water. This thing wasn't budging after 5 minutes and some pool thumping. Finally I decided to get my snagmaster, and see if we could get the lure back. After some maneuvering, I finally was able to snag the lure. Brian was holding the pole at this point in time. I pulled up three arm lengths of rope on the snagmaster, and then held the line tight in my hands. All of a sudden, the line jerked and headshaked its way back to its hiding hole. I yelled, HOLY S@#$%, Wildish, that's a HUGE fish!! I could not believe it. I told Brian to fight him, but once again all went tight, and this thing would even budge. I repeated the process, and same thing. This time line screamed from the drag, and both Brian and I thought we had some 15lb or bigger monster brown hooked on that would not leave the bottom of the lake! Finally, after 5 minutes or more, I decided something just didn't seem right. I told Brian to reel up the slack as I pulled this thing off the bottom with the snagmaster all the way to the top of the water. Maybe we could net the thing if we had to. As I pulled and pulled, I could barely make something out as it neared the surface. A narrow yellow ANCHOR ROPE appeared with a luckycraft lure hooked dead center!! Both Brian and I just started laughing. My legs still had adrenaline pumping through them. I was pretty damned excited at the thought of a monster brown somehow hooked to the end of the line, but all we got was an anchor rope!! I ended up pulling the anchor off the bottom, and kept it in the boat. Brian and I would later leave it over by the Cinder Hill Boat Ramp as a gift to some lucky fisherman. What a CRAZY 15 minutes! Everytime I'd pull up on that snagmaster, the anchor would lift off the bottom, and then slip down through my fingers feeling like a really big, heavy fish. Sure had me fooled! I guess we both learned something there! As a token of appreciation to the girls for letting us fish Saturday morning, we agreed to take them to Sisters for some shopping that afternoon. As my luck would have it, we picked the only day of the freakin' year that Sisters was hosting a Quilt Show! Let me tell yeah, I've never seen more quilts and FAT ASSES at one place in my whole life!! No offense, quilt makers, but the eye candy was few and far between on this day in Sisters, OR. There must have been 10,000 people in that little town that day. Needless to say, the girls were gracious enough to hit a few shops, and then we exited stage right. Later, Brian and I agreed it was all worth it for the quality fishing we had that day up at East. Let's hope my next trip to Wickiup with post similar, if not better results.

Take care, Jimmy, and all you Trophy Trout Hunters!
Happy hookin'!
R.D.
"Browns - Coyotes of the Fishing World"

East Lake Trip 6/9 thru 6/11

Jimmy,
Took a day of vacation last Friday to meet my Dad in Eugene for a shot at some Brown Trout action up at East Lake. My dad, Kim, was coming from my hometown of Myrtle Point, so I met him about halfway. Rick Palo was kind enough to let my dad park his truck at his house for the weekend, while we rode together up to East. Thanks again, Rick! Dad and I arrived around 3 p.m. or so at the lake. We started fishing around 4 o'clock. Started out slow with a few dinks, and then I landed my best brown of the year so far, a 20", 3lb brown. Nothing to write home about, but a nice fish for me. As it turned out, this would be my biggest brown for the weekend. Dan McAllister stopped by our camping room Friday night. It was good to see Dan, and he got to meet my Dad. We chatted for quite some time, and I gave Dan one of my Motorola Talkabout Radios. Those things sure come in handy when fishing for the trophies. Dan and I would talk quite a bit on the radios the next morning. You can spread out to search for fish, and let your buddies know if the bite is ON! We got on the water by 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, and within the first 10 to 20 minutes we'd caught a few dinks along the eastern shore. We kept catching browns between 14 to 18 inches, but nothing big. I decided to exit stage right for a troll thru the Hot Springs area. We were cruisin' in about 20 feet of water, when Dad's rod went down! Fish on! Dad confirmed to me that this was indeed a bigger fish than the dinks we'd been hooking. At the first pass of this brown, I knew it was time for the net. This juvenile hookjaw made a couple of short runs before I was able to get him into the net. Nice Brown Dad! This was my dad's best brown in quite some time. We were both tickled at the site of this beautiful specimen. After some nice pics, a quick weight check of 4.5lbs. and a length of 24 inches, we slipped this brown back in the water for revival. After a few back and forths, the mightly brown swam off. I gave the old man a couple of high-fives, and we were back fishing. The fishing slowed and we headed in around noon to take a break for lunch. Dad's not used to the long hours in the boat, like I am, so we took about a 2 to 3 hour break. We cooked our dinner after we ate lunch, so that we could snack on it in the boat while fishing the evening stretch. We decided to work a shallow shelf in the middle of the lake and it proved worth while for us. We must have landed around 5 to 6 browns that evening with the best going to dad, once again! This was a beautiful hookjaw with big halo spots. He went 3.5lbs and taped out at 22-1/2 inches. We fished until as late as legal allowed and headed back to our camping room.
Sunday morning we were a little later and hit the water about 4:45
a.m. We worked the shallow shelf area again, and once again caught quite a few browns. Unfortunately, they were all dinks, with the biggest being a 20" for my Dad. We had to check out at 10 a.m. and we had a pretty good drive ahead, so we called it a weekend. Dad and I combined to catch around 18 browns for the weekend. Most of the fish were caught on the caliburs. On a side note, my Dad caught a 14" rainbow on a CLOWN colored J-13 lure!! The damn lure was almost as long as the fish. I couldn't believe it. What an aggresive rainbow. We turned him loose, but that was a neat catch. My dad also had a HUGE brown follow his lure clear up to the boat over by the cliffs. We were pulling up the downriggers, and I'd shut the motor off. I got my lure in first and was cranking up the ball on the rigger, when I heard Dad yell "Ryan, LOOK!!" Before I could turn around the beast swam back to the depths of East. Dad tried to stop the lure and give a quick twitch to trigger a bite. The brown made a pass, like it was going to strike, but he must have saw the boat. Dad swore that it was an 8 to 10lb. brown. Too bad he didn't decide to grab that lure. Things would have come up tight, fast!! Overall, we had a GREAT trip and caught quite a few fish. We mapped a TON of BIG fish, but could see to get them to bite. We had the riggers set tight to their heads, but no takers. Maybe next year. Congrats on your BIG catch, Jimmy, and hope to see you on the water soon. I might not get another trip until August to the "Wick". Take care everybody, and best of luck. Hard work ALWAYS pays off!

R.D.
"Browns - Coyotes of the Fishing World!"

Craine Prairie June 3rd

Jimmy,

My brother Allen and I headed to Craine Prairie Saturday the 3^rd. When we arrived that evening, I was surprised to see how many camps were taken. We didn’t get there in time to fish Saturday night.

A few different people told me you didn’t have to get out on Craine really early , so we headed out Sunday morning at about 6:30. When we were motoring out of the cove that we camped in, it looked like someone dropped the flag at a race track. Bass boats were everywhere, racing out onto the water. Come to find out, there was a bass tournament that day.

So, everywhere we tried to fish that day, it seemed we were running into bass boats. We got lots of evil stares from the bass fishermen for trying to troll the channels. We couldn’t even make it down the Cultus, we pretty much stayed in the Deschutes channel, and an area Dan told me about.

My brother ended up with four fish for the day, the biggest was a 19" 2 ½ lb Rainbow. He also caught a nice little 16 ½" 2 ½ lb Brookie.

Sunday morning we headed out hoping to hit the Cultus channel. We trolled about 75 yards down the channel, and ran into two boats that were blocking it, and one boat had bobbers sitting out in the middle of the channel. So, we headed back to the Deschutes channel. There I caught my only fish of the trip, a 14 ½" Rainbow.

We trolled on, staying in that channel, and I lost my only little J5 Rapala on a stump. About five minutes later, at about 10:30 am, we ran out of gas, and decided it was time to head back to camp.

All in all, it was a fun trip. My brother had only fished in Bass ponds and in streams for trout, so it was good to get him out in a boat. It was also good to test out my little boat for the first time. I’ll be back to try again.

Andy Dahlberg

East Lake. 5-30, 6-2

Hi Jimmy.

Jim & I fished East Lake. 5-30-06 - 6-2-06. We were on the water at 4:30 each morning & fished until 9:00 pm. each night.We put a lot of hours in .Last year at this time we hammered the browns with AC PLUGS and the EXCALIBUR,not so this year used the same plugs and more.caught maybe 15 browns 14 to 18 inches flat lineing & down rigging but I did manage one 5 lb. brown felt very lucky. Plan on a couple of more trips in the coming weeks

thanks,

Felix

Wickiup Report May 20

by Rick Palo

I took the family to wickiup this last weekend. Fishin Saturday morning was slow I didn't get a bump. But Took the family out in the evening put out two rods and right away my son Mason spots the rod to my back going off I set the hook and verify it's a fish and handed it to him nothing like seeing a 5yr old reeling in his first brown about 3.5lbs. the fish bloodied him self up pretty good and I was trying to clean him up for a photo and he gave me the slip back into the water no big deal I was going to release it any way, but I sure wanted to get a pic with his first brown. anyway kept trolling out of the Deschutes arm out to open water where I have been lucky enough to catch some nice browns this spring and was letting out a AC lure I just changed to and wham fish on. I was going to let my daughter
Madison reel him in but she was sound asleep. anyway the fish was a real beautiful hook jaw that went 5lbs sure look bigger to me while fighting him and in the photo but that's all my scale would give us credit for. Come Sunday Morning I didn't get up in time but was on the water by 6:30AM. conditions were really encouraging I thought this could be the morning raining pretty good with a nice chop. But no dice. fished about 10 hrs Sunday with nothing. Anyway still a good trip when you catch a fish no pun intended. try and get you a pic asap. Talk to ya later Rick Palo

Wickiup Fishing Report 5/19 - 5/21

Jimmy,
Wanted to send you a report from my last trip to Wickiup, in pursuit
of the ever elusive Brown Trout.  A buddy from my work, Nathan Dahl,
went with me for his first ever brown hunting trip.  We got the boat
in the water around 8:30 pm on Friday night down by the dam, just in
time for prime.  I've only fished a little in this area of Wickiup, so
this would be a work in progress.  We decided to flat-line troll down
by some folks who were Kokanee fishing.  I figured where there's
Kokes, there's big browns, right?  I had a diver lure on and right
around 9 pm I got a hard strike.  Unfortunately the brown never got
hooked.  That would be the only opportunity that evening.  We tied the
boat to a root wad on the shore and headed to the primitive campsite
just past the boat ramp by the dam.  Nate and I met up with another
buddy from work, Ken Harris.  Ken was fishing with his good friend
Jason, and they were there to fish for the "big" kokanee.  Most
reports were saying kokanee in the 14" to 17" range!  We drank a few
beers and chatted till midnight around the camp fire.  Those are good
times, but 4 a.m. sure comes early!
Saturday morning Nathan and I awoke to one helluva wind storm.  The
wind was howling out of the west, and the lake looked like a sequel to
the Perfect Storm.  Right away I knew that primetime was out of the
question for the dam.  I was pretty pissed to say the least!  We drove
down to the boat ramp, and loaded my smokercraft onto the trailer.
While backing my boat off the shore, I had a couple of breakers come
over the transom!  This was NOT good, but we got the boat out safely
and headed for Gull Point.  By the time we got fishing at Gull Point,
it was a little after 5:30.  We worked the channel in front of both
boat ramps without much to show for our efforts.  I finally got a good
strike in a little cove I've discovered over the years, but once again
the fish didn't stay on.  We fished all over the lake on Saturday with
a total of 4 hits.  No fish were landed, but I did have a fish on that
was probably a dandy out in the middle of the lake.  I was downrigging
along at a steady depth of water, when all of a sudden the depth went
from 30 to 15 feet.  I had to crank up the ball which left a lot of
slack in my line to the clip on the release.  I was hoping we would
drop right down into deeper water so I didn't reel down the slack.
Big mistake!  Out of nowhere, I see the line pop off the release and
line starts ripping off my drag.  I grab the rod out of the holder and
set the hook.  Fish on!  This fish isn't stopping for nothing and I'm
just hanging on.  Pretty soon, the tip of my rod starts doing whoopty
do's, and I feel a very strange head shake on the end of the line.
I've never felt anything like this.  I can still feel the fish
fighting but something's not right.  Pretty soon I don't feel the fish
fighting anymore, and my line is snagged tight to something.  I back
up the boat, and sure enough I'm hung up!  After messing around with
the lure retriever, I'm able to free the lure from the stump.  All I
can figure was this smart old hookjaw, grabbed my lure while I was
trolling over this shallow shelf and headed straight back to shelter.
I think it must have swum under a branch and fought on the other side
while my line was hung on the branch which caused my pole to do the
whoopty do's.  Who knows, but that was pretty gut wrenching!
Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful day at Wickiup.  There was a
light fog lifting off the lake and it just looked like a day to break
the 10lb mark!  We started trolling immediately after launching the
boat by the dam and headed straight for the jetty.  Around 5:30 a.m.
Nathan hollered I got a fish.  Finally, we had a good hookup and the
fight was on.  From the looks of this battle, I was thinking a 5 to
6lb brown.  After a couple runs and flips on the water surface, I
netted a pretty 3.2lb. Hen Brown.  She was 21" long.  This was
Nathan's biggest brown ever, so he was pretty stoked!  With the way
things were looking, I was eager to put this fish on a stringer for
the BBQ.  After hearing Dan's report that the Wickiup Browns were
tasty, I was ready to give one a try this early in the year.  Too bad
it was a female, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  This little
beauty was caught on a custom painted stickbait that was given to me
by a fellow brown trout hunter.  After a few pics, I said let's get
right back to it.  We trolled right back thru where he caught that
fish, and BAM another hard strike.  Once again, no hookup.  We trolled
some more, and went back thru there again.  WHAM, another hard hit,
yet another miss!  So frustrating!!  I even have Owner hooks on almost
all of my "favorite" lures, but still can't get hook sets.  After this
little flurry of strikes, that spot cooled off.  I went for the
downrigger and traded Nathan lures!!    While trolling out in front
of the dam, I had a complete release off the downrigger and damn near
jumped out of the boat as my heart skipped a beat.  I immediately
grabbed the rod, reeled up the slack and set the hook to find
NOTHING!!  We trolled around in a loop and were approaching the same
spot when my rod did the exact same thing.  Once again, NOTHING!!  I
was in deep water, and there was no way I was getting hung up.  I'm
using salmon sized downrigger clips, and it takes a helluva fish to
release.  Think what you want, but if that was a brown doing that, I
would have loved to see that bad boy!  I had one other hit on the
downrigger.  This time the pole was doing the signature "bounce", so I
figured fish on for sure this time, right?  Oh no……after jerking the
line out of the release, reeling up the slack, and giving a quick
pull, NOTHING!  This was three good strikes in one hour of
downrigging.  We trolled for another 4 hours with nothing.  By noon,
we decided to call it a day.
All in all, this was a very good scouting trip for me.  I fished in a
new area, and now I have some more spots in my memory banks for future
trips.  I'd like to thank Rick Palo and Rick Arnold for giving me some
helpful advice for fishing Wickiup in early Spring.   Palo gave me
some really nice information, that helped me get some strikes I might
not have had.  Overall, we put in 20 hours of trolling for the browns
with about 10 hits to show for our efforts.  At least we got the skunk
off and boated a brown over 20".  This is the best I can do so far
this year.  I was especially happy to see Nathan land his biggest
brown to date!  Hopefully, East will treat me better in early June.
Talk to you later, Jimmy, and hope you can get out there soon!
R.D.
"Browns – Coyotes of the Fishing World"

Wickiup browns,

By Rick Palo

Hey, Jimmy as you know me and some buddies fished wickiup opening week. We started it all off with a little friendly opening weekend bet till Sunday high noon on longest fish, since nobody but me had a scale. so the rule was pictures of the length on the tape and one with the angler holding the fish. . Any way opening morning came and both boats took off the same time. Well it started off pretty slow for us but around 9AM I had the first take down on my ac plug but it didn't stick dang it I hate it when that happens. Then around 10AM my good friend Rick Thornton broke the ice with a nice 23.5" he then landed another 25". then it was my turn as we found a good spot near the dam where the water was warmer and a lot more fish on the finder I got a 21incher. After the picture show I released the fish and went back thru and I got another 20 or so. Didn't really mater since Rick had already set the mark. We continued pounding the honey hole and had another take down can't remember who it was since it didn't sick. so back thru again and I hit another smaller brown. Then the bite turned off. Anyway Thornton held on to win the annual brown classic with his 25". The rest of the trip was pretty good we got a total of 18 browns on my boat the biggest went 28" 8lbs, (1) 27" 7#er, (2) 26.5" 6.5#ers, (1) 25" 5.5# (1) 24" 4.5# and a lot of smaller fish. Owe yea and one of my good friend Terry Milam and I hit a double never had that happen before so that was exciting other than his was 6.5# and mine was a little 2#er. Anyways I Hope to fire ya some photos tomorrow talk to ya later your friend Rick Palo. P.S all but two fish were relased to fight another day!