|
Crescent Lake November 19-20
My brother Dave and
I shared the waters of Crescent this past weekend with Jimmy and Bret, as well as Max Mauer. It was a typical weekend at Crescent
for Dave and I, as we had to work hard for the two good fish caught. We started the morning casting small plugs at shallow
cruising browns which produced browns of 2 and 3 lbs for Dave and a smaller one
for me. We then flat lined for a couple
hours with a variety of lures which was unsuccessful. The water was painfully flat, and not a cloud to be found. We made the
obvious choice to send our lures deep for a
shot at a laker. After several hours of working hard to put our lures through
groups of fish on the graph, Dave's rod went off and he was
into his first laker ever. After a great fight we netted the
14 lb pig. It's amazing how one fish can turn a slow day around. After two more hours of working pods of fish in water
40 to 100 feet deep, off of
Contorta Point, Dave's rod went again. The fish took off on an amazing run that went on for
a good 2 if not 3 minutes, and took near 100 yards of his 8 lb line from his medium weight spinning reel. We were expecting
it to be bigger than the first, but it was a bit smaller at
13 lbs. The evening produced one small brown for each of us.
Sunday we had high hopes which were slowly let down as hour after hour passed with no fish besides one small brown early.
We fished until 4 o'clock and drove away feeling spanked by the day. Thankful for Saturdays good luck for Dave. It couldn't
have happened to a nicer guy.
Take care,
Dan
27
Oct 2005 - Wickiup
Dave McAllister and I arrived at the lake around 5:45 p.m. on the 25th of October hoping to catch a big one. After seeing the lake at such a low level and finding
a place to launch the boat it came to my attention that I had forgotten to charge the battery on the boat and it would not
start. So we quickly changed over to the 15 hp kicker. We did not have much time to fish that night but we were determined
to get some fishing in. We motored up to the angling boundary buoy and started our attack, casting and retrieving our small
newly purchased plugs. Dave had on at least 2 or 3 fish on within the first 15 min., one of which was a good looking; somewhere
in the 2 lb. range brown. It was getting dark fast and I was getting skunked. So we decided to go back and set up camp for
the evening. Just as we were approaching the location we had left the truck and trailer we started to have some problems with
the kicker motor also. We got the boat back to shore and decided to pull the boat from the water and check out some of the
problems and charge the battery. We arrived back at camp and discovered I had also forgotten to fill the oil reservoir for
the 2 stroke oil and it was almost bone dry. What an idiot I was. We finished setting up camp and decided to go into town
at 10:00 p.m. in search of 2 stroke oil. We got lucky and found some at a 24 hour truck stop
close to Wickiup Junction. So after that whole ordeal we got back to camp and decided to get some shut eye and prepare ourselves
for the morning prime time. Morning came and we were back on the water, charged battery and oil and motor working. We quickly
again headed for the buoy and started to do some more big brown fishing. Dave again had several fish on in a matter of minutes
none of them much to speak of but still catching them. Myself nothing. Dave finally gave me his secret and I landed my first
fish. ( Sorry I can not let you know what that was). We continued to fish from the angling buoy to the 10 mph. buoy throughout
the morning and caught some fish. Dave being the master of the trip landing approx. 15 to 20 fish, at least 2 of them being
in the 2 to 3 lb. range and one of them towards the end of our day being I think one of the best looking 4 lb. male brown
I have ever seen, and one of the best fighting fish I have seen also. Beautiful color and size. I ended up with 2 fish being
in the 2 lb. range and the rest being what I consider bait fish ranging from 6 in. to 12 in. and approx. 7 fish total. We
only had time for a short overnighter and had to head back home. Not what we were hoping for but still worth it, Thanks to
Dave and his 4 lber. Nice work Dave.
Later, Max
Wickiup/Crane October 15-17
Went fishing this weekend to Wickiup and Crane Prarrie
with my brother Dave and friend Andy. Saturday was the day with good cloud cover, a lot
of rain, and a good breeze most
of the day. The browns were biting at Wickiup, and although most of them were small, we did manage to get several fish over
20 inches and one that went 8 lbs. It was a real
dandy female and Dave caught it while trying out his new ultra light rod
with 4 lb test which made it even more exciting. Dave was actually the top fisherman of the weekend, catching the 3 largest
fish, all on his ultra light!
Sunday morning weather conditions had turned, with clear skies and no wind, we knew the browns
would be tougher. After a couple hours of prime time, we decided to head over to Crane to see what we could do with rainbows
and brookies. It was tough there too, but we finally got a chop on the water around 5 pm and Ultra light Dave got into a nice
5 lb rainbow that fought like crazy. That was the only fish at Crane as the breeze died a half hour after it started.
Monday morning we put back in at Wickiup, and it was even slower then the morning before.
We fished 'til noon and only caught 5 fish, but one
skinny female did go 4 lbs for UL Dave.
We didn't keep exact count, but we figured near 75 fish for the weekend
with 9 over 21
inches, and 2 of those going 5 pounds or better. Not a
lot of BIG fish but A LOT of fun!
-Dan
Wickiup 8/31 -
9/3
Jimmy,
Took a couple of days off work and took my wife's best friend's husband, Chad Crandall, up
to Wickiup for some Brown Trout action. Chad usually comes up with his wife to visit my wife and I every Labor Day weekend.
The boys usually get to sneak away for some fishing while the women hang out with the kids. Seems like a fair deal to
me! Chad and I got on the
water around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening. We saw Rick Arnold troll by, and I
was hoping to get to talk with Rick but ended up fishing too late to meet up with him before he got his boat out and left.
Hopefully Rick did pretty well that evening. We ended up getting a couple of hits but no hookups.
Thursday
morning we decided to fish right out in front of Gull Point Campground. Fished most of the morning with not even a bump.
I quickly learned that it was legal to fish up the arm almost a quarter of a mile or so until you reach the Angling
Boundary buoy. Chad and I worked our way up the arm and quickly marked lots of fish on the graph. We tried every
type of lure to get to them, but could get no hits. Finally up by the angling buoy we managed to land a couple of 3lbers
while rip trolling a shallow diving stickbait. These were a couple of nice fish, but we were hoping for something bigger.
As 11 a.m. approached we
decided to head back for some breakfast at camp. After that we tried the Kokanee fishing
in front of the boat ramp at Gull Point and quickly found it pleasantly surprising. We were into some Dandy Kokes within
5
to 10 minutes of jigging Nordics and Buzz Bombs. These were some hard-fighting, scrappy fish that had our full
attention for at least 3or 4 hours. We ended up catching and keeping 18 of these guys for the
smokehouse. All
of them were anywhere from 13" to 16". They were still relatively bright and the meat was red/orange and firm inside.
Can't wait to taste 'em!
By 6 p.m. we were ready to put away the "trout" rods and pull out the lumber for the Brownies.
We headed out to a spot where I got my buddy Chad into a dandy looking 7lb. Hookjaw which was his first ever Brown
Trout
a couple of years back. Within 45 minutes I had a heavy pulling dandy brown on. After a nice little fight, the
hookjaw surrendered to the net. After a couple of pics, this brownie was revived and released
back into his stomping
grounds. It turned out to be a nice looking 4.5lb. Hookjaw which ended up being the best fish landed on our trip. We
fished the rest of that evening with no other browns.
Friday morning proved to be our most productive outing. We
caught landed and released three browns that weighed 3lbs. Each. All of these fish were stocky and fat as you can see
from some of my pics. I was
really impressed with the health of the browns we caught this trip. I have been
pretty down on Wickiup the past couple of years (after being skunked on back to back trips), but I feel that she is on her
way back!
Hopefully people continue to catch and release these younger fish so that they can spawn and keep a good cycle
going. Probably the best catch of the weekend happened just after I clicked my bail upon reaching
a satisfied distance
behind the boat. I felt an unusual tug on the tip of my rod. I looked up and saw that my rod tip was moving back
and forth. I thought.....crap......my hooks got tangled up and the plug isn't working right. I started to reel
in and my rod tip really bounced.....I thought.....FISH ON.......so I jerked hard and started reeling, but the weight didn't
feel like a fish???? All of a sudden
Chad hollers "Look, your line is coming up out of the water!!" I looked
and sure enough this SEAGULL is flying like a Kite on the end of my
line!! Yeah, that's right.......a Freakin' SEAGULL!!
Chad and I were laughing hysterically, and I yelled "Quick, get the camera!". Finally after struggling to haul
in a FLYING BIRD......I got him to swim up to
the side of the boat where Chad took a couple of pics!! I ended up
putting on a glove to grab the bird with and then use pliers to remove
the treble hook that was buried thru its lower beak
and roof of its mouth. This took about what seemed like 5 minutes or so. I had to be careful the line didn't wrap
around its wing. Finally all was clear and
the goofy bird flew off! We later figured that he must have spotted
my plug as I was letting it out behind the boat and dove in for an easy meal. Boy.......did he get the surprise of his
life!!
Brian Wildish joined Chad and I for the evening session. We showed Brian some Kokanee fun for an hour
or so and then headed out for the Browns. Brian caught his first ever Wickiup Brown that evening while rip trolling
an excalibur. It was (once again) a nice little 3lb. Brown. Saturday morning Brian caught a little 2lb. And we
lost about 4 to 5 other fish that didn't hookup. For the trip we caught 9 browns in
2-1/2 days of fishing and landed
18 kokanee. All Browns were caught and released, while the Kokes stayed in the cooler. This was by far the most
fish I've ever caught out of Wickiup in a "weekend", as far as Browns go, even though they were small by most trophy brown
trout fishermen's standards. I see this fishery on the up and up, however. Hopefully, next year these fish will be in
the 5 to 6 lb. Range. I
guess we'll have to wait and see until next year. Unfortunately, this was my last fishing
trip of the year. Can't wait to hit some Bull Trout Action with ya later this Winter, however, Jimmy!
Take care guy,
and best of luck this Fall!!
R.D.
"Browns - Coyotes of the Fishing World"
Fishing Report from Max A. Maurer
Aug 5, 2005
Mike Beer and I headed up to Crescent Lake for the weekend to try and catch some big Lakers. I arrived
around 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning and set up camp and waited for Mike
to arrive so we could get the boat in the water and get to fishing. Mike finally arrives around 3:00 p.m. and helped finish setting up the boat got ready to get on the water for the evening bite. We finally
got on the water around 4:00 p.m. and were fishing, the weather was beautiful and the water
a cool 69 degrees and calm. We first headed for the summer home pass starting in about 125ft of water not finding a thing
on the chart, so we moved in to around 75 ft of water and started to chart some fish. Towards the end of the summer homes
we had out first strike and I was way to slow on the reaction time and missed it. After getting back in the water and about
20 min. later I hooked into a nice little 4 lb. Mack (using the Bassmaster Shad) we took a few pics of the lad and let him
go. We continued on down towards Tandy Bay and
I hooked up with another Mack of 8lbs., a little bigger and we thought the only way to go is up in pounds. We got out lines
in the water and proceeded to continue out troll around the lake. We had gotten almost to the Boy Scout Camp when Mike hooked
into a nice 8lb. female brown, on what I think is a lure manufactured by (Lucky Craft or Lucky Strike/ Blue on top and silver
on bottom with black spots), He kept reeling it in thinking it was a nice Mack and as it got close to the boat is when we
noticed it was a nice brownie. That is when we were surprised to see the nice brown and thought to ourselves that we might
be into something good. Strange! but good. Browns in the summer time? So we continued our troll around the lake and thought
we might be in a prime spot in front of Simax Beach for the evening prime. We arrived there just in time and I had changed
lures to an Assassin and mike had on an Excaliber. We trolled Simax to no avail and we were reeling in, in front of the resort
and I had a nice little probably 3 or 4 lb. Mack on and it got off right at the boat. So we rolled it all up and thought to
ourselves that was a pretty good day for the first one. We headed back to camp and eat some dinner.
Saturday morning came and went but we managed
to get back on the water around 9:20
a.m. Yes! We missed the prime time
and decided to sleep in. We started out troll in the same direction, but started in the 75 ft. range instead of 125. We had
gotten approx. 21 min. into the trolling path and we started messing around with the top on the boat when Mike screams at
me, " Hey your rod just popped," so I quickly ran over there and gave it a big yank and something big pulled back. I said
to Mike that it feels like a big one. I reeled and reeled and felt a couple of good head shakes. I came to the surface about
60 yds. Behind the boat and Mike asked me in it was a big Mack? I saw a gold flash and said, "No! Man it's a Big Brown!" I
got it up to the boat and we were both saying that it looks like a 10 lber. (Would be my first if I was lucky.) It was long
and had a big nice hook jaw. We were so excited. Mike did a beautiful job netting the fish and bringing it on board. We hooked
it up and it weighed a whopping 9 lbs. We looked at each other and weighed it again. 9lbs. Mike pulled out the tape measure
and measured it to be 32". We took some pictures and were anxious to get back to fishing thinking that we had somehow gotten
on to some great fishing. An 8lb and a 9lb in the boat and it was early still into the trip. We proceeded to continue our
trolling path around the lake towards Tandy Bay and
hooked up with a double of 4 lber and a 3 lber by the island and I hooked another 3 lber kind of in front of the south boat
ramp. We were getting a little hot and hungry by then and had decided to troll to the Boy Scout Camp and then turn and head
right down the middle of the lake in search of some big Mack's. So after catching the last 3 lb. Mack we decided to flat line
to the Scout Camp. We were just about there when Mike screams out that he has a fish on. He grabs his pole and reels in a
nice little 4 lb. Brown. We look at each other and our watches and think this is not right, catching a brown flat lining at
12:50p.m. That is weird? Since we had not even gotten a bite on the far side
of the lake we decided to go right down the middle and troll at 150 ft. to see if we could find some big Mocks. We did
and found nothing. We charted a few fish, but all in the 50 to 75 ft. range. We headed in for lunch and decided to
hit it again later around 3 or 4 p.m. again.
Well we were back on the water around 4:00 p.m. and looking for some good fish to troll through. We started again on the same path due to some
heavy wind that had picked up on the lake and it was blowing pretty good, there were a few white caps and steering the boat
was a little challenging. We picked up some other small Mack's of 3 and 4 lbs. on the troll to Tandy Bay but ran into a tangle in our lines down at the end of
the summer homes. What a birds nest that was. We had to cut our lines and Mike was having some difficultly pulling his line
in with the lure on it by hand. He said that he was pulling it in and something was pulling back. He put on some gloves and
continued to pull in a 4 lb. Mack. Nice work. We did some more trolling and caught some more small ones of 3, 4 , 5 lbs and
a small brown of 15". Evening prime came and went with nothing. We quit a little earlier than the night before thinking we
did not want to load the boat in the dark for we had to go in the morning.
Sunday after relieving myself at approx. 4:30 a.m. I heard a truck pull up to the camp site and people running towards our tent and undoing the zipper.
A head popped in and said "Lets go Fishing!" Dan McAllister and his buddy Brian had been at a party the night before and heard
of our success and had made the decision to drive down early morning and do some fishing for the day. Mike and I were sooooo
surprised to see them there. Mike had to leave around 7 a.m. and I did
not have to be back into town at any certain time. So we put all of the stuff back on the boat and went fishing again with
Dan and Brian.
Brian and I had hooked up a double down by the
island, him with a 5 lb and me with a 4 lb. Mack that was very nice and Brian hooked into another Mack as we were going in
for lunch. After lunch we were back on the water for not very long and Dan hooked into a nice little 5 lb Mack. and the action
was slim to none after that. We quit around 3:30 and packed it up and came
on home. Very happy about the fish we had caught. I would defiantly fish Crescent in the summer again. It was a hot one out
there though. The water temp did get up to around 71 degrees and the lake is really low. That is no lie.
Later Max
East Lake 8/4/05
I went up to East Lake for a relaxing weekend of just hanging out and a bit
of fishing. I went with some buddies from college and all their significant others, for a grand total of 8 on the trip.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to hit it really hard fishing as this was kind of a couples weekend, but I knew at the very least
I'd be able to get a couple evenings in.
The first evening, I took my girlfriend Anna (who still had yet to witness
a brown trout taken), my buddy Geoff, and one of Anna's friend's husband Chad (that's a mouthful). Chad grew up in San
Diego and has lived in Oregon for about 5 years and absolutely loves the outdoors. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't
know anyone that does anything in the outdoors, until now. This was his first fishing trip ever, so I hoped something
would produce. It was quite choppy on the water when we first headed out. We trolled with the riggers for a few
hours with a couple hits, but nothing to write home about. A couple of times, I noticed Chad's pole bob and weave on
the rigger, noting that it wasn't the chop of the water causing it to bounce. The way Chad was sitting, I noticed his
knee was fairly close to his rod holder, so I asked him if he had bumped his knee against the end of the rod. He looked down
and nodded his head "Uh, yeah, sure...sure. Me and my bird legs". Still watching my depth and looking at the rods,
it still looked like every now and then his pole would bob, and I kept asking if he was hitting his knee, and he kept
assuring me. Well, with hardly any action, it was time to reel in the rods. As I told everybody to do that, I
noticed Chad's pole AGAIN do the same motion and I looked at where his knee's were in relation to the rod. They were
about two feet away. This had to be a fish, just nothing huge. I released the pole from the clip and sure enough,
a little bit of tension and jerking on the other end. After about a 1 minute drag, we pulled in a chunky 18 inch, 2lb
brownie. I figured that we probably drug that thing across the lake for about 10 minutes. Sorry about that lil'
guy. It was the first fish Chad had ever seen caught, man was he excited. That made me feel good to see a guy
that just turned 30 get excited like a 4 year old waiting for Christmas.
The next evening, I took out Geoff again and a buddy of mine, Dave, out in
pursuit of a trophy brown trout. I tried a spot I'd never tried before on the west side of the lake. I figured
you're not going to learn anything if you don't give it a try. So we set up the rigger and put two poles on it and then
flat line a deep diving lure on the other. After about 1/2 an hour, Dave's pole did the Muhammed Ali bob and weave.
Releasing it from the clip, Dave fought the lil' guy for a minute or two and landed a nice 16" brown. Nothing to write
home about, but it was Dave's first Oregon brown trout. He's originally from Driggs, Idaho at the foot of the Tetons.
Fished and hunted all his life, but didn't know how to fish the lakes in Oregon for browns. After 5 minutes, Dave's
pole almost bent over and touched the water with the huge hit he got. His line wouldn't release from the downrigger
clip. As I tried to release it, his pole (this was a pole Dave actually owned) had such a light action and not enough
backbone in his pole to release the line from the clip. Still feeling the force of the fish on the other end and head
shaking, the clip refused to release. When it finally released, the fish did two headshakes and was off. It was
a good hit.
We trolled for about an hour longer and I looked at my watch and it was getting
pretty late. We only had about 15 more minutes of legal fishing time when I noticed my rod bounce a little. I
knew it was a fish so I grabbed it, released it from the clip and quickly reeled in the slack and set the hook. When
I set the hook, it felt solid and I thought, "Hey, this could be a nice fish". Then the fish did a couple head shakes
and actually took a little bit of line. I then told Geoff this was a good fish. I then tried to hand him the pole
so he could get a shot at hooking up with a nice brownie. He asked me "How big do you think it is?" I replied "Probably
4 or 5 lbs." He then told me to keep the pole because he didn't want to be responsible if the fish broke or got off.
I didn't argue but told him "Don't say I never offered it to you." He was cool about it. Well, this fish fought
and fought. It would headshake and dive, headshake and dive. I then began to think, "Maybe this is a little bigger
than a 4 or 5lber." I told Geoff to grab the net and be on the look out. I had my head lamp on giving him light.
The angle from which I was standing and from the way he was crouched with the net, I couldn't see the fish. Geoff then
yells out an explicitive and I start to get excited. I then see a large flash of gold in the light beaming from my head
lamp. I cried "OH MY GOD, That's a GOOD fish!" I started to get nervous that this could be my first 10lber.
After a few seconds, the fish was in the net and landed. We all started jumping up and down. We had just landed
a 8.2lb, 28" hookjaw!!!!
As I looked at the fish, I immediately knew he was in trouble.
It absolutely engulfed my lure (the infamous Excalibur Minnow) with all (3) Owner treble hooks embedded into it's mouth, two
of which were deep into it's gills. Every time I pulled on the hooks in it's gills, blood gushed everywhere. I
knew that if I released this ol' boy into the lake, he would die a slow death. After realizing he wasn't going to make
it, I unfortunately had to kill the fish. What the most frustrating thing about this fish was the mercury level warnings
at East Lake for brown trout over 16" in length. I hated to waste this fish. I've heard from a couple people that
if you smoke it, it helps leech out some of the mercury. We'll see. I know this kind of thing happens sometimes,
but it's still hard to do when you know it took a long time for a fish to get that big. With that aside, it was a great
fish to help cap a great weekend.
Crescent Lake Trip
July 9th
On Friday evening, I headed up to Crescent
Lake in hopes of christening my new boat with it's first fish. Hopefully, a nice brown trout. I was hoping to
get up to Crescent Lake in time for the evening bite, but to no avail, I made it up to Willamette Pass at 9:30. I would
have to wait until morning.
I was invited up to my buddy's cabin which is about 5 miles from Crescent Lake. His
name is Brady Metzger and we've been friends ever since I moved back to Oregon in 1990. He's a true sportsman and fisherman.
I figured he'd love to learn to fish this lake so I decided to take him out for his first trophy trout fishing experience.
We woke up at 4 am, slapped our close on and head out to the lake in search of the elusive browns.
As we tried
to beach launch in front of the resort, we could not find a spot shallow enough to get the boat into. So we had to run
over to the boat ramp at the other side of the dam. By this time it was almost 5 am and we'd already eaten into half
an hour of prime fishing time. Great, I thought to myself. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. We
hopped in the boat, bombed past the summer homes and off to Tandy Bay. As it was early in the morning and me still being
tired from getting in late the night before, I complete spaced the notion of launching out of the beach launch at Tandy Bay.
Wow, I was on a roll this morning, feeling like a freaking rookie outdoorsman.
The water temperature on top was
like a warm bath, so we decided to use the downrigger. We fished in 50 feet of water, with the ball at 25'. The
lures were set at 25' and 15'. Brady was a little nervous when he watched me bend over his pole with the downrigger.
He'd never fished with a downrigger before so he thought his steelhead pole wouldn't be able to take a little bending
action from the downrigger. I reassured him that everything would be alright.
After a couple of Hostess glazed
donuts in my belly and an hour gone by, we were mapping very few fish. I told Brady that we'd try one more pass and
then we'd start trolling over to Contorta. As I was looking at my depth finder, Brady yells at me "YOUR POLES BOBBING,
YOUR POLES BOBBING!" I look over real quick and sure enough, it was oscillating up and down about 2 feet. I snatched
the pole from the rod holder, released my line from the clip and reeled as fast as I could to get the slack out. I felt
a little tension, but nothing to write home about. That didn't seem right, it couldn't have been a dink for the way
my rod was bouncing. So to make sure I had something on, I gave a little tug. Well, the line tugged back pretty
good. "FISH ON, BABY" I yelled to Brady. As I reeled in, I wasn't sure what size of fish I had on because I'd
get a couple good head shakes and then it would reel in really easy. Then a good solid tug, then nothing. As
the fish came in closer as I watched my line get closer and closer to my boat, I finally saw a flash of gold about 10 feet
down. "That's a nice fish" Brady said. I agreed. Brady grabbed the net and scooped up the fish from the
depths which it had come. My boat had been christened with it's first fish, a 23-1/2", 4.5 lb hookjaw brownie! WOOHOO!!!
He was landed on the famous Excalibur.
Brady was pretty excited as he's fished all his life, mostly for small
trout, bass, and salmon and steelhead. He said this was one of the largest trout he'd ever seen. I told him it
only gets better. I was very glad I could share that with him. After he snapped a few photos, we revived the fish
to go fight another day. We trolled around for about one more hour with nothing so we decided to go map some fish so
we could get our girlfriends into some kokanee fishing. We trolled and mapped for about 4 hours and we couldn't find
ANYTHING. We tried the summer homes, the boy scout camp, Simax, Contorta. You name it, we tried it, and we found
nothing. We fished for Macks in 80 feet to 150 feet of water. Nothing. We couldn't even pick up Kokanee. The
wind was picking up and starting to get quite rough. We decided to head in and call it a morning. After chatting
with 3 other boats, I came to find out that Brady and I were the most successful fisherman of the morning. All the kokanee
fishermen hadn't found any schools. We saw about 6 boats all around the Boy Scout Camp area, which we trolled and mapped,
but we didn't see anything but one blip in 30 minutes of trolling around there. That's fishing for you. We think
the small front that moved in may have had an affect on the fishing. Oh well.
That evening, we took out the girlfriends
for some trophy trout hunting. We fished from 7 pm to 9:50 pm without a bite. We fished between 40 to 60 feet
of water, with our lures at 30, 20, 15, and 8 feet deep. We didn't map a single fish until about 9:30 off of Contorta
when we decided to go in a little bit shallower. We flatlined for 20 minutes to no avail. The weather was very
windy and rainy. After that, we headed over to Manley's in Crescent Junction and pounded back some silver bullets and
ate some fried chicken. As we set our alarms for 4 am to head out the next morning, as we kepting tipping back one of
Adolph Coors's finest inventions, we began to realize 4am would be fast upon us. After discussing it for 30 seconds,
we decided we were going to give it a rest, as the weather also wasn't looking favorable.
My buddy snapped
the pics of the brownie. I'm just waiting for him to send the pics. He said it may take awhile since he's a teacher
and his only internet access is at his school. Since it's summer break, he may not be heading there for a while. I
told him "UNACCEPTABLE". He said he'll try to have them to me by Tuesday. I'll send your way once I get them.
Thanks,
Brian
Wildish
Crescent Lake 6/10 - 6/12
Jimmy,
Headed up to Crescent after work this past Friday to give it a
go. This would be my last fishing
trip of the Spring. I originally
wasn't going to leave until Saturday morning, since I was to meet my Dad
in Pleasant
Hill at 9 a.m., but my sweet wife gave me the go ahead to
leave Friday night. This way I could fish two good "primetimes"
and
then leave the lake around 7 a.m. to go pickup my Dad in Pleasant Hill.
My wife's good friend was putting on a baby
shower for her, so my Mom
and Sister were coming up to Newberg for that. My Dad rode with them.
The plan was
to meet them in Pleasant Hill, so my Dad could go fishing
with me. Man am I glad I was able to leave on Friday. I
was fishing by
8:30 on Friday evening and fished till dark with nothing, then finally
while pushing legal, my rod bent.
I caught and released a nice looking
2lb. Brown in the Tandy Bay area of Crescent. I camped at the South end
campground, so I beached my boat and looked forward to what I hoped was
an early morning bite.
Saturday morning couldn't come fast enough after sleeping in the
cab of my pickup. Let me tell ya, my canopy
can't come fast enough, and
the front seat of a Dodge pickup is really not that comfortable! I was
on the water
at 4:30 a.m. and was not surprised that I was the only one
on the lake for as far as I could see. Around 4:45 a.m.
while trolling
in Tandy Bay, my rod slammed down.....Fish On! As soon as I set the
hook, I could tell this was
a descent Brown. She fought and fought, and
took some line when she came up next to the boat. After making
sure she
was played out, I netted her myself. This was one FAT fish! She had
one hell of a belly on her,
and looked as if she had just engulfed a
couple Kokanee. She weighed in at 4.5lbs. I took some good pics and
then
released her. As you can see from the pic, this fish was around
24" long. After re-tying my leader due to the
damage she had done, I
was back to trolling. Not fifteen minutes later, wham!, another hit.
This fish jumped straight
out of the water two or three times and then
surrendered to the net after a quick battle. This was a young but nice
looking
hookjaw. Once again I snapped a couple of pics, weighed him at
3.5lbs and put him back in the lake. He also
was around 24" long, but
pretty skinny. Still a nice brown, however. After about an hour and a
half with
only one other strike, I had to beach the boat to go pickup my
Dad. Saturday was cold and very windy. We tried
to fish, but the lake
got too rough and the wind was very chilly. We went back into shore and
tried to wait out
the wind. Unfortunately it never really died down, so
we went out about 6 p.m. and fished till dark. My dad
had only one
strike but we missed it.
Sunday morning was another early one. We were
on the water by
4:30 a.m. Dad managed two browns with one being around the 2lb mark. I
managed one dink.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get my Dad into a
respectable brownie. Will have to give it a try together next
Spring.
The only other fish we caught on Sunday, was a small laker that ran to
4lbs. This fish took an excalibur
that was on the rigger at 50 feet in
113 feet of water. I snapped a couple of pics of my Dad with the Mack,
since
this was only his second one ever, and we released him. All in
all, we had a fairly successful trip. I was
very pleased that I went
the extra mile of heading to the lake on Friday night instead of
Saturday morning. It
really paid off for me! Time on the water is key
to catching nice browns. Thanks to all my buddies for a successful
and
memorable spring of fishing for the trophies!
R.D.
"Browns - Coyotes of the Fishing World!"
East
Lake by Max Maurer 6/12/05
This fishing trip was scheduled to be a good
one hopefully, everything in the cards was right. The lunar calendar was in our favor and the chances of catching a big one
was on the menu. I headed up for East Lake on Friday morning scheduled to hook up with Brian, a friend of Dan's whom I had
fished with before, later that afternoon. I arrived at approx. 1 p.m. and checked into the Resort and unloaded my stuff and
waited for Brain. He showed up shortly after me and was ready to get to fishing. We launched the boat and geared up determined
to catch the big one. We started fishing around 3 p.m. Brian snapped on an excaliber and I followed. While readying our lines
we saw Rick Arnold cruise by with some customers and gave a friendly wave. I do not think he noticed me for I was wearing
a big floppy hat to protect myself from the glaring sunshine, the weather was great to start with. Brian and I discussed the
plan of action and started our troll towards the hot spring area left of the resort and looked for 23' on the depth finder.
Not but 15 to 20 min. into the pattern we had chosen and "Fish On", for myself to bad it was only a nice little crane bow,
approx. 14 " and beautiful in color. We looked at each other and thought that this might be a great trip. After that we just
trolled around and around the lake. With not a bite the rest of the night. Brian was getting pretty tired after the long day
he had with getting off of work at 6 a.m. and driving up to the lake so we called it quits around 9 p.m. Around 11:00 p.m.
there came a knock at the door and to my surprise Ronnie another friend of mine had gotten off of work a little late and had
driven up for the what we hoped would be a good day of fishing the next day.
We awoke bright and early to get on the
water by 4:30 and almost made it but I was a little slow and we managed to get on the water at approx. 4:45 a.m. The wind
had picked up a little but it looked like it was going to turn into another nice day of fishing. We again choose the same
troll pattern as before going left of the resort and trolling by the hot springs first. Nothing, we continued our path to
the point and headed for the red slide staying in approx. 15 to 25 ft. of water. we just got to nearly the end to turn around
and Brian says, "Fish On"! Ronnie and I start to reel our lines in when I noticed that I also have a fish on. A double no
doubt the second one of the year for my boat. Brian pulls in a little 14 to15 "er and I reel in a nice looking 5 lb. hookjaw
male. After several pictures we all look at each other and said lets get back to fishin. We turned the boat around and
decided to troll that same path we had just finished. We trolled it a few more times picking up some dinks here and there
and while on the same path as our first troll Brian picked up his biggest brown trout ever, I nice 5lb. hookjaw male
also. A beautiful fish I must say brilliant in color and some nice big spots. We now are thinking that this could be a great
day of fishing. We now decide to continue on and troll some other parts of the lake. Not a good idea. We did and got nothing.
But every time we went back to that spot we fished in the morning we caught something. So we decided that that was the hot
spot. So we stayed within that area the rest of the day and into the evening, picking up fish from 6" to 17" all day and night
long, and ending up with approx. 16 to 20 fish by the end of the day. All were released. By the end of the day the weather
started to change though. A small cold front was moving in and the wind had picked up. We called it quits around 9:40 p.m.
and headed in for the night.
We awoke again the next morning to hit it hard again but looked out the window to find
that it was snowing. Ronnie called it quits and decided to head out for fear that he might not be able to make it out of there
because of the bald tires he had on his car and Brian was thinking about leaving because he had to work later that night.
While getting there things together we checked out he lake and the wind was definitely blowing and the snow was coming down.
Brian had noticed a boat on the water and of course it was out good friend Dan and his brother Dave out there fishing in the
extreme conditions. Brian came in and decided to brave the cold if I was willing. I agreed and we were off. The wind was howling
and the snow was coming down but we were out there braving the conditions and not picking up a thing. We did manage to catch
a couple of small ones but nothing of any size. Brian had to call it quits around 9:30 to be able to get back to Portland
to go to work so we headed in. I decided to hang out on shore take a nap and rest up until the evening bite. I hooked up with
Dan and his brother on shore around 2:00 p.m. by their campsite and got the skinny on what kind of luck they have been having
on the water and they reported nothing of any size. I was on my own by then and had decided not to go back out until
around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. to catch the evening bite. I did and nothing was biting I called it quits around 9:30 p.m. and headed
for the cabin to warm up and get some rest for tomorrow because it did not look to good weather wise.
Monday morning
came and we were on the water early again. Still it was snowing a little bit and the wind was blowing. I was thinking that
this was going to be the day. I had set out the same as I had done the 3 days prior and headed for the same hot spot that
had now turned to the cold spot. I trolled it and small parts of the rest of the lake to no avail. I managed to pick up a
nice little 2 lber and some more dinks but that was all. Dan and Dave had gotten discouraged around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. and
left for Crane Prairie to see if they could pick up on some nice brookies. I stayed a little longer and called it quits around
9:30 a.m. packed it up and came on home.
I would like to however mention in this report that
the owners of the East Lake Resort, Jim and Melanie Vogelpohl, and their little 5yr old daughter, three of the nicest people
you will ever meet, have done an outstanding job with the cleanup and rejuvenation of the resort itself. Their staff showed
a friendliness and willingness to help out in any way they could to ensure that my stay there was a good one. The camping
rooms have improved with microwaves and coffee makers. The cabins have improved in many ways, new paint, new floors in some.
Just the general overall look and feel of the place has improved immensely Truly a wonderful experience to stay there. A true
great fishing destination. If you get the chance please book a room and see for yourself. My hat is off to them. Excellent
Job!!!!!! Keep up the great work.
Thank You very much.
Max A. Maurer
3 Day Trip 6/6/05
Just got home from Crane and East lakes with my brother
Dave. It was a
weekend of ups and downs and the fishing was okay. Fished at Crane
Saturday and caught 2 fish all day,
the 6 1/2 lb rainbow and Dave got
16 inch brookie. Both fish were taken on Kastmaster spoons near Cow
Meadow. The bite
was slow because the fish were gorging themselves on
dragonfly nymphs, and not into much else. Saw many huge fish rising,
but
we were not prepared to fish with the bugs. Saturday night we
camped at East in arctic conditions with high winds driving
snow
sideways. That was the weather for most of the time Sunday and Monday
morning. We consistently caught fish, but
all were dinks. I did have a
near 7 pound brown hover at my Excalibur Minnow next to the boat for a
few seconds, but
he chose not to take it and swam away. After a slow
prime Monday morning, we bailed and hit Crane in hopes that the bug
hatch
had died down, but it hadn't, and it was the same scene as
Saturday. Dave did get one nice brookie up to the boat but it
came off.
The down side of the trip was getting robbed in the night while asleep
at Crane. The thieves got away with
major $ worth of stuff including
all 6 of our fishing poles, and my digital camera!! The snuck into our
the back of
my truck, and climbed into our boat, just 10 feet from our
tent. We only had slept from 1:30 am to 5:15 am, so these guys
were
pros. Major loss. The nice rainbow eased the blow though!
*** Special thanks to Rick Arnold, and J.T. Nyquist for
loaning us rods
so that we didn't have to quit fishing!
Take care, Dan
East Lake Report 5/13 - 5/15
Jimmy,
Brian
Wildish and I motored up to East Lake for a little fishing trip
early on Friday the 13th. I was pretty thrilled
since I hadn't fished
East since I was probably 10 years old or so. Brian and I scored the
"Rainbow" cabin for
the weekend and were glad because we knew the
weather was supposed to be wet and cold. We arrived to the lake around
6
p.m., just in time to get our gear put away in the nice little cabin
and get the smokercraft in the water before "primetime".
In less than a
half an hour after arriving, we had the boat in the water and were
pumped for some East Lake Brown
action. To our dismay, the east
shoreline was covered in nasty green slimy weeds that kept getting on
our line
and lures. We struggled with this for an hour or so, and then
finally decided to move out to deeper water to avoid
this mess. Around
8 p.m., I caught my first ever East Lake Brown, a nice little 16" fella
who was absolutely beautiful.
I was very impressed with this brown's
colors and markings. What an excellent gene pool in East. I really
enjoyed
the gold belly on him and nice big spots on his sides. After
snapping a few pics of my first brown at East, I slipped
him back into
the lake. Brian and I trolled for another hour without a bump, and then
WHAM! All of a sudden my
rod went down to a good fish. I could tell we
would need the net on this one, so I hollered to Brian with excitement.
After a 5 to 8 minute fight or so, the hookjaw came to the surface about
15 yards from the boat. It was getting
dark at this time, but Brian
whooped with excitement, "Oh God, that's a good fish!". After a couple
famous head
shakes to no avail, the nice hookjaw male found his way into
the net. We both let out a couple of victory cries,
as I reached for
the pliers and digital scale. 5-1/2 lbs! Brian got some great pics of
me with my prize, and
then it was back in the water to fight another
day. Brian and I didn't realized until after we got back in the cabin
and
were checking out the pics, that this Brown had a Clipped Adipose
Fin. This is the first Brown I have ever caught
with a clipped fin.
Not sure if it was someone clowning around or if East does indeed have
stocked browns that the fish
and game stocks. I'm not too familiar with
East to know. Brian said to me, "We just got here and already a
5-1/2
lb. Brown, just think what the weekend could hold!". I told him not to
get too excited, because I have read
of such reports from Jimmy, Dan,
Rick, etc. of great starts and then Lousy finishes. Either way, we
celebrated
a great catch that night and looked forward to an early
morning of fishing.
The morning came fast and we were the
first boat on the water (only
because Jimmy couldn't make the trip!). We quickly put out our lures
and started
trolling. Only a couple of dinks were caught along the east
shoreline that morning, and then the action completely
stopped around 7
a.m. We trolled up to the cliffs and caught a couple more dinks there.
The weather started breaking
up and the sun even poked its way thru the
clouds. With the water temp. between 42 and 45 degrees, Brian and I
thought,
"What the Hell", let's try the downrigger and see what happens.
While trolling along the north shoreline, we caught 4 browns
in less
than an hour, with one being a nice 2lb, 20" hookjaw. I was thrilled!
These were the first browns I had
ever caught on my downrigger, and now
I'm a firm believer that you can catch these elusive fish this way. We
fished
until around 11 a.m. and then headed into camp for a bite to eat.
The evening proved once again the time to fish East.
We started nailing
fish around 7 to 8 p.m. Brian would catch a couple dinks, then I would
catch a couple
dinks. Finally, at 8 p.m., my rod doubled over, and I
quickly set the hook on a heavy fish. Immediately I
could tell this was
no dink, and let Brian know with an excited "Oh yeah!". After a fairly
quick fight, the fish
had his upper mouth and lower jaw buried in the
top and bottom hooks on my excalibur minnow forcing his jaws wide open
making
it hard for him to breathe, the big hookjaw male brown came to
the net. Brian let out a holler and we started the
high fives! I
quickly weighed the fish at 6lbs. And he was 27" long. This male had a
big head and upper
body, but tapered in weight as he went back to this
tailfin. He looked like he would have weighed more, but he didn't.
I
was tickled, and we got some beautiful pics of this bruiser. After a
brief recessitation, the big brown
swam back to the depths of his
domain. What a great feeling to catch such an awesome trout, and then
watch him
swim back to his turf! Hell, it was only 8 p.m., so Brian and
I quickly got back to fishing. In less than 10
minutes, Brian's pole
warped over, and he gave a quick jerk. The fish was on briefly and
then, just like that,
he spit the hook. Brian was very disappointed,
because by the way the fish hit and felt for a second, he knew a
good
one got away. We fished till legal with a couple more dinks and then
called it a night. Back at the
cabin, we reminisced about the great
pics Brian took and talked about the big brown.
Sunday morning, we awoke to
rain. There was a good chop on the water,
and we both knew that this could be the morning! In less than 5 minutes
of
trolling I got a hit, but missed the fish. We caught 4 browns that
morning, that were all dinks, and missed probably
10 or 12 others. Two
of the hits were big time, but we just failed to hookup. You all know
how tough a big
brown's mouth is. Brian and I fished till 9:30 a.m . and
then went in for Breakfast at the Resort. It was
very good, by the way!
For the trip, we landed 12 browns and probably lost or missed 20 others.
Action wasn't non-stop,
but it was very steady. You could really tell
when the bite was "on", and we had fun during those hours or so. All
of
the browns were caught and released with the famous excaliburs. Brian
and I tried a lot of different lures,
but those seemed to be the ticket.
I was very glad that Brian and I decided to try out East Lake. It's a
beautiful
lake with beautiful browns. Can't wait to go back!
Take care, Jimmy, and I'll let you know how I do over Memorial
Day
Weekend. My dad and I are planning a trip, but not sure where yet.
Hopefully, we can land a couple more browns
like the ones I caught on
this trip. It's about time I made your damn website with pics this
year. I'm glad
my fishing buddies finally let ME catch a couple!!
Makes up for getting skunked at Crescent in April.
R.D.
"Browns
- Coyotes of the Fishing World"
|
