Dan's 2007 Report Page

Crescent Lake November 24-25

With the arrival of the holiday hustle-bustle, I was debating whether or not to follow through with the plan to connect with Jordan for one last shot at some big browns at Crescent Lake. This year has been very good for fishing and after catching a 10 pound brown on the last outing, it wouldn’t be bad to end it on that note. But as the weekend approached, there was no way to resist the temptation to go.

The forcast was clear and cold with lows to be in the teens. We arrived a little late on Saturday morning and as we pulled up to the boat launch, the sky began to light up with one of the most fantastic sunrises I have seen all year. Despite our hurry to get fishing I couldn’t resist the photo op.

By 7 o’clock we had our lines in the water and began to troll towards Simax Beach. My buddy Andy had been down the weekend before for a half day and he mentioned that a lot of big fish were holding out in 35 ft of water around Simax, so we decided to start with this slightly deeper then typical run for first light in cold water. There was a light ripple on the water and things were feeling good for big fish potential. As our lures approached Simax, I gave my rod some healthy rips and was met in return by a swimming freight train. My rod loaded hard and line peeled from my reel, and I could tell my drag was a bit tighter than it should be. I was thinking about backing it off as this monster fish tried to pull the rod from my hands in frantic spurts of power. Then it all gave way to nothing and I knew I had just broken off a prize fish as well as one of my prized Excalibur Minnows. It’s always a heartbreaker to lose a fish like that, but all part of the game of trophy trout fishing.

I tied on another of the same emerald Excalibur Minnow and we got back to the drill, wondering if another chance would come our way. I didn’t have to wonder for long, as on the way back through the same hole, my rod doubled over again. This time I was ready. With the drag set just right, I watched the line melt from my reel fast, and asked Jordan to kick the boat in reverse to play it safe. I began to gain back some line and the the fight switched to a give and take. My forearms were starting to burn from the pressure of this fish, but I could tell he was tiring as well. “Could this be another brown over 10 pounds?”, I asked myself. Low and behold, a long shadow and forked tail emerged from the depths and I realized I was about to land my first flatline lake trout, and it was a monster! Jordan scooped him into the net and the 18 pound slab came aboard. This fish was the biggest trout of my life, eclipsing my previous best by over 3 pounds. After some high fives, we did the photo shoot and put him back into the ice cold water. What a blast! And the trip was only beginning…

An hour passed with out a strike and we began to wonder if the window had closed. Suddenly my rod loaded up heavy again and it was FISH-ON! After another great fight, we welcomed another nice mackinaw to the boat. This one went 12 pounds, and he swam away happy, too. We went on working Simax for a while, and decided to push on towards the boy scout camp, while holding in our 20-40 ft depth range. Jordan stepped up to the plate and set the hooks into a good mac of his own that went 9 pounds. Not long later, he duplicated the catch with another 9 pounder. After fishing this lake in the winter months for several years, neither one of us had pulled a mac out of these shallow depths, and we had just pulled 4 in one morning on the water. Go figure. We were targeting big browns, and none of those were showing up, but you will not here me complaining about catching these big beauties.

That wound up being it for big fish landed for the day. We hooked 2 more good ones that evening, but they both threw the lure. We had a great dinner with Jimmy Lewis at the resort, and learned that he had nailed a 6 pound brown in Tandy Bay that evening. I was really wanting to see a good brown myself. Tomorrow would be a new day.

After a late start the day before, we were ready on time for the legal fishing bell this time at 6:12 am. We decided to make the first run in shallower water holding at 15 ft. As our lures swam into Simax Beach, my number came up and my rod went down. A nice fight led to a killer hen brown trout of near 7 pounds in the net. I now felt completely fat and happy. How much better could it get?

When prime time is on, Jordan and I have adopted a policy of putting our quality fish in the livewell and get the lures back in the zone before taking the time for photos and measurements. We were rewarded this morning for applying this policy. As soon as my lure started tracking, I was into another fish, and this thing was huge. It took quite a while to work this beast to the boat, and I once again found myself wondering, “Is this the biggest brown trout of my life, or another big mac?”. Eventually, we saw the deeply forked tail on a silhouette over 3 feet long. I had the fish to the boat several times, and each time he would power away taking another 30 or 40 ft of line. Finally, he tired and he was mine. 37 inches, and near 17 pounds. Unfortunately, he had inhaled my Excalibur deeply, and it was all I could do to get it out. I knew the fish would not likely make it and despite working to revive him in the frigid water for a long time, he was indeed a goner. It happens, time to fire up the smoker. We released the brown from the livewell and continued on our quest.

We were committed to sticking with the run from Simax to the resort. There were just so many schools of bait with big arcs surrounding them that we had to keep pounding away. Pay off was just around the corner, and my hot rod went off again. Another hard fighting laker begrudgingly came aboard, this one was 13 pounds. I could really get used to this!

A couple of hours passed and Jimmy came by to say farewell. He had nailed a 10 pound mac on a #14 Rapala Magnum, and missed a couple of others. Jordan was waiting for his first fish of the day, and was inspired to try the same lure. Before long, he was rewarded for the decision with a pumping rod and screaming drag. Another pig of a laker at 13+ pounds. It’s always nice to see things come more into balance on the score card. It’s great to have the hot rod/lure, but it’s more fun when everyone is getting into good fish.

We fished on through 3:30 in the afternoon, and picked up a smaller brown of near 3 pounds and a fat little 2 pound rainbow. Our total weight for the trip was 105 pounds of trout. Not a bad end to an awesome year of trophy trout fishing. I’ll be back on the water in January or the first part of February.

Happy Holidays to all!!!!

Wickiup Reservoir/Crescent Lake October 27-28

Jordan and I couldn’t resist hitting Wickiup Reservoir for the last weekend of the season to see if the big browns were biting. We arrived just after 6 o’clock and found flat water and very cold temps. Not wasting any time, we were ready to put our lures in the water when the legal whistle blew. We trolled our way up the Deschutes Channel ripping our minnow plugs all the way. It was not the hot bite we were looking for, and 2 or 3 hours passed with a couple of small browns to the boat.

We were starting to have thoughts of moving on to another lake, when Jordan finally got hit by a nicer brown of 3 pounds or so on a deeper running lure. That was the beginning of a hot bit that lasted for a couple hours. We landed several more fish in the 3-4+ pound range and our desire to leave disappeared. We had also seen a good number of much larger fish boiling around us, so we knew it would be wise to keep fishing the area we were in. Unfortunately the good bite didn’t last and we fished out the rest of the day with no more good fish until Jordan hooked a nice hen of 25 inches at the very end. Not a bad day, but nothing over 5 pounds.

The next morning was even colder, and the fishing was slow. We fished for several hours before I finally scored a nice fish of 21 inches. And not long after, another of 23 inches. These would be the only decent fish seen out of Wickiup this day, and we fished several more hours without a bump.

The trip was winding down, and we were not feeling it at Wickiup any more. There was something in our heads telling us to go to Crescent Lake for the last few hours of the trip, so we did.

We decided to start things out with some casting in shallow water. I have been trying to spend more time casting this year. I find it a lot more enjoyable than trolling all day, and it offers the stealth of fishing shallow water without running the boat over the fish first. I chose a small lure and I was throwing it with my ultra-light rod, spooled with 4 lb test. This was finesse fishing at its best. Suddenly, I felt a tug on my line. I tugged back and my little rod bobbed heavily under the weight of a powerful fish. The next thing I knew, it was running straight at me. He got close enough for me to see a big shadow and then my drag began to sing. I knew this thing was over 8 pounds and I had a feeling it was quite a bit bigger. I watched the small quantity of line melt from my tiny reel and I figured this beast was as good as gone, but by the grace of God, the monster turned and I started to get line back! He got within 50 ft and turned to head for open water again. Again, I watched my line all but disappear, and the fish was kind enough to turn for me again. He was tired now, and I slowly walked him back to us. Our mouths dropped as we got a good look at this golden dinosaur of a male brown trout, and Jordan swiftly scooped him up with the net. We looked down at the fish of my dreams, and I couldn’t believe I had landed this beast on such light gear. We were pretty sure this big guy was over the magic 10 pound mark, and we were pleased to see that he was. 30 ½ inches, 10+ pounds. Suddenly I proclaimed, “Holy Crap! I don’t have the camera!” Thank God for the livewell. We headed to the dock, and I ran to my truck for the camera. We decided to do the photo shoot and release from the dock. The photos are nice, but they don’t capture half of the beauty of this amazing fall hookjaw. Most would have kept this fish, and I was tempted, but nothing made me happier then to see him swim away. You can share that moment right here in the release video.

Another awesome trip with Jordan. We landed 16 browns in 2 days on the water and 9 of those fish were over 21 inches. We encountered less than 3 other boats fishing on Wickiup and none on Crescent. What a great time to enjoy the waters of central Oregon!

East Lake / Wickiup Res., Sept 28-30

Finally, back on the water after 6 weeks of no fishing fun. I pulled in to Cinder Hill Campground at East Lake at nearly 1:00 am on Friday morning, and crawled into the back end of my truck for a few hours of sleep. Friday was to be a special day on the water, as I was to fish with my new found trophy trout hunting friend, Wayne. Wayne is an older fellow who has built a life time of great fishing experiences, catching multiple rainbows over 10 lbs, an amazing Chinook of nearly 70 lbs from the small Wilson River, and many years of landing over 200 steelhead per. In more recent years, he has grown a slight obsession to land a trophy brown trout. Boy, can I ever relate! He contacted me through this website, and through the process of getting to know each other by exchanging emails about tactics, we decided we’d better connect on the water to show him my program first hand.

I woke at 5:00 and saw Wayne up and making coffee. We exchanged greetings and got on the water. The weather report was calling for some brutal conditions, and the wind was already starting to blow. I took us out to some water in the 30-50 ft range and we started towing lures. Wayne's rod was in the downrigger with a gold Excalibur Minnow and I was flatlining a deeper running minnow plug. It was not long before we started getting into fish. We pulled a few small browns from the run that put several big boys in the boat over the summer, but I wasn’t seeing the numbers of big marks on the graph I was used to, so we trolled our way up to another good hole near the white pumice slide at the west end of the lake.

Ah-ha! It was a good choice to check this area as the graph was lit up with all kinds of fish big and small with plenty of kokanee balls. About this time the snow began to fall and the wind picked up even more. Lucky for us, that we had found the fish at the west end of the lake so we were sheltered from the worst of the wind and waves. We picked up a few more small fish, and as I was reeling up quick to get my line out of the way as Wayne was fighting one in, I got slammed by a better fish. She didn’t put up much of a fight, but our double produced a fat female of near 4 lbs. We were glad to see something over 20 inches and it pumped us up with potential for something bigger.

It must have been around noon when we were pulling our lures over a nice pod of big fish, and Wayne’s rod bounced hard in the rigger. A few seconds later, it was Wayne verses a quality brown. He kept the pressure on like an old pro as he fought what was likely a personal best brown, but the wise old fish managed to throw the lure before we could see him. The ups and downs of this kind of fishing can be tough. Sorry Wayne, not this time.

We fished through til 5:30 and we saw Jordan pull up to the launch, done with school for the week and ready to fish. Wayne opted to call it a day. He had endured over 10 hours straight of getting beat up by the relentless ice, snow, wind and waves. Wayne was kind enough to present me with a couple of incredible bathymetric maps of East and Paulina Lakes. Full color and laminated. The creator/publisher of these fine depth maps is working on a website and I will post a link to him once it is finished. He has many other lakes mapped, and they are an excellent tool for learning a big lake. Thanks a million, Wayne. It was a true pleasure to share the boat with you!

Wayne was wise to head out when he did. The weather turned even more harsh and Jordan and I only put three small browns in the boat in almost 3 hours of fishing. Here’s a little video clip to give you some idea of what we fished through all day.

Saturday morning found us on the water at 6:00. It is incredible how much difference a day can make. This day the water was flat, and the sky was clear and that is how it stayed all day long. Wasting no time, we got right into the catching. “Catching” was indeed the theme of the day, with a fairly steady bite of smaller browns all throughout the day. In the end we had over 35 browns to the boat with the biggest ones at around 20 inches. It seemed the big fish were locked up. We hit them on the head all day, trolling shallow and deep, and doing some casting. We did it all and everything produced fish, but just not the one we were dreaming about. Excalibur Minnows in kokanee patterns did most of the damage.

We debated driving down the hill to Wickiup for our last day, but we decided to give East the morning. Those big daddies have to eat sooner or later, right?

Sunday morning was warm and windy, with cloudy, threatening skies. We headed west and found our quarry in the same area they had been all weekend. The fishing was more of the same. We got great response from fish that were near 50 ft down. There were plenty of big fish down there, but only the small ones would bite. We were happy to be putting big numbers on the board, but it seemed like a long shot for a big brown out of this lake today. We chose to pull the boat and give Wickiup a try for our final half day. As we were pulling up to the ramp to leave, it started to snow heavy. Regardless of the fishing, we were making the right call to get the heck down the hill before the roads got snowy.

Hello Wickiup! We had our favorite area in the Deschutes Arm to ourselves, and we went right into a shallow water casting drill that can be deadly here. In the first hour we landed 4 fish and one was around 3 lbs. Very fun on my ultra light rod! I was throwing one of the new Lucky Craft “Real Skin” Pointer 78’s in Aurora Black. The casting bite died a bit and we decided to do some trolling. On our first pass, Jordan’s number came up. A hard rip of his Excalibur was met with a powerful tug and a heavy pulsing drag. He was fast onto a huge fish, and just as fast, it was gone. He had a moment of grief before he went right into ripping his lure back to the boat, and half way in his rod doubled over again! To our dismay, this fish let go, too. We checked the Owner hooks and they were razor sharp. Despite the best of gear, these smart fish no how to get away. It takes a lot of luck to actually land those big ones.

We fished til dark and caught several more fish with a three more over 20 inches. In hindsight, we should have spent more of the trip at Wickiup for big fish potential, but we were not complaining, with 85+ fish to the boat with 6 fish over 20 inches, biggest 4 lbs. This was the first time in well over a year of trips for Jordan and I that we didn’t catch at least one over 5 lbs. A great trip none the less.

East, Crane Prairie, Wickiup - August 16-19

Sometimes it can be tough choosing which central Oregon lake to go fish when there are so many great options to choose from. It is nice to know that if you are struggling at one lake, you can more than likely pull out and be fishing at another in less than an hour.

I drove over Mt Hood and picked up Jordan at nearly 6 pm on Thursday. We wanted to chase big browns, but we were torn between Wickiup and East. East has been putting some awesome fish out this summer, but Wickiup is legendary for it's late summer action. We landed at Wickiup and were fishing by a little after 7. We trolled our way up the Deschutes Channel and felt potential dripping as we viewed the thousands of kokanee, both airborne as well as below the surface on the graph. Unfortunately, the browns were not responding to our plastic imitations despite our efforts to make our lures the "lame ducks" by the action of ripping our rods aggressively. Two hours of fishing produced nothing but a couple of short strikes. Time for plan B - move to East Lake.

We awoke Friday morning and launched the boat in windy conditions. We had our lines in the water by just after 5 am. Jordan was towing the black and silver Excalibur Minnow, and I the gold which had served me so well on my last trip. Jordan was the first to get hit, and the second, and the third, all by small browns. An hour and a half had passed and I was about to abandon my trusty gold lure when it got clobbered by a line ripping fish! It was well worth the wait for this nice golden hookjaw which came in at just under 25 inches and 5 1/2 pounds. Oh, how I love achieving my weekend goal so early in the trip, the pressure was off. And that was a good thing, because after that fish we had a long haul with no action at all. Jimmy Lewis showed up mid day with his daughter and a friend, and they trolled for a few hours with little to show as well. I looked forward to the evening bite, but it came and went and we had 4 small browns to show for our efforts. We ended the day with 8 browns caught.

Jordan had to work Saturday and Sunday, so I said good bye to him and hello to my brother Dave and our good friend JT. They had spent the evening fishing Crane Prairie and were riding high on some good action. Several nice trout were caught with the biggest being a 4 pound brook trout for JT. Too bad they had a camera snafu so no pictures of that beauty. We went to bed with high hopes of hungry browns in the morning after being locked up for a day, but Crane was lurking in the backs of all our heads.

Saturday was calm, the water was flat and the boat was skimmed with ice. Welcome to 6500 feet. The cold didn't slow us down and we hit it hard. I had a small brown in the first 5 minutes and I was ready for a good run of action. Not so said the brownies, it soon became clear that we were on track for duplicating the previous days marginal action. After a couple more small ones for me and a nicer one lost by JT, Dave stepped up with a nice fat hen of 4 1/2 pounds. This was 3 hours into the morning and I saw good 'ol Dad pull up in his shiny new red Toyota. He jumped in with me and Dave and JT went in for breakfast before jumping into the other boat. We all fished for 4 or 5 hours with one small brown caught between all four of us. We were all ripe for Crane.

Down the crater we drove, and by 3 o'clock we were motoring our boats towards the Cultus Channel. As we puttered up through the narrow passageway in the ghostly dead trees, we saw and heard the boils and belly-flops of big trout ahead. We knew we had made the right decision, and this was a good place to be. We all pulled out our ultra light rods equipped with 1/4 oz. Kastmasters and began to cast. Soon enough we were catching fish. After wading through a few small ones, a big rainbow chomped Dave's lure and the fight was red hot. It always requires a great deal of luck to keep a big fish out of the trees at Crane and after a 15 minute battle, Dave came out on top with a 6 pound dandy in the net. We shot a little video of this fish in the livewell to bring it to life for you, and then let it swim away to grow even bigger. Not long later Dave had a short losing battle with another rainbow at least as large, but came off. The rest of the evening produced a few more fish and we headed back to set camp in the dark, content with our new location.

We woke to rain on Sunday, and I to a nasty headache. I was determined to fish onward so I rallied the troops and we were on the water by 5:30-ish. The big fish were a-rolling which told us that potential was real. JT wasted no time getting into a nice little brookie, and a few casts later he hooked a truck that tore him up before tossing his lure. I was soon in on the action with a fat brookie of a couple pounds or so. Then it was JT again with another pig that took him under a log where it eventually broke off. Dave and Dad were getting in on the action too, and Dad got himself a hard fighting brookie of near 3 pounds. Man is it fun to catch these beefy fish casting ultra light gear! JT must have had the magic jig this morning, as the next we knew he was head to head with a monster rainbow. The fish turned on it's side as it swam by the boat and showed off its length and girth - 8 pounds conservatively, but after sawing the line in the bottom of the boat a few times it was gone. By this time, I was losing the battle with my headache, and made the tough call to go sleep it off in my truck.

The other guys fished on until noon and I woke as they were pulling the boat. I was now on the downside of my headache and feeling recharged after the nice nap. The guys said the bite quit a half hour after I left, and it was feeling grim out there. I knew I could be at Wickiup in a half hour, and I was thinking that perhaps a couple days might have some improved fishing with potential for a huge brown. Once I had the thought there was no turning back, it was a big brown I really wanted!

I launched at Gull Point and trolled my way up through the bends of the Deschutes Channel. It took me a couple of hours of trolling and casting my way through my favorite spots, and I was starting to lose hope, however I knew there was a killer stretch yet to come and as I came into it my rod bounced hard with a hot fish. It took a few yards of line and then launched from the water, showing me that it was not as big as it felt. I welcomed the spunky little 3 pounder to my net and sent her back on her way. I continued to explore up the channel a ways with nothing and decided to go back and hit the run where I got the fish (rocket science). As my lure re-entered the run, it got inhaled by another 3 pounder. Despite having put single hooks on the Lucky Craft Pointer 128 I was using, it did the damage and this one landed in the cooler. Over the next hour and a half I did this run back and forth 8 more times and hooked up on all but the last 2 times. I landed 4 of the 6 hooked giving me a final tally of 6 browns, all 3-4 lbs. Here's a photo of the biggest one. Big fish are always nice, but this was great fishing for some quality sized browns, and I was sure glad I had decided to finish the trip at Wickiup.

It was a long drive, but my mid morning nap carried me home safely to my family. This will be my last report for a few weeks as I will be taking a trip to visit my mom in Minnesota, and taking care of some unfinished projects around my house. I am looking forward to some colorful fall browns, but in the mean time, stay tuned to the readers report page as the reports should continue to roll in for the next few weeks on the rest of the summer time action.

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Lake Billy Chinook - August 10-11

It was time for our yearly camping trip with several other families and this year we had chosen Lake Billy Chinook for our destination. I have fished LBC many times in the winter for big bull trout, but never ventured very far up the Metolius Arm, so Perry South campground put me into some unfamiliar fishing conditions. This trip was mostly about family time, so I had low expectations of fishing success, let alone trophy trout.

Friday morning, my buddy Aaron and I decided to sleep in, and we weren't on the water until 6:30 or so. We headed out of our cove and started to troll our way farther up the arm. We picked up a small bull and a smallmouth bass, but were not seeing much on the graph. We fished on past the summer homes and saw a big group of boats fishing for kokanee ahead. As we got closer, the water shallowed up to under 15 ft and we saw that kokes were flying out of the water everywhere and guys were catching the heck out of them. I figured there was a good chance that big bulls would be working this huge school of bait. We decided to keep going up stream to explore and would come back to this spot in a bit.

We chose a fishy looking shoreline and started casting our small black and silver Rapalas and we were into fish right away. We caught over a dozen small bulls in an hour, and things were looking good. It was almost time to head in for breakfast, so we headed back to the big kokanee school to make a few casts there. On my forth cast, I hooked a much nicer fish. It gave up a killer fight, but eventually surrendered to the net. The beautiful bull was 25 1/2 inches and 6 1/2 pounds. We were not far from camp so I put her in the live well and headed in to show the kids and release it. They all enjoyed the chance to see such a fine fish swim away.

We went out again for a couple hours in the afternoon and caught a few more smaller bulls and a brown casting the shoreline, and nothing in the kokanee school. I was graphing numbers of big fish tight to the bottom, but they wouldn't budge. That was all the fishing for that day, and I was amazed that I managed to catch a trout over 5 pounds with such little time in an unfamiliar fishery.

My friend Brian had shown up the night before and we hit it earlier Saturday morning. We headed up and started to work the shore line from the day before. It was quite a bit slower, but just before 7 o'clock, luck came my way again. I was casting my ultra-light spinning rod this time, and my small Rapala got slammed by a long shadow right near the boat. My rod was bobbing up and down like mad as the big bull thrashed and shook right before our eyes for a minute before it diverted tactics to pulling line. Then it was back to the thrashing before eventually slipping into the net. This dark beauty was a bit bigger than the previous days at about 27 inches and 7 pounds. It was such an awesome scene I thought it was a good time for a video clip of the release. I was feeling awfully blessed at about this point and was really wanting to net a big one for somebody else. We fished for a while more and the numbers picked up a bit but no more big ones.

That evening Aaron joined Brian and I at one last shot. We didn't score big, but had a great time catching a good handful of bulls to 20 inches and Brian got a nice looking brown of around 18.

I will be back on the water this coming weekend for some serious fishing. It looks like both my dad and brother will be able to make this one, and I can't wait to see them get into some big browns!

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Summer Time Browns, Part II - July 21-22

My good friend Jordan has the luxury of living in Bend which puts him under an hour away from several trophy trout fisheries with the closest being East and Paulina lakes. There hasn't been much buzz the last couple of years on these to famous brown trout factories, and the pressure has lightened up compared to what I have seen in the past. Sometimes this cycle is just what a lake needs to allow the fish to relax a bit and bite artificial offerings with less reserve. After receiving a call from Jordan last Sunday night as he drove home from a short evening fish at East, my interest was raised with his report of catching 12 browns with big ones of 4 and 6 1/2 lbs. When I received the second call two nights later, my interest was more than raised as he reported catching 30 fish in a day with four at 4 pounds and 5, 5 1/2, 6, and 9 pounders to boot. The 9 is his biggest brown to date making it his best day on the water in 10 years of trophy trout hunting! Congratulations Jordan!!!!

Gee, I wonder where to go fishing?...

Off to East Lake it was. After 2 hours of sleep, I hit the road at 12:30 Saturday morning. Given the short notice of this emergency trip, no one was able to join me, and I was looking forward to some good, hard, solo fishing. I was on the water before 5 and within 15 minutes the skunk was gone with a small brown of 16 inches or so. From there, the action rarely slowed with fish hitting my lure on average of every 15 minutes seldom more than 20 minutes between bites. Mostly smaller fish, but I did pick up a couple 3 pounders and a nice 4 pound buck mid morning. At around noon I had a big fish run with my lure like a freight train before breaking the Owner hook off of my Excalibur Minnow. The split ring was not damaged and I am not sure what happened, but I was excited by the experience.

Around that time I saw fellow trophy trout hunter Brian Wildish and his brother-in-law head out to put in some hours on the water. You can find his report over on the readers report page, but I will tell you that his brother-in-law got onto some beginners luck with a killer hump-backed hookjaw of nearly 7 pounds at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Way to go guys!

There was a lull in the action mid day, but I trolled on relentlessly, ripping lures down the middle of the lake in wide open water. The graph was stacked with fish big and small in water 30-50 ft deep, so that is where I stayed. I knew if I kept hitting these fish on the head, sooner or later I would find a nice taker. Little did I know how nice...

For many trophy trout hunters, it is all a game of size. Size is important, of coarse, but I personally put a lot of weight in judging quality of fish based on visual characteristics. Hookjawed male's score extra points big time, and coloration of the fish is huge in my mind. At 3 in the afternoon, my rod got the bend I was waiting for and I knew I was into a good fish, nice and solid. The beast stayed deep for some time and my brain was spinning with "How big is this thing?". I was not prepared for what I had when he finally blew up on the surface 20 ft from the boat and the most intense colors imaginable flashed about in the sunshine. Size and color, this is a good thing! The fish made another run to the depths and when I worked him back to the top I saw that he was wrapped several times in my line as often happens when the big browns spin and thrash to throw the lure. This is not a good situation, and a lot of big fish break off when they start to thrash on a short line near the boat. Sure enough, this monster blew up again. I loosened my drag in defense of this maneuver as he showered me with his powerful gyrations next to the boat. Luckily, my 20 pound P-Line held and I was ready with the net when he stopped. This was by far the prettiest brown I have ever caught, and maybe ever even seen. It was as if he had been hand painted by God himself. I slipped him into the live well and got my lure back into the water. I was hoping to see Wildish for a photo shoot, but was unable to spot him. I trolled along as I took some close up pics and video to thoroughly document this special fish before his release. As I was doing this my rod went off in the holder and another nice fish started peeling line. Unfortunately, he came unbuttoned after a short battle, but as I was retrieving my lure, I saw Wildish headed my may. I gave him the signal to pull up, and he took some great photos and did an excellent job of filming the release of one of my finest trophies ever. He measured 26 1/2 inches and weighed over 7 pounds.

The rest of the day was the same steady bite as the morning had offered and a couple of 3 pounders were the only other fish over 20 inches I saw. I missed another opportunity to look another big one in the eye, but he, too pulled an Owner from my lure. This time it was the split ring that failed despite having upgraded from the weak factory ones.

I talked to my buddy Rick Arnold of TrophyTroutGuide.com and his grandson Colin. They had come up for the evening and done well with several fish including one over 8 lbs for Colin off the downrigger. A great day to be on the water for all.

Sunday morning I pushed off from the dock at 4:30 and went right back to the same drill. It was an even hotter bite this day and I was hooking a fish every 5-10 minutes for the first hour ending with a chunky male of just over 5 lbs. Then things slowed dramatically and I was working a lot harder for a bite. At 8:30 I finally got hit by a fish and this one was red hot. By the way this fish took line on a tight drag I thought for sure it would be my third over 5 for the trip and honestly thought it was my biggest of the trip. My heart was racing as this fire ball tore me up and I laughed to myself as I finally got a look at the size and knew it may actually be under 5 after all. Indeed, the net/scale combo weight 10 lbs which puts him at 4 1/2 even. Not that I am complaining, as he was a nice hookjaw with a ton of heart and muscle.

The rest of the day was downright slow, and I only managed 3 more fish in 8 hours. Aside, that is, from another cool big fish event. I was bored and decided to try something different. I put on one of the new jointed Rapala Saltwater X-Raps in a kokanee pattern and lowered it on the downrigger to 25 ft ball depth and a hundred yard setback. Then I started hauling it at 4+ mph in the deepest part of the lake (150+ ft). Within 20 minutes, my rod slammed down and the line popped from the release. The rod was instantly pinned to the holder and the fish was peeling line like crazy by the time I had it in my hands. There was not much I could do but hold on and about 10 seconds later it threw the hook and was gone. I fished that method for another hour and a half with nothing else before going back to the standard drill.

All in all it was another successful trip. In 29 hours on the water I caught 35 browns, 2 kokanee, and one 18 inch rainbow. I missed at least as many fish as I caught including 4 that were really good fish for sure. My next trip will be on a little under a month and I have high expectations for some more great fishing.

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Summer Time Browns, Part I - June 29-July 1

After putting in a ton of extra hours on my current remodel project, I was more than ready to get back on the water. I was too excited to sleep for a couple of hours before an early a.m. departure, so Jordan and I decided to leave Thursday night and try to crash for a couple hours before fishing once at the lake. But, by the time I made the long drive to Jordan's and the hour and a half from his house to the lake, it was time to go fishing! It has been years since I have pulled an all nighter, but we were both driven to fish now and sleep later.

We started out ripping Excalibur Minnows along a shoreline run and nothing happened in the first hour and a half. Then at around 5:30, Jordan steered the boat towards the middle for a run over some deep open water. As our lures pulled out of the shallows, Jordan's lure got slammed and his rod bowed and bobbed as a beast of a brown trout shook his head in an effort to throw the hooks. Jordan kept the pressure on and slowly worked the big guy towards the boat. He held deep until suddenly shooting upwards and exploding on the surface 20 feet from the boat. At that point we got a good look at the girth, but not length and both thought, if this fish was 30 inches it would be over ten pounds for sure, and could well be Jordan's best brown to date. The fish dove deep again and the pressure was now on us. The battle went on under the boat for a few more minutes until he finally gave up to the net. At 27 inches the big hookjaw was a little over 8 lbs. A half pound short of Jordan's biggest, but one of his best for sure. Here is a video of the release.

Ahhh, I love it when the ol' goal of "one over 5 for the trip" is met on the first morning. The day went on to be hot and cold, and by the time evening prime had come around our tired bodies had landed a dozen more browns with four in the 3-4 pound range. Several of those bigger fish were caught casting and ripping stick baits in shallow water. We were feeling fat and happy.

We were rolling into the evening with a nice chop on the water and high hopes of more big boys. As the sun sank over the horizon, we were met by the evening bite we were looking for. We both had brief hookups with quality fish within 10 minutes, and then I got the hooks in solid to a hot fish. A hundred feet of line peeled from my spool in no time before I turned the fish around and started working him begrudgingly to the boat with a few more short runs along the way. I was thrilled to see the long lean hookjawed male slide into the net. What a unique looking fish with a cool sparse spot pattern. I knew he was well over 5 pounds, and we slipped him into the livewell to get back into this hot bite.

A livewell is a luxury I highly recommend if at all possible when selecting a boat for trophy trout fishing. The excitement of landing a trophy fish and being concerned with a healthy release makes it a challenge to get measurements and photos. It's easy to forget something important or do something wrong in all the commotion. Heck, a buddy ov mine somehow tossed his new digital camera overboard while truing to photograph a 9+ lb brown for his friend. Oops! Jordan has an awesome built in livewell in his Lund, but I made one by modifying a 120 qt cooler with a pump and it works great. I built it for around a hundred bucks. The livewell allows you to put the fish in a dark, calm, oxygen rich environment and although some argue that it is just more stress on the fish, I see that it is clearly beneficial to them. Plus, it allows you to get your wits about you before going through the rest of the process. In this case, we had a killer bite going on it was time to be fishing. The time it takes for pics, measure and release might consume the rest of the bite.

Within minutes of getting the lures back into action my rod bent again, but nobody home. Then Jordan's took a bend- this one was on solid. Another long running fish, and we were laughing with joy like school kids as the killer fight ensued. It was getting dark fast, and by the time the fish started breaking the surface near the boat, it was tough to tell just how big it was. I wished I had my headlamp on as I slid the net under the swirling shadow monster, but I knew I had all weight when it came up. This was another hookjawed pig, but we still wanted more, so into livewell to join the smaller buck. Kind of funny that the last trip, we found ourselves with two big hookjaws in the well that went 6 and 8. What would these weigh?

The day was almost over, and after 20 minutes of nothing, we knew the bite had ended. My fish was almost 26 inches and the fish/net combo weight 11 1/2 pounds which makes the fish 5 1/2. Jordan's fish taped 29 1/4 inches and surprisingly only weighed 8. Not that we were complaining! This was an epic day on the water, in most trophy trout hunter's books. I got a very cool video of Jordan's beast swimming off into the night, and this one is working with YouTube. Go figure.

We crashed in the back of my truck next to the dock, knowing that we would be the first on the water in the morning. It was an awesome full moon rise as we finally laid down to rest, absolutely exhausted after fishing for 17 hours on no sleep.

3:45 came WAY too soon, but this is brown fishing and it's all about time on the water. There was no early bird reward today. We did enjoy a nice foggy sunrise. A long slow morning went by and it must have been 9:30 when Jordan finally put a fish in the boat while doing some casting. A 21 incher that was probably 3 lb. We continued on working hard for a fish here and there. There was a clear pattern on this trip of only getting hit while ripping our lures really hard and not at all while not ripping, so we really were starting to feel beat by the amount of energy we were putting into our game. Coffee was a-flowin'! Jordan finally caved in to the experiment in sleep deprivation and dosed off. He had to work the next morning and I knew he needed it bad. In the 3 hours he was asleep, I didn't get a strike. He woke around 6:30, and after shaking some major cobwebs, he started to get his rip on, once again. It wasn't 5 minutes before he was fish-on! It didn't put on much of a show as most of the fish had done, so we were pleasantly surprised to see the form of the 4 1/2 pound brown emerge. We had caught a couple fish pushing the 4 mark earlier in the day and it was nice to get up and over it. A quick pic and back in the water with the fish and the plastic minnow immitations. Ten minutes later the kid was at it again, and this one was putting on more of a show. Another successful net job and we were staring at a pig of a 23 1/2 incher that broke 5 1/2 pounds. Number four over 5 for the trip felt awfully nice. We had huge hopes going into the evening, but they were not fulfilled as the big fish magic turned off and we pulled a few smaller browns to 3 lbs.

I said goodbye to Jordan and went to sleep, at last.

Man, I thought it was tough to drag out of the bag the day before. 3:45 sucked!

On the water by 4 o'clock, I started off to my favorite point on this lake, cutting across the open water. It took nearly a half hour to troll my way there, but as my lure came in from the deep water across the point, it was met by the big hungry brown I had come for. It about jerked my rod out of my weary hands as I gave my lure a rip. Line began to melt quickly from my Daiwa line counter reel, and then it stopped to display some powerful massive headshakes, then off again. It had taken over 200 ft of line and I was starting to think I had him solid, when he stopped to throw his head around some more. This time, it worked for him, and the hooks lost their grip. My heart sank as it always does when I come so close to a catching a big brown like that. Upon retrieving my lure for inspection, I found that during the fight the fish had coughed up a half digested kokanee and it had stuck to my hooks. Thanks for the parting gift, big guy.

That was my only shot at a big one that day. I only caught 2 small browns of 16-18 inches in 12 hours on the water Sunday. I did get the excitement of having a bald eagle attempt to take the smaller of the two I caught as it splashed about on the surface. When I saw the big bird come in for the dive I quickly gave line to the fish and luckily it swam down so the predator gave up. If it had been an osprey, I'm sure it would have dove under for the fish. I drove home feeling completely satisfied with another successful trip. We caught nearly 30 fish with 13 over 20 inches and 4 over 5 pounds. I put in 46 hours on the water. I am way over due for some lessons in the harsher realities of fishing for big browns. Just when you think you have the game dialed in, luck can change and throw you on your face hard. Time will tell...

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Late Spring Mixed Bag, June 1-3

At last my brother, Dave, was able to make time for a fishing trip. My dad was supposed to join us too, but he had other obligations so we missed having him. Our plan was to start the trip at Crane Prairie Reservoir and try to tap into some good fishing for big brook trout and a good chance for a high quality rainbow as well. If things didn't work out at Crane we had some other ideas to fall back on. There are so many options for big trout in central Oregon!

We arrived Friday evening at about 6 o'clock. The water was still almost as high as two weeks ago and the algae bloom was on, turning the water to a very low vis green color. When I turned on the graph, I was disappointed to see that the surface temp was up to nearly 70 degrees. In past years I have found the fishing to be incredible for brook trout around Cow Meadow in late spring with a window of water temps running 55-60 degrees. Once the water gets much warmer the fish start to channel up and I have a harder time catching them, especially the brookies. We were about to be slapped in the face with this reality. We spent time trolling small jointed Rapalas, and some time casting spoons around Cow Meadow which has been a great drill in past years, but there were few signs of active big fish. The evening passed and we each caught one small brookie.

Back on shore we met up with a few buddies and set up camp. The rest of the group was fired up to get onto Crane in the morning, and Dave and I decided to drive to a spot on the Deschutes with our float tubes and fish some colder water.

Nights are short this time of year and before we knew it we found ourselves at a very cool spot on the river. It was a beautiful morning and we found some nice hungry trout. We were throwing Kastmasters and Thomas spoons and the Thomas got the most attention. The best of the mornings catch were an 18 inch rainbow for Dave and a couple 17 inch brookies for me, which were probably near three pounds considering their enormous girth. I had a rainbow of at least 10 pounds follow my lure and a couple of brookies pushing 5 show interest with no follow thru. There are some incredible and mostly overlooked trout in the upper reaches of the Deschutes River for those motivated enough to go find them.

After the morning bite died down on the river we called the Crane gang to learn that they were getting beat up with no fish. Dave and I decided to give Crane one more chance and move over to the Cultis Channel to check water conditions. It was a waste of time, as there were 15 boats fishing in a small area, with little activity from the fish, and more of the same warm, pea soup water conditions. It was time to say goodbye to brookies and rainbows, and hello to a chance at a brown over 5 pounds.

We arrived at the next destination at 3 in the afternoon. There was a nice breeze on the water and we got right to trolling Excalibur Minnows. Surface temps here were in the upper 50's and hopes were refreshed. The first pass produced two small browns and ended at a spot that offers a great wind drift for casting. We decided to mix things up by doing just that. On my first cast with a gold Excalibur Minnow, a nice brown hit and jumped straight out of the water, flashing his brilliant yellow body in our faces. After a good little battle we had the best looking 4 pound brown I have seen in some time. What a fish! The next two hours we had a ball catching another 15 browns on our casting rods, but nothing big. Prime time was upon us and the casting bite had slowed, so we went back to the trolling program. The evening passed slowly with no action, and we were beat tired.

Holy cow, is it 3:45 am already?! Only big brown trout could spring me from my slumber with such enthusiasm on such little rest. It was time to get back to business, and we were on the water by 4. It was almost an hour before my rod got hit by the first small brown of the day. As I was unhooking and releasing this fish I heard an enormous boil in the water behind me, and another, and another. I tossed the little guy back in and quickly grabbed my casting rod, still armed with the gold Excalibur. I stuck my cast on the bull's-eye and the second rip of my lure was hammered by a nice fish. By the sound of the boils I was expecting something bigger, but it was still a great fish for the morning approaching 23 inches and 4 pounds. The photo came out a bit blurry, so I didn't post it. I'm always looking for a trout over 5 pounds for a weekend, but two 4's aren't bad at all. We did some more casting with no action and went back to trolling again. Hours were passing and the morning was fading. Our hopes began to sink as the sun rose with no wind to break up the glassy surface. Not your textbook big brown conditions...yeah right! As I ripped my lure for the thousandth time of the day, I was finally rewarded with some headshakes and a ripping drag.

I knew this was the real deal and if I could land this one, the goal of one over 5 would surely be met. It was a great fight and as I slowly worked her to the boat I was really starting to think BIG fish. Finally, she came into view and despite her repeated spurts of peeling line, gave up and slid into the net. 26 1/2 inches and just over 6 pounds. Dave was on the ball and had the live well full for this tired fish. She revived in no time and we got a cool video of the release.

We fished for another 8 hours with no more fish trolling and a few small ones casting.

The trip totaled with 30 browns, 7 brookies, and 2 rainbows in two days of fishing.

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Springtime Brown Trout Bonanza, May 17-19

I knew when I set my alarm for midnight as I crawled into bed at 11:15 Wednesday night that this was going to be an exhausting trip. That did not stop me from wearing a big grin as I drove over the big hill to my central Oregon paradise. I am not a superstitious person by nature but I always look upon unusual signs of wildlife on the drive to a destination as a good sign for the trip. My excitement for this excursion soared when a huge mountain lion ran into the road in front of me. He reared up on his hind legs in my headlights and did a 180 in the air to scramble back into the forest just a few miles east of Government camp. What an incredible animal!

I arrived at 3:15 am at my buddy Jordan's house in Bend and we quickly hooked up his boat and pushed on to our destination. We arrived to find that we had the lake to ourselves and we got right to business. I tied on a 4 inch AC Skinny and Jordan ran a Rapala F18 that he had painted into a gorgeous rainbow pattern. I was first to get a fish which was a scrappy 18 incher. It's always nice to ditch the skunk early and now I could really focus on that one over 5 pounds.

An hour passed and the sun broke over the hill. We were a little disappointed that the morning prime had been slow, but we knew that time on the water was bound to pay off. I decided to work some deeper water by switching to my lead core rig. I switched lures to my favorite from last summer, a Lucky Craft Pointer 128 in the Aurora Black color. I lowered the lure to a little over 25 ft by letting out 4 colors of lead core in front of the long 20 lb fluorocarbon leader. It wasn't 10 minutes before I was one on one with a heavy fish. The chunky hook jawed brown was determined to get away, but finally surrendered to the net. The pressure lifted as the scale read 5+ pounds. Benchmark reached! Any more big fish were bonus material now.

We trolled onward and Jordan was up to bat. One big fish was tuned in for sure because as Jordan took a quick break from ripping his F18, his rod pulled back with force and he set the hook into a freight train of a brown. His line peeled and his rod pumped out of control and it suddenly went limp as the toothy beast chewed threw his 15 pound test leader. These are the bittersweet moments in trophy trout fishing that break your heart while pumping you up with the potential lurking in the depths.

It was approaching noon and hours had passed with nothing but a few small browns here and there. We were still graphing fish in the 20-35 depth range with regularity and though we were putting our lures right on them, nothing was interested. I am growing to figure that on a typical days fishing there are likely well over a hundred fish that refuse the lure for every one that hits it. Time on the water is the only element you can really control to score. Today was no different. Just a little after noon, right when most boats head in for a shore break, my rod bounced hard again and soon I had my second 5 pound brown in the boat. Another nice hookjaw released to grow huge. Next, it was Jordan to cash in on the lunch hour bite with a 5 pounder of his own. The last hour had pushed our day from mediocre into exceptional, and we high fived with great satisfaction.

The rest of the afternoon was slow, but the evening had good things in store. I decided to shallow up with a long flatline troll with an Excalibur Minnow, ripped hard. Jordan picked up a couple small fish, while I had a hot run of catching 5 nice browns of 3-3 1/2 lbs in under and hour. Nothing big came that night, but those 5 fish fought hard and made my evening very enjoyable.

Friday morning I jumped into Jimmy Lewis' boat as he had showed up the night before. This wound up being a tough day on the water. I towed the lead core rig most of the day with a variety of experimental lures and wound up with 6 fish in the end and old man Lewis took a skunk. I think I got the reward for most hours on the water (17+) because of my 6 fish, I had 4 and 5 pounders. Unfortunately, the 5 took the lure deep and I had to put her in the cooler. I hate killing big fish! The 5 came in the middle of the afternoon when most boats were parked on shore. She took an Excalibur and I decided that I would stick with that lure for the duration of the trip. Jordan had a rough day, too, with just a few small browns for the day.

Saturday morning came way too fast and it was brutal to drag out of the sleeping bags. I thought I may have to go out with no Jordan, he was such a zombie, but with only 3 hours to fish before mandatory departure time I persisted and got him moving. I'm sure he is thanking me now. Within a half hour Jordan was head to head with a powerful, heavy fish. It was a slow give and take battle and we knew this fish would be well over 5 pounds if we could just get him to the boat. I had a close call at the net when his big hooked jaw caught on the edge as I tried to scoop him up. Thank God he was hooked well and I salvaged the net job. We knew he was big, but we played it pro and tossed him into the live well and got our lines right back out. Pic's and measures could wait. We dropped our Excaliburs back out the 4 colors of lead core

and I was soon looking into the eyes of a handsome brown just under 20 inches. On the next pass, another one about 21 inches for me. These size fish are by no means big trout, but sure fun to catch.

We still had the big hookjaw in the live well, as we didn't want to take a break from ripping our lures. This wound up being a very cool thing given what was about to happen. Jordan gave his rod a rip and a big fish ripped him right back and started off on a long line peeling run. I was reeling in like mad and I was watching the line melt from his spool. "You'd better pop it into reverse" I recommended. He did for a few seconds, and he was able to start to getting some line back. Another powerful fish, but how big was this thing? As we got a glimpse coming up from the depths, I was excited to see a long shape appear. I thought that if this fish had some girth it will be at least as big as the one in the live well. As it succumbed to the net, we saw the thin body did not match the 28 inch length. But a killer looking 6 pound male none the less. What a sight to behold, having two 28 inch hookjaw browns in the live well at once. The first one had the shoulders going on and he weighed in at 8 pounds. The opportunity compelled us to break one of the rules of fish handling and we decided to get the money shot of Jordan holding both fish together by the gill plates. This can be a risky pose, but if the fish hold still and you place your fingers very carefully all should be okay, if you do it quickly. It went well and I was glad we got such an epic photo.

That was it for the fishing, and we drove away feeling like kings. God had smiled upon our boat for this trip, as out of many other serious trophy anglers on the water, I think we were the only ones to get anything over 5 lbs for the time we were there. We ended with 15 browns over 20 inches with 6 fish 5 lbs or better. We put in 36 hours on the water in the 2 days plus a morning, and got 9 hours of sleep total in 3 nights, but it all paid off nicely. I will be back on the water in 2 weeks for another try for a trophy brook trout so stay tuned for that report. Nothing like a brookie over 5 pounds!

Many thanks to my beautiful and supportive wife, Molly for putting up with my obsession!!!

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Crane Prairie/Wickiup - May 5-6

I headed over to my buddy Brian Sanchez' house Friday night and we drove off with his boat in tow. This would be my third trip in a row not taking my own boat, and I have enjoyed the nice boat rides with less to worry about. Thanks guys!

We arrived late at Crane Prairie Res and got right to sleep. The next morning we were the first ones on the water and it was awesome to behold Crane at full pool for the first time in quite a few years. We dropped some small Rapalas into the water and trolled off to the Cow Camp area. Our high hopes slowly faded over the next few hours without any sign of activity. The surface temp was 50 degrees and everything felt good. I mentioned to Brian we can't lose faith as it was often 9 or 10 in the morning before these fish "woke up". At a few minutes past 9, as we trolled the Deschutes Channel, my rod bent and a nice fish pulled some line from my spool. Finally a decent fish. I fought the 21 inch rainbow to the net and the skunk left the boat. He was quite thin for a Crane Prairie trout and I would guess not more than 3 pounds. A half hour later as we were entering the Cultis Channel, Brian got his first fish, a nice brookie of 15 inches or so. As we trolled up the channel the action continued with 3 more smaller fish of 14-16 inches. Then the bite dropped off and we trolled towards the Quinn River inlet.

It was after noon and the sun was high. The water temp had come up a little and Brian was interested in a try at one of the infamous Bass present. He was intrigued by some bassy looking structure around the Quinn and pulled his boat in to work it tight. I knew that this area was a hot spot for big rainbows so I couldn't resist the urge to jig a Kastmaster, casting towards deeper water. Sure enough, it didn't take long before the single hook of my lure was buried in the upper lip of a nice fat Cranebow. After a good tussle he was in the net. This was a more typical fish for this lake at just under 20 inches and a solid 4 pounds. That was more like it. Unfortunately, that would be the biggest fish of the weekend. After working the area over thoroughly, we began to troll the long way back towards the launch. We decided to go try for a big brown trout over at nearby Wickiup Res if we didn't shake things up on the way in.

Two hours passed and we found ourselves on the road to our next destination. Waisting no time, we were ripping lures by 4:30. Water temp was 50 degrees. Bam! In no time Brian was into a fish that was pulling hard and staying deep. We were both surprised to see a brown of only 20 inches appear after the battle it put on. A gorgeous hen with all the right spots and colors! We were pumped to score right off the bat and figured we would be in for a hot evening bite.... NOT! In fact that was the only fish for the night. We had spent the whole evening working mostly around Gull Point and a few hundred yards to the east.

The next morning came too fast and it was tough to motivate, but we did of coarse! It was off to the dam to try a fresh area. After 4 hours of trying a variety of tactics with no strikes, we decided to run back across the lake and head up the Deschutes Arm. I was working lead core with an Excalibur Minnow in emerald, and Brian was flatlining. I finally caught a brown when I spooled out another color of lead core line which put my lure within a couple feet of the bottom of the channel 40 ft down. It was small, but so nice to de-skunk the boat again. I put the same 5 colors of lead core out again and within 10 minutes I had another dink. This went on and after 4 or 5 fish, Brian took me up on the offer to use my extra reel spooled with lead core. It was game time now and we continued to catch fish for the next couple hours until Brian noticed that we were almost out of gas. We tried to wind drift, but we were moving too fast to cast and retrieve effectively and too slow to troll so we called it a day. That was a cool drill though, and I'm sure in time a big fish would succumb.

It was a good trip, and it was great to enjoy the comforts of Brian's sweet boat while putting some decent numbers of nice trout on the board. Not every trip will produce a trophy and it was fine to observe a reality check with nothing over 5 pounds this time. I should see the water again in the next 2 to 3 weeks so stay tuned for good things to come.

Back to Crescent - March 25-26

I had the privilege of sharing the boat with the founder of this website, Jimmy Lewis for the last couple of days, on the waters of Crescent Lake. I left my house at 1:15 in the morning and drove to pick up Jimmy in Salem. It was a tough drive with torrential downpour most of the way. We knew we were in for some hard core fishing conditions - just the way we like it here at TTH!

We arrived a bit early at 4:45 and got the boat in the water. It seemed too easy after the launching conditions that RD and I faced two weeks ago (see last report). As we were getting ready, we were met by Jordan Whitton and his cousin Frankie. We couldn't believe it, but they had chosen to sleep in their boat instead of the cab of the Toyota as it was clear skies and calm water when they went to bed. They were rudely awakened a half hour before we showed up by the rain which had just found it's way over the mountain. They were not too short of drowned rats!

Jimmy and I pushed off and got right to the flatlining drill from the resort to Simax. The fishing was slow and it was hours before I caught the first small brown. It was tough not to feel discouraged and most would give up with slow fishing and pelting sleet and rain. It was cold and miserable to say the least, but we were not about to quit. We found Jordan and Frankie at about 8 o'clock and Jordan had a nice 6 1/2 lb hookjaw brown in the livewell awaiting it's photo shoot. We were inspired by his catch and pushed onward. It was a long morning with one more dink brown for me and no strikes for Jimmy. Finally at 11:30 the rain gave way to the sun, and we went in for a great lunch at the lodge.

The bluebird skies held for the rest of the day and things were much more comfortable. Unfortunately, it was many more hours until our lures were touched by fish. Jimmy got the skunk off in the late afternoon with another small brown, but we were hungry for something big. We had agreed that this trip was dedicated to perusing browns and not lakers which meant leaving the downriggers behind and sticking to the shallower water. This was a first for Jimmy to fish for browns all day long at Crescent and I was really hoping to see a quality mid afternoon brown to reward him for the change of program, it did not come.

Soon the evening prime was upon us and our hopes soared. We had been fishing the south end of the lake all afternoon and decided to blow down to Simax to finish where we started the day. Not long after getting our lures out Jimmy's rod bent and he was into a better fish. It was a good fighter and we were hoping to see a brown over 5 pounds, but it wound up being a laker of 7 1/2 pounds. Not exactly the fish we were hoping for , but it sure felt good to get a bigger trout to the net. An hour passed and the light grew dim. The day was almost over when Jimmy's rod went off again. He was into an even bigger fish and I was really thinking brown, as I have not seen the lakers bite at this late hour. I found I was wrong as the 12 pound mac slid into the net. It was a true pig with a 30 1/2 inch length and 18 inch girth. Both of his macs were caught on a gold Excalibur Minnow. We trolled in and called it a day. We didn't get our big brown, but we were happy with a good day on the water. Jordan and Frankie hadn't done much good for the rest of their day and we got them to join us in our cabin for a much more comfortable night.

The next morning Jimmy and I were the only ones out and it was nice to have the big lake to ourselves. It was a brisk morning with some scattered snow and much more comfortable overall then the morning before. We motored across the lake to spend our last prime in Tandy Bay. We saw the nicest sunrise I have seen for a long time. Unfortunately, our lures were ignored for the first 6 hours of our day. At a little after 11 o'clock, the snow had really picked up. I decided to try a 4 inch Lyman plug that Jordan had custom painted in a rainbow pattern. Those lures have the most erratic action I have ever seen and I highly recommend getting some if you don't already have them in your arsenal. Within 10 minutes, as our lures were passing the island, I got slammed by a good fighting brown. It was a really healthy and colorful hen that just hit the 4 pound mark. 5 pounds was the goal, but this fish really made my day and I knew I would go home happy after releasing it. The lures went back out and in less than 15 minutes I got another strike, but missed the fish. A minute later, just as I was wishing that I had put that lure on a lot sooner, my rod doubled over and line peeled from my reel. Then, the fish was gone. It's never a good thing to lose a fish like that, but we were stoked that we were into the mid day brown bite we had been looking for. We pulled in and reset our lines. Not two minutes later I thought I was having deja-vu when my rod and reel went into action again. This time the run was followed up by a big hookjaw silhouette coming all the way out of the water once, twice, and three times. This fish was on and fighting like a champion! My heart was pumping as the fish went deep and I slowly worked him towards the boat. He came up once to the side of the boat, but I could tell this fish was still green and told Jimmy we should hold off on the net. I like to back my drag off a little at this point because if a big fish does a dramatic kick and run on a short line bad things can happen. I was glad I did when the beast did just that and pulled another 50 feet of line with great force. Now he was done, and he came easily to the net on his side. This was the kind of fish we came for. I was guessing 7 pounds and was surprised to see the scale hovering at 13-13 1/2 (including the weight of the 5 pound net) which put him a tad over 8 pounds. My scale is right on the money, so 8 he was with a 27 1/2 inch length. We got good photos, but something went wrong with the video mode so there is no video to share.

That was it for the day, with no more strikes in 4 more hours. It was that half hour window of bite that made the whole trip for me, and the funny thing was that it was right at lunch time when most guys would leave the water for a break like we had done the day before. The lunch breaks are nice, especially after the miserable weather we had endured the morning before, but I have often scored big while others were taking a break. This experience is just one more that drives me to fish hard all day with no breaks and if you really want a big brown, don't give up when the morning "prime time" is over. You just never know when the hot bite is going to hit and you will never know what you might have missed if you are not on the water. I want to give special thanks to my wife, Molly and her mom, Josie (and Lee, too) for giving me a sweet little backpacking jet stove for boat use last Christmas. Having hot beverages and soup on the boat really makes it easier to stick it out all day.

My next trip is not yet scheduled, as I am watching the snow pack at some other lakes I am looking forward to fishing this spring. Stay tuned....

Working For the Reward - Crescent Lake, March 9-11

After cancelling two previous trips to Crescent Lake this year due to extensive ice at the only accessible part of the lake, RD and I were not willing to cancel this time, despite recommendations to do so from Tom at the resort. We armed ourselves to the hilt with all of the ice breaking tools we could come up with. No one knew how thick the remaining 100+feet of ice was between the shore and open water, so it was a bit of a dice roll.

We arrived Friday afternoon and went right to it, first removing the 400+ lb boat from the trailer and sliding it down the beach. Not too bad, but bystanders were looking at us like we were nuts. The boat hit the thinner ice at the shoreline and broke right through. Cool, this is easy. We could tell that the ice got thicker as it went out, and I jumped to the bow and started jamming my 6 ft chisel point wrecking bar through the ice. Whoa, this stuff was thicker than I expected. A half hour later we were both in full sweat and gasping for breath in the thin, high altitude air. We had gained all of 6 ft of progress. We were now busting through 5 or 6 inches of ice and I was beginning to think that the bystanders were right about us and we should have listened to Tom. Then I remembered something I read in the Army handbook a while back. 4 inches of ice can support a vehicle. We dawned life vests, and I being 50 lbs lighter than RD, stepped out first. It felt solid and no cracking was heard. RD joined me and we pulled the boat up onto the ice. With still no signs of the ice giving way, we began to slide the boat, holding as much of our weight over the boat as possible and ready for everything to give at any time, listening for cracks. This turned out to be the right idea, and before we knew it we were at the edge and jumping in just as the boat hit the water. It was cool to look back at our trail, and see that the edge of the ice was a good 8 inches thick. We exchanged some high fives and hollers, and later found out that we had quite an audience from inside the resort above sharing in the celebration and relief. With 2 hours of daylight left, it was time to go fishing!

Our hopes were high for our first of 4 prime time bites, but it was an hour before the first action came. RD's rod suddenly bent hard, and it was fish on as line began to peel from his reel, and then nothing. A big brown lost! Those moments are never easy, but we were encouraged none the less. The rest of the night expired and we each got another hit, but nothing solid. Back at the resort, we shared a couple beers with the crowd of snowmobilers, and they were very interested in our game. We felt the pressure to perform the next day so we could have some photos to share the next night. They still thought we were nuts.

The morning alarm came too quickly after a long night of coons fighting under our cabin, and little sleep. We had beached the boat a ways down the shore at the first iceless spot and we were wide awake by the time we made the long hike. There was a heavy fog over the lake and the 35 degree water was flat as glass. I felt major big fish potential. In no time our Excalibur Minnows were swimming behind the boat in 15 ft of water. Not more than 3 minutes later my rod slammed down and I set the hook. My jerk was returned with some massive head shakes and I knew what that meant - BIG BROWN! It didn't take long before we were looking at a very long shadow underneath the boat, and we knew there was a possibility of this thing going double digit. My heart raced faster, but with some professional net work by ol' Coyote, the beast came aboard. What an amazing hookjaw buck! Long and lean, I knew it was not likely to make the magic 10 lb mark but I was thrilled all the same with my second best brown of all time, at 32 inches and an even 9 pounds! We got some great photos and I had RD shoot a video of the release. It warmed my heart to watch the monster swim back home where he belonged. By mid summer, that fish will be 12 lbs easy. Eat big boy, eat.

Enough playing around, let's get another one! It was light now, and the water was alive with big browns boiling. I have never seen so many big browns working the surface at Crescent, including groups of big fish chasing bait up and out of the water amongst the frequent mini icebergs. A sight to behold to say the least. Unfortunately, no more big fish found their way to our lures and many hours passed with only a dink brown to be had.

By noon the wind had picked up and our RD's 15 ft boat was getting tossed around pretty good. After a few hours of getting beat up we made our way to the south end to work Tandy Bay. This was a good decision as the water was much more manageable and in our first long pass Coyote's rod bent and he was hooked up solid with a strong fish. It was 5 o'clock and this was his first hook up of the day. He needed this one. After an awesome fight, we were a bit surprised that the thing wasn't bigger when it finally surrendered to the net. We were not complaining though as the 24 inch hookjaw brown hit the 5 pound mark. The evening passed quickly and no more fish. We motored the long ride home wearing big grins over the success of the day.

When we stepped into the resort we were greeted by the crowd and they were eager to hear what we had done. It was a kick in the rear to watch the jaws drop and listen to the various expletives as we shared our photos. We were on top of the world. No one thought we were nuts anymore.

The next morning we had slept like babies and hit it even earlier than the day before. As I have said in other reports, at this point, any more nice fish were icing on the cake, as the trip was already a major success with two browns over 5 pounds. RD didn't waste any time before he was onto a fish that was pulling pretty good. He was thinking it may be another over 5 , but wound up being a spunky little 3 lb female brown. We were so anxious to get our lines back in the water we skipped any pictures. As the sun rose, the water was alive again with big browns. I missed two hard strikes that I would have loved to hook solid, but that's the way it goes in trophy trout hunting.

Soon the sun was well up and hours were ticking by with no action. It was almost t-shirt weather and we made a tough call to give up on the browns and hit the downriggers for a mackinaw or two to round out the trip. We moved to deeper water and found some good sized schools of kokanee on the graph. An hour or so later, my rod did the tell tale bob. I ripped the line out of the release and was fighting a smallish mac that went 6 pounds. Hey, another trout over 5 pounds felt awful nice. It was another few hours later when I saw RD's rod go and he was on with a heavier fish. I raced to hand crank the riggers from the depths just in time to net his personal best laker at 28 1/2 inches and 10 pounds. We were pleased as punch and trolled our way back to the resort with no more takers. Tom was kind enough to assist with the boat removal by towing our boat up the beach with his tow sled. The ice had receded a ton over the weekend and the snow on the beach was less than 6 inches deep. By next weekend anyone should be able to launch off the beach with a good 4x4 barring any major snow. YOU MUST RENT A CABIN TO USE THE BEACH TO LAUNCH. Be prepared for a shallow water launch, too.

I cannot thank Tom and Lori at Crescent Lake Resort enough for there support and hospitality. Thanks to Christine and Andria as well for taking good care of us. I'll see you all in 2 weeks!