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The day had finally arrived
to take my 9 year old nephew, Spencer on his first trophy trout hunting expedition. I had postponed the trip by a week after
the poor water conditions the previous trip, and was hoping to find more favorable conditions this 4th of July
weekend for putting Spencer onto some golden brown trout fireworks. Having never fished with me before, I knew there was a
bit of apprehension over keeping up with my typical endless hours on the water, so I was careful to reassure him that we didn’t
have to put in any more time than he was comfortable with. I figured we’d spend more time chasing frogs and chipmunks,
and making bows and arrows than perusing trophy browns.
We arrived on the evening
of the 4th and, the water conditions were great. The fish were set up nicely in one of my favorite areas of the
lake. None the less we put in 2 hours without a strike before stopping a little early to set up camp with some daylight left.
We got to bed late, and decided to sleep in ‘til 6:00 as not to set Spencer up for the normal exhaustion faced by the
summertime trophy trout fisherman.
This being the significant fish that this was for
him, I gave him the choice of keeping it or letting it go. He chose to bring this one home to the share with his family and
neighbors and I agreed that that was a great choice. I did make it clear that this would be the only fish kept this weekend
and he was excited for his new goal of catching another big one and letting it swim away. What a proud uncle I was!
We fished
on and the action was fairly slow, but we did pick up a smallish fish here and there. Spencer was clearly already a bit jaded
after landing a big one and he had the attitude of an old pro, “Don’t burn me with the small ones”. By 11:00,
we were ready to take a break and play show and tell at the resort, and then clean and ice the fish. We ran into state record
holder, Ron Lane and his son Brandon near the fish cleaning house and they gave friendly cheers
to Spence on his catch. A very nice couple of guys. I was amazed to hear the news that Ron had stuck his 4th 11+
lb brown in under 2 months the day before, and just today I learned that Brandon went on later that day to catch a 12+lb brown,
and the next night a fish over 16 ½ !!! Holy smokes, these guys are brown trout rock stars!
rrr
We were
on the water at 5:30 and trolling along for that one monster fish. As we passed the cliffs on the north shore, Jordan’s
rod gave a bob in the rigger and by the time he had rod in hand line was pealing from his reel. The powerful fish did his
best, but was no match for Jordan’s
skills. As the fish neared the boat, I got a look at him and realized this was a “big net” fish. We use a large
rubber net for most of our fish, but if we see potential for a fish to be over 8 lbs, we employ a huge nylon net. It is not
quite as easy on the fish’s slime coat, but being lighter weight, it is more maneuverable and more likely to get the
job done with greater efficiency. Into the big net the giant brown slid, and Jordan and I looked at each other thinking the
same thing. Was this to be his first brown over 10 lbs? We knew it would be close. At 29 ½ inches, he just didn’t quite
have the length to push him over the double digit mark and he came up around 9 ½ lbs. This tied his personal best brown and
made for an awesome morning. Of course, he let the big monster swim away. We picked up a couple more dinks and the morning bite ended. Jordan
headed off to work at 8:30 and me and the kiddo took a shore break.
The rest of the day was a mix of mostly play with a little trolling
between shoreline exploring. We picked up a few browns to 18 inches and enjoyed the sun and calm water. Spencer and I had
such a good time that we decided to make this a yearly event. I look forward to watching him develop as an aspiring trophy
trout hunter, as he already has his mind set on a brown over 10 lbs. I think we totaled the weekend with 20 browns in a little
less than 20 hours on the water. Having 3 of those over 5 lbs made for a feeling of great success, and I could only hope to
do as well when I return in 3 weeks to hit it twice as
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rrr
We were on the water by 6:30
with a bit of cloud cover and a nice breeze blowing. I setup the first run and we were graphing all kinds of fish along our
path. It wasn’t 15 minutes before the downrigger rod bounced and I set the hooks into a fish that was pulling strong.
I quickly handed the rod to Spencer and he was one on one with his first brown trout. I cleared the other rod and downrigger
as Spencer struggled to keep reeling in the long line as the drag slipped under the weight of the heavy fish. He was about
to wear out and asked for a break so I took over and worked the fish towards the boat for just a minute before handing it
back for him to finish his battle. Finally, the pig of a hookjaw was in the net and we celebrated Spencer’s first trophy
brown with some hoots and high fives.
After
enjoying some lake shore exploring and time at camp, we put in another round of fishing that afternoon which produced a couple
more smaller browns. We then caught up with good ‘ol Jordan at 5:00 for the evening bite
to see what we could do. It was slow, but within 2 hours, I found myself handing a loaded rod to Spencer again. His fish fighting
arms were developing quickly and he muscled this one all the way in on his own. Soon he was face to face with another fine
male brown. Just as long at 24 inches, but a bit thinner at 5 lbs. Still a sweet, beautiful brown and Spencer aced the release
like he’d done it a thousand times before. Here’s the clip. After a couple more small ones, Spencer suggested that we call it a little early so that we could get some good rest and
get out earlier the next morning. I liked this idea, and Jordan
decided to stay too to catch the morning bite with us.
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| Spencer and Herbie the tree frog |
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| Show and tell at the resort |
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