We had a great meeting with the Lanes and there partner Brian Eversole. These guys have the brown trout disease as bad as you can get it and Ron is as seasoned a veteran as you can find. It was great to hear some of there fish tales first hand and get to know them a little. Thanks again Brandon for buying our lunch and beers. They were off to Wickiup from there and I know they must have thought we were nuts to go up the hill to East where not near as many fish over 10 lbs are caught. They have tricks up there sleeve that R.D. and I don’t for success on that giant lake. I hope to get to know them more and learn some of those tricks as time goes on. Really cool guys, and it was an honor to meet with them.

We rose easily on Sunday morning and made such quick time in our morning preparations that we found ourselves on the water a little early and had to wait for the legal bell to ring. We were off like thoroughbreds with our lures smoking hot. Too bad the fish didn’t wake up until around 6:30! Once they did, the bite was on and we were back in the business of putting on a brown trout clinic. I was ripping hard and R.D. had gone back to the rigger program for a while. The fish were still preferring the hard ripping and finally my rod loaded heavily under the most powerful headshakes I had felt all weekend. I had upgraded to fresh 20 lb leader, and was feeling invincible, with my drag set right. Line was giving from my reel as the boat moved forward while the fish held it’s ground and tugged with might. Suddenly, SNAP!! My heavy gear was no match for the razor sharp teeth of this behemoth brown. Heartache once again for this trophy hunter…. So it goes.

That fish made number 73 for the trip and we were closing the gap on our numbers goal. We filled in that gap in just over an hour with no other big ones to be had, but we called it a trip, both feeling like giants. It would have been great to see some of those lost fish, and who knows what they might have been, but this trip was one for the books on so many levels. I will return to the high lakes in a few weeks for more summertime thermocline action. I can only hope for more of these kind of results.

Now, go get yours!

At one point we were trolling along and R.D. noticed something floating on the water that looked fishy. We motored closer and indeed it was a massive hen brown dead on the surface. We couldn’t resist finding out just how big this giant was and we netted it to get a weight. I’m not sure how much water weight might have been gained, but it went a jaw dropping 21 ½ lbs. This made for a cool mental pick-me-up and we trolled on, inspired.

We had a lunch meeting planned with the previously mentioned Lane’s for 1:30 at Wickiup Junction which was on the way to East Lake. At 12:30 we decided we had enough of the insanity of trolling over hundreds of big browns getting nothing but refusals. Sure, if we stuck it out maybe one would hit eventually, but we had confidence that East Lake would provide a ton more action with killer big fish chances, too.

The next hour and a half was slow, but the bite really began to pick up at about 7:00. Things settled into a pattern of steady hits and a lot of fish were coming to the boat. I was looking for my turn at a big one, of course, and mid morning I got my chance. I saw the rod dip in the rigger and quickly ripped the line from the clip and set the hooks. My hook set was followed by some ripping line and massive headshakes which was then followed by an instant of limp line. I kissed that one goodbye, along with my prized Emerald Excalibur Minnow. Not often does a brown chew so easily through 15 lb leader, and it absolutely kills me to know that a trophy fish is potentially wearing my lure. I hope he’s okay, but I have to wonder if that might mark the end for him. I say him because for some reason, if you haven’t noticed by the photos over the last couple of years, a good 90% of the bigger fish coming from East Lake are males. It’s also as if there is something in the water that makes the average fish more colorful than other lakes. Big, colorful hookjaws are the passion of most trophy brown hunters, and this is one more reason I love this lake so much.

After that, R.D. was sold and joined me in the ripping game. We were hitting and missing fish like a couple of pro’s and just having a ball with some of the hottest brown trout action either of us had ever had. It rolled into the evening, and right at 9:00 R.D. reared back into a fish that had the feel of potential size. We were coming onto a honey hole, so as I cleared my line, I continued ripping hard in hopes of a double hookup. Bam! My Excalibur got slammed and my drag ripped for a few feet. Both of us were fighting quality fish now and we did our best to keep them away from each other. Luckily, they cooperated and I had mine to the boat first. I grabbed the net and put the scoop on a nice hookjaw that I knew would go over 5 lbs. R.D.’s fish came up next and I nabbed it while my fish was still in the net! His was almost the same length, but didn’t have nearly the girth as mine. We weighed the net and both fish which read 11 lbs. After photos and releasing R.D.’s fish it weighed 7 ½  lbs which makes his 3 ½ and mine 5 ¼ (net is 2 ¼ lbs). This was the nicest double either of us had ever had, and it was a great note to end this awesome day of trophy brown hunting.

R.D. joined me once again and it was team ripping for the rest of the trip. With both rods pumping we were catching fish on every pass of the runs we had honed, knowing that the potential was dripping. Many dinks, but quite a few nicer fish were showing interest, too. I picked up another 5+ at about 8:00 and that put us at four of 5 lbs or better. Things were going so well that we set a goal of 80 fish for the trip and six over 5 lbs. This was ambitious and dependant on the bite holding strong. The numbers continued to flow but by mid afternoon we were losing hope of more big ones. Never loose hope! It can happen at any time, and at 1:30 R.D.’s rod folded over, and 10 minutes later I was sliding the net under another very impressive hookjaw. This bruiser was 25 inches long and right at 6 lbs. He had a huge head and set of jaws, and an absolutely gorgeous spotted brownish gold body. We shot a video of the release and were concerned to see that after swimming down, he came back up to the surface on his side. He was still too tired and needed help. We employed a tactic that has worked well before and I want to share it with you all. It is not very good for the fish to have water forced through it’s gills in reverse, so the method of pumping the fish forward and backwards is not as good as some might think. I had R.D. put the boat in forward and motor slowly as I cradled the fish and kept him straight into the flow. It took several minutes of this therapy before he really started to show strength, and by the time I sent him off he powered down strong and was clearly going to be just fine. There is no livewell in R.D.’s boat, so we used the net as our livewell while doing photos and unhooking of all the nicer fish. It works great, as it can very be harmful to a fish to be out of the water for more than a few seconds at a time, especially in the heat of the summer when surface temps are in the upper 60’s.