It was time once again to make the trek to the high lakes. It has been a great year for the big browns and I have been blessed with a nice list of quality fish, but with some of the monsters that have been caught by others, I have been feeling rather overshadowed. In fact, I recently noticed that I have been bumped off of the home page of this site all together for the first time since I have been running it. My goal for this trip was to get myself onto the front page of TrophyTroutHunter.com!

This was to be a meaningful trip as it would be the first full weekend shared on the water with my good friend and trophy trout fanatic, Brian Wildish, and my number one fishing partner Jordan Whitton who had just gotten back from a month and a half of working on a seiner boat in Alaska. These three hardcore trophy trout hunters were ready to bust our tails to get it done despite tough, unstable weather patterns.

First stop was Wickiup. Our goal was to cross paths with a friend who had been on the water there for a week and his report would tell us whether to stay there or head to our trusty East Lake. Luckily we found Chuck right away and got the bad news that the fishing had been the worst he had ever seen it in 20 years. He had a week to go and was considering leaving, himself. That made our decision easy, and we headed up the hill to East.

We had about an hour and a half to fish East and it passed quickly yielding only one 18 inch brown for me and not a strike for the other two rods. Hmmmm…not what we were hoping for at all.  There were hardly any fish on the graph in the areas that had been loaded just 3 weeks ago, and we knew that the next morning would be a search and destroy mission.

With lines in the water at 5:15, we methodically worked our way through all of the known haunts on this 1000 acre lake. Brian put up a couple of small fish in different areas, but hours were passing with no real signs of promise. By about 9 o’clock, we had arrived on the west end of the lake. There were two good zones that were yet to be trolled, and as we motored into the first we started marking some fish right away. We hardly had time to breath relief before we started catching fish. It was not fast and furious, but steadily, the numbers started to rack up with fish to 3 lbs being caught. At a bit past 11:00, Jordan leaned into a heavier fish and a few minutes later I saw a long torpedo break the surface. Soon that long shadow was below the boat and we all held our breath knowing that if the girth held up to what most of the East Lake browns have been showing, this could be a real monster. Once he came up and turned on his side we saw an abnormally thin buck, but a killer fish none the less. At 29 inches long, he weighed in at just shy of 7 ½ lbs. He had slammed a gold Bomber running at around 30 ft. This winner of a fish would send us home feeling successful whether we caught any more fish or not. We documented the release with this video clip and got back to the game.

The fish continued to bite here and there, and the chub patterns were clearly the preferred color choice. Brian and I had been running the Tasty Tui pattern Trophy Sticks in the smaller size and getting a lot of action. Mid afternoon, a kokanee troller made a tight turn behind us and was headed right over our lines. Jordan reacted quickly and goosed the motor to get our lines out from under him as fast as possible before his lines caught ours. Suddenly Brian’s rod doubled over and we thought for sure he had been caught by a line. A few massive headshakes and a burst of power told otherwise. It was now his turn to do battle with a trophy brown. After several minutes of give and take with a heavily bent rod, the monster managed to shake that Tasty Tui from his jaw and it was all over. Several other boats had been watching the fight and all were disappointed in the loss, but none more heartbroken than Brian, of course. Shortly after that, the bottom fell out, and the last 5 hours of the night did not produce one strike. The day ended with 17 fish to the boat.

Sunday morning we put our lines out in front of camp on the east side and decided to troll straight to the west end of the lake where most of the action had been had the day before. We knew that the chub pattern was the ticket, and I decided to “go big or go home” with a Super Shad Rap custom painted into a perfect chub pattern by Jordan. This lure had gotten him a 9+ hookjaw the summer before from East and I knew that I would be trophy fishing with confidence with it in tow. As we approached the hot spot, we checked our lures and scented them up fresh with Pro Cure gel before letting them back out for the first run into the deep hole. As the boat passed over the rim, I noted several large arcs on the graph hanging out at the prime depth. Two minutes later, I got the chills as I felt our lures approaching those big fish and I gripped my rod tightly in anticipation. It was my turn and I was ready….BAM!!! It hit so hard that I almost smacked Jordan in the head with my rod. Line ripped from my spool with tremendous force and I rang the big fish alarm to my partners. When the fish stopped running he just held for a minute, I was reeling, but no line was coming back. He did not like this pressure and he dished out powerful headshakes in retaliation. I started to get some line back and began slowly walking him towards the boat. Some cranks yielded line, and some just slipped under the weight and continual headshaking. These were the kind of headshakes you want to feel. The whole rod bobbing heavily and the gear that feels overly heavy with most of the trout hooked suddenly feels weenie and under rated for a beast like this. This is what it is all about! Finally, he came to the surface and gave us a peak. It was just dark enough that the view of his back and fins was tough to determine true size. Soon enough he was next to the boat, and anything this big buck lacked in length was more than made up for in girth all the way through the tail. He was still hot, splashing and rolling about on the surface  and Brain played it totally cool with the net until the big hookjaw laid on his side and gave up the fight. It was fun to see Brian’s eyes bulge when he went to hoist the fish aboard. “This thing is heavy!” he exclaimed. When I got a hold of him and transferred him to the livewell, I too was impressed with the weight. Final measurments put him at just shy of 28 inches and right about 9 ¼ lbs. My biggest fish this year, and my biggest ever from East lake. A front page fish for sure! He was very tired so we let him recover in the livewell for a while and let the lines out for another run. That run didn’t produce a bump and at the end of it I was anxious to release my trophy. The livewell had really done the trick and he was strong and raring to go. The release video turned into a comical “blooper”, as this powerful fish struggled to free himself from my grip and go home. See for yourself and get a good laugh by clicking here. Luckily he landed right in the water and swam away strong and smarter than before his encounter with this trophy trout hunter.

The rest of the day was nearly a bust. Brian caught 2 more small browns several hours apart. Jordan never even got a bite, and my only bite of the day was that fish. Luckily, in trophy fishing “it only takes one”. A 7+ and a 9+ make for an epic weekend, and I can only hope to come close to those numbers when I return next weekend for more.