After a couple hours of sleep we awoke and got right to our game. What a great feeling – quietly trolling the calm waters of a practically virgin lake full of brown trout! It’s tough not to have expectations of trophy fish swatting lures with wild abandon, but that was not the case for us this time. We picked up some small fish to 3 lbs hear and there and the sun slowly rose and lit up our pristine location. Mid morning I hooked into a stronger fish that was taking some line and staying deep. I worked the pretty male brown into the net and was happy to see a fish that would push the 5 lb mark. I was impressed with the energy this fish had and hoped that this was a sign of more hard fights to come. We got the lines back out and as we rounded the next corner my rod doubled over hard and line began melting from my real. “Fish on!” I yelled and the other guys looked on with wide eyes as they saw the power coming from the other end of my line. The fish stopped and gave some headshakes and power rolls and it successfully threw my lure and won the short battle. The rest of the day rolled by with more smaller browns to the boat but nothing photo worthy. As the evening approached the flat calm water we had enjoyed all day was displaced by a nice breezy chop. I decided to run a favorite Bomber stickbait on a flatline and see if I could shake out a nice fish closer to the surface. Time was passing quickly and we the sky was growing dark. We were all wondering if our visions of that one big brown in the net might not come to be this time. I was ripping my rod aggressively, and doing my best to manifest old Mr Hookjaw grabbing my plastic minnow when SLAM! There he was!! Again with the line melting from my spool and there was no doubt that this would be big fish of the day if I could get it to the boat. Soon enough the beast was in the net. We dropped the stocky hookjaw into the livewell and wasted no time in getting the lures back out. We were all running flatlines now and hoping for one more good fish before darkness shut us down. In almost no time Jordan was into that very fish. Another strong and aggressive fish. This one was taking even longer to tame than mine and it wanted nothing to do with the boat or net. Finally, Brian aced the net job and we had a very piggy hen brown in the tank to keep my big buck company. There was still a touch of daylight so we got onto one last run. The bite was on and I got hit again right off the bat. This is why we use the livewell. Had we taken the time to weigh and photograph my fish, we would have missed both of these next two fish that struck in the 15 minutes that followed. I was on with another fish that was at least tough enough to keep me wondering if there was trophy potential. It proved to be a bit short of that status, but went a respectable 4 ½ lbs. This one capped the night and we were fat and happy. The weigh in at the dock told us the numbers. My fish taped at 26 ½ inches strong and weighed 9 lbs even. Jordan’s was even chunkier at 25 inches and 8 lbs. We got our photos and sent the fish home a bit wiser.

We wasted no time getting after a few hours of much needed sleep and before we knew it we were on the water again. It took over an hour to score the first fish which was a healthy 3+ lb fish that I caught right after sending my lure down a bit deeper. I scratched up a couple more small ones right away and it was clear that the flatline drill was not to be the ticket. Before long we all had fish on the board and Brian had big fish with a nice hookjaw that was around 4 ½ lbs. Around 10 o’clock I got hit hard by a better fish in the same spot I had gotten my best fish of the previous morning. This hard fighter put on a great show with a lot of deep bulldogging mixed with some aerial acrobatics which Brian got on film. Here’s the clip. The fish went about 6 lbs and swam away nicely. That marked the beginning of a much slower day. We tagged a small fish here and there, but there were quite a few hours of nothing. We could only hope for another good evening bite.

The wind kicked up a bit earlier than the day before, but we couldn’t find any action close to the surface so I kept my lure a little deeper going into the evening this time. With conditions so similar to the previous night it felt a little wrong to change up the program, but my gut told me to stay deep. At around 7 o’clock I hooked a good fish and lost it, but it gave me confidence that I was doing the right thing. A half hour later I got slammed again and this time it stuck. I won the battle and it put another 6 lb hen on my score card. I was pretty jazzed at this point with some great numbers for a two day trip. I really wanted to see a big fish find it’s way to Brian’s lure to even things out for our team. We all know that you can’t tell the browns what to do… indeed they call their own shots. As darkness fell upon us, my rod folded once again and line peeled like mad from my reel. I guess I was the blessed one for this trip, and after another fun and exciting battle there was another chunked out hookjaw in the livewell. What a great fish to end the trip, and we motored in to the dock beaming with the glow of another successful day on the water.

That last fish went 7 pounds and swam away strong to go chomp more kokanee and continue adding weight.

It was a tired drive home and I was glad to have Brian share the driving. We totaled out with nearly 40 browns to the boat with 5 fish of 6 lbs or better. It has been an incredible year for brown trout in central Oregon. I don’t recall a spring that has shown so many fish over 10 lbs not to mention the number in the 8-10 range. I hope that we can see the success continue through the rest of the year. This is shaping up to be a year for the books!