Hi Dan,

I recently celebrated my 1st anniversary with my lovely wife Anna. We decided to celebrate, we would go to the outer reaches of NE Oregon to the pristine and unaltered Wallowa Lake. She asked me if I was going to bring the boat to go cruise the lake and fish. Unbeknownst to her, I had conveniently booked a very well-accomplished guide, Mark Moncrief of Tri-State Outfitters to take us out fishing. As I'm a trophy trout addict, I was very interested in targeting the large mackinaw they had in the lake. Mark holds the Wallowa Lake Record Mackinaw at 36-1/2 lbs and several others over the 30 lb mark. I spoke with him a week prior to my anniversary and he told me that we should bag the mackinaw and go kokanee fishing. I asked him why. He stated that they are catching a lot of kokanee that are big! He said so far this season, I'm at 128 kokanee that are 20" or greater. He also stated that he narrowly missed the state record kokanee (currently 6lbs 12 oz) by mere ounces earlier in the season. He said with the mackinaw being very finicky, it would behoove us to concentrate our efforts first on the kokanee. If time permitted, we would pursue the gigantic mackinaw. After a little arm-twisting, we agreed on our time and place to meet and Anna and I were going to be pursuing trophy trout…er..uh…I mean, trophy kokanee!

It was cool and slightly blustery morning as we arrived at the North marina at the lake. The backdrop is amazing panorama of Mt Joseph, Mt Bonneville, and Mt Howard hovering over the deep, blue Wallowa Lake. I instantly recognized Mark. We exchanged pleasantries, loaded our coolers and backpacks into his boat and we were off. It took us about an hour to locate the larger kokanee. During the search for the schools of kokanee, Mark had told me that his running tally for the amount of kokanee over 20 inches in length was now at 132. Finally, our rod bounced in the downrigger with our first kokanee. It was about 14 inches. Now, for a kokanee anywhere else in the state of Oregon (and most places for that matter), that would be a keeper. But Mark said, "Ah, it's just a shaker. We'll get them much bigger than that." So we released the "dink" back into the lake to gain some weight. This was not what I was used to for kokanee fishing. Typically, If it's 14 inches, it's in the smoker. Not this time. it's back into the lake to get bigger.

The next hit we got was a much more significant fish. Anna got on the rod and played the fish like a pro. With some great coaching from Mark, Anna was thumbing the reel, releasing the thumb brake, reeling in slack, the whole gamut. It was fun to watch and she landed about a 19 inch chrome Kokanee. 15 minutes later, it was my turn. I got into a nice fish and after a feisty five minute fight, I landed about an 18 incher. It was fun but Mark kept saying "Don't worry, we'll get them bigger!" Bigger?!?!, Heck, these were great kokanee for most any other lake.

About 30 minutes later, I see the center rod get slammed hard. Instinctively, I ran to the rod and was getting ready to pop it out the downrigger release when Mark yelled "Don't set the hook! It's already out of the release!" WHAT?!?! How could it be, we were using salmon clips in lieu of the smaller kokanee clips on the downrigger. Confused, I remarked "Are you sure?!?!" He said "Yep, I saw it. It's out!" The rod was barreled over and I'm thinking to myself "This has got to be a small mackinaw if it pulled it out of the clip." Let me say, pound for pound, this fish fought extremely well. He took a total of 7 runs on me that ranged from 20 to 50 feet. I asked Mark "This is a kokanee?!?!" He said "Yep. Probably a big one too!" The fish finally showed himself after his hard-fought head-shaking battle and my eye's popped out of my skull. "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A HUGE KOKANEE!!!!" I exclaimed. After a 15 minute fight (no exaggeration), this monster koke made his way into the net. We measured the buck and he taped out at 23-1/4" long. At first, Mark guessed it was around 5 lbs, maybe a hair under. Looking back at it later, he and I both said "Eh, that might be more like 5 and a half." After things settled down, Mark said "This is a nice one, for sure. But they get bigger!" I was astonished. This is WORLD CLASS KOKANEE FISHING!!!

Over the course of the next couple hours, Anna and I had the pleasure of boating some fantastic kokanee. At the end of it all, we caught 15, released 5 that were "dinks" (14 to 16 inchers), and caught 5 that were 20" or greater! It was epic. Our largest 4 fish had a combined weight of approximately 18 lbs. Do the math ?!?!? My goal is to catch a trout over 5 lbs when I go trophy trout fishing, but a kokanee over 5 lbs?!?! A beautiful lake in a beautiful setting with my wife on a guided trip catching some of the biggest kokanee on average in the WORLD! It just does not get any better than this!!!

We did have a few hours left to fish as I paid for the whole day trip with Mark, so we tried our luck at some Mackinaw fishing. Let's say this switched gears to what I'm typically used to when I'm trophy trout fishing. The macks were difficult to locate and when they were located, were being a bit finicky. We had one "drive-by" and that was it. Mark said that out of all the lakes in Oregon he's fished for mackinaw, Wallowa lake is probably the toughest. Well, Wallowa Lake proved that to be true for the day. However, I had a great time just learning from Mark how he approaches fishing, exchanging stories of trophy trout fishing, and just life in general.

It was a great fishing trip and I was grateful to share this with my lovely wife in such a gorgeous setting. Being able to fish is a pleasure in itself. To have the success we had was just icing on the cake! A very special "Thank You" to Mark Moncrief of Tri-State Outfitters. If you are ever up in the Wallowa Lake area, I highly recommend him as your guide of choice. He's probably one of the most knowledgeable and pleasant guides I've ever had the pleasure to fish with. As this was just the beginning of our trip, we spent the rest hanging out at our rental cabin and enjoying the wilderness by going on hikes. For accommodations, I want to thank Cindi and I highly recommend her Wallowa Lake Vacation Rentals. The cabin we stayed in was in the heart of the resort area, reasonably priced, and completely stocked with all the amenities anyone could want. Fantastic place for families and for couples!

Take Care,

Brian Wildish a.k.a. (Bwild)