Hey Dan,
As you may recall, 4 months ago my dad and I were to join up with Ryan Daniels and his dad, Kim, for what is becoming what
we call our annual "Dad's Weekend". Unfortunately, it was not meant in the stars for my dad to join our trek up to Paulina
Lake due to health issues. Everything with my dad's health is just fine. All the same, he was very much missed for that trip.
This past weekend was to make up for that. I have yet to be able to put my dad onto a brown trout of 5 lbs or greater. He
has come very close with several gorgeous browns in the 4 to 4.5 lb range, but has been eluded by the scales tipping past
the 5 lb mark. It's always been a goal of mine to catch one brown over 5 lbs every time I go out, but this was different.
Come hell or high water, I was determined my dad was going to catch a brown over 5 lbs!
Dad and I arrived at our destination at about 6:30 pm on Friday evening. I launched the boat into the lake and we set up
camp quickly. We only had about 1-1/2 hours of legal fishing left. With my goal for my dad in mind, we loaded up the boat
and headed out into the sunset on to a very serene, glassy lake. As I scanned the lake intently with my two-stroke purring
in the background, I said a small prayer to myself. You can imagine it was asking for a 5 lb brown for my dad. Don't get me
wrong, I was more than grateful just to be out on the water with my dad again. However, with all the knowledge I've gained
from my dad over the years and from my experiences in the sport of trophy trout hunting, I asked "The man upstairs" for just
a little extra help. I'm glad I did!
We sent our lures down to the appropriate depths as we trolled in anywhere from 30 to 80 feet of water. Within 30 minutes,
my dad's rod in the downrigger holder bounced. He released the rod out of the clip but nobody was home. 15 minutes later,
I received a short-strike on my line as well, but to no avail. We both said to each other "Hey, they're biting!"
30 minutes later, with rod in hand, I felt a nice tug on my line. I jerked quickly with no one home. I then employed a
technique that I've spoken to both you and RD about. I free-spooled my reel for a few seconds. I was trying to imitate that
my lure had been "knocked out" by the fish that initially struck it. My hopes were to fool the wily brown in to thinking his
meal was now easy pickin's. I stopped my line and gave a quick tug. WHAM!!!!!!! "Oh yeah, FISH ON BABY!" I called out.
With my head lamp affixed to my head, I called to my dad to get his gear in and "get the 'rigger up." I felt a couple little
head shakes but the line felt heavy. I wondered if I had a pig on that was swimming at the boat or if I perhaps foul-hooked
a dink. With my leader almost in and I catching glimpses of the fish, I noticed my dad still didn't have his line all the
way reeled up. A little frustrated, I said "Hey Dad, get your line in!" He replied "Brian, look how fast I'm reeling. I'm
trying". I then noticed his line in the water was going eerily close to my line. I then stated "Crap, we crossed lines! My
fish must've went over your line during the fight!" With now an apparent "Grade-A cluster" beginning to ensue, I grabbed the
line with the fish on it while my dad tried to keep both rods out of the way so I could unhook the fish. It was a feisty 3
lb hookjaw that was not exactly appreciative of my artificial offering embedded in his mouth. The fish was so "unhappy", that
he decided to flop around, take one of the Owner treble hooks from my lure and snag my finger and tackle box at the same time
all the while I'm trying to unhook him. Meanwhile, my dad is trying to give slack and keep our fishing lines from tangling
any further. Oh, and I also forgot to mention. My dad was head-lampless so he was trying to do this in the midst of darkness.
Operation "Grade-A Cluster" was in full swing. Oh, but it gets better!!!
As both my dad and I were struggling with this situation and a few "French" words being strewn throughout this melee, I
finally decided to un-snap my swivel from my lure to help my dad with the line tension. There was obviously something wrong
with his reel as he couldn't give me any slack. With the lure now detached from my line, it made my task of un-hooking the
fish, my tackle box, and myself a little less daunting. Within a minute, I had successfully accomplished the unhooking of
myself and the fish. I released the now more intelligent brown back into the lake. I asked my dad how he was doing with the
fishing lines as I went back to trying to untangle my lure from my tackle box. My dad said "Yep, I think we're good to go
now."
"Phew!!!" Systems were finally back to normal…..or so I thought! I was paying attention to nothing but my immediate
surroundings when the fishing gods decided Operation "Grade-A Cluster" was indeed, not finished. Within seconds of my releasing
the fish, off in the distance I heard a very loud "SPLASH!"
I quickly glanced up. Squinting my eyes, I scanned the now pitch-black waters like a cowboy watching over his stock. Approximately
200 feet out, I saw the remnants of a very large boil. I said out loud "Wow, that was a bigger fish!" Hesitantly, my dad stated
"Uh…Brian! I think I've got something!" I focused my eyes over towards his rod and it is going off!!!! Excitedly I yelled
"SWEET!! FISH ON, DAD!" Looking at his rod in the twilight with my headlamp illuminating the eyelets, it was very obvious
this was a bigger fish than what I'd just released. Half out of breath from excitement, my dad exclaimed "Wow, this thing
is head-shaking!" As it approached the boat, I grabbed the net and allowed my the light rays from my headlamp to scan the
depths. A large flash ensued! "OH YEAH!" 15 seconds later, my dad landed a gorgeous 24 inch, 6 lb female brown!!!! Dad finally broke the 5 lb mark. As you can imagine, we were both ecstatic. What a way to start off the trip and cap
off the evening! After some great pics, we released the beautiful hen to live another day.
The next morning, we got back after it and picked right up where we had left off. We caught and released 4 browns, all
in the 3 lb range. We also missed a couple of other hits as well. As quick as the action was, it immediately shut-off at 8:45
am. I knew that fellow TTH'er Bret Martin was also at the lake with his brother, Kevin. Around 11 am, we asked how they'd
been fairing so far. Unfortunately, they only had (1) 3 lber to their boat. We exchanged information on what techniques, lures,
and locations were successful for us as we wanted them to experience what we had been previously. We trolled for another hour
and by noon, we decided to head in for some lunch and nice nap.
After we refreshed our bodies with some lunch and rest, dad and I were back on the water at 3 pm. We trolled all over the
lake in search of the elusive browns, but to no avail. I racked my brain, trying different water depths, lure depths, trolling
techniques, etc. The weather had turned from sunny to mostly cloudy with ominous clouds in the distance. Fearing a falling
barometer, I was not optimistic for our chances. With the wind tossing my boat around a little bit, I decided I would begin
to hug the shoreline with the wind to my back. As this thought went through my head, my dad jumped up and grabbed his rod
from the downrigger. I looked at the bend in his rod and said "Whoa, that looks good!" Dad popped it out of the release and
his rod was loaded up! "FISH ON!" I cleared my rod and the downrigger as my dad fought the powerful fish. I reluctantly got
the net out as my dad and I still hadn't seen the fish yet. The way the sun was hitting the choppy water made it impossible
to see anything beneath the lake's surface. I finally got a glimpse of the dorsal fin and I said "Ahhh… it's not that
big. Maybe 3 to 4 lbs." As I began to put the net down, the fish turned sideways. I hurriedly said "NEVER MIND!!! THAT"S A
GOOD ONE!" My dad masterfully let the fish play itself out, and within a minute, we landed my dad's second brown trout over
5 lbs! This fish was a pig and appeared to be thicker than the one from the evening before. We weighed and measured the fish
to be an amazing 23 inch, 6.5 lb male hookjaw brown! What a stud fish!!! We did our typical C&R drill of snapping a few pics prior to releasing. Dad and I hi-fived and my
dad cried out a loud, celebratory "WOOHOO!"
As we got back to fishing, those ominous looking clouds I previously mentioned were getting closer. At first, they produced
a magnificent double rainbow! Within half an hour, those beautiflu rainbows turned into powerful lightning strikes! A lot
of lightning strikes! By 7:30 pm, we both decided it was not worth fishin in and quickly proceeded to get off the lake. Within
a half-hour, it began dumping buckets of rain on us. We stopped by to check-in with Bret at his campsite to see how he faired
for the rest of the day. His brother caught another 3lber and he missed a fish. All the while, we were cramped underneath
the rain-fly of his tent as rain pelted us from above and the skies would illuminate every few seconds from a flash of lightning,
portraying the outline of thunderheads above with a deep, purple background. It was pretty awesome!!!
The next morning, we awoke to a soaked ground and a boat with plenty of water in it. After about 10 minutes of my bilge
pump working, my dad and I ventured out into the lake one last time for the trip. Over the course of the next 4-1/2 hours,
we boated and released two more 3 lbers. We decided to call it an end to a very amazing and rewarding trip.
There were a multitude of lures and color patterns I tried. The successful lures for the trip were Bombers, Rapalas, and TrophySticks in both kokanee and rainbow patterns. I met up with Bret as we left and learned that he was able to stick a nice 24 inch,
4 lb hen on Sunday. Way to go, Bret! My dad and I ended the trip with (9) fish totaling 32.5 lbs with dad boating the (2)
largest at 6.5 and 6 lbs. I'm so thrilled I was able to spend some time with my dad and try to make up for the trip lost in
May. It made it even sweeter that he was able to get into some great trophy trout fishing! I can't wait until our next trip,
Dad!
Take care,
Brian Wildish - a.k.a. B-Wild
