Nearly a month had passed since my
last trophy trout hunting excursion with RD. All of the fantastic browns we tangled with seemed to only make me hungry for
more. This time my destination would be Wickiup Reservoir. Wickiup is a legendary big brown fishery that often comes alive
in late summer when the fish are putting on as much weight as possible before struggling upstream to spawn. Most of them head
up the Deschutes Arm, which closes September 1st a short way up from
Gull Point to protect the vulnerable spawning fish. I was arriving to catch the last few days of the open season and ready
to go head to head with some of the hardest fighting browns in the state!
I rolled through Bend on Thursday
afternoon in hopes of picking up my cohort Jordan and his boat, but work had him by the throat so he told me to go on without
him and he’d come down as his schedule allowed. I got on the water by 3:00
and immediately saw my buddy Chuck Jones fishing just upstream from the launch. We had a nice chat and he gave me a few tips
he’d picked up over the last 2 weeks of solid fishing. His trip was going well with 40 browns over 4 lbs to his credit
with one bruiser hookjaw that tipped his scale at over 12 lbs. I know better than to hope to match the numbers of a fishing
god like Chuck, but his fantastic success gave me high hopes nonetheless. After
doing some casting for a while and watching Chuck put a couple more 4+ pounders to the boat, I trolled off to get a feel for
the rest of the D. Arm. I had snapped on a 6.5 inch Silver Platter Trophy Stick to match the swarms of small kokanee flailing
about and it didn’t take long before a nice brown slammed it hard on the rip. A hard fighting brown of nearly 5 lbs
begrudgingly came to the net and I was on the board. The rest of the day continued with a few more small ones here and there
and one more that was a bit over 4 lbs. Overall it was pretty slow and despite the mellow lack of competition from other anglers,
no monsters hit my artificial offerings.
The next day was off to a slow start,
but after 5 hours without a bump, my rip was met with the headshakes of a strong fish, followed by a surging run upstream.
I held tight and managed to get control of the fish and slowly walk it towards the boat.
As soon as we saw each other he launched 3 feet out of the water right next to the boat and made another short run
to the bottom. Luckily the hooks held strong and soon enough I had the long lean hookjaw in the net. He taped 27 inches and weighed around 6 ½ pounds, and hit a 4 ½ inch Tasty Tui Trophy Stick trolled close
to the bottom along the edge of the channel. I used the self timer on my camera to get a shot before releasing this very cool
fish. The rest of the day ran pretty slow. I worked it all day and picked up
3 more fish with one nice one that was around 4 lbs in the early evening. The last hour of the day brought some excitement
as I had 2 separate hookups with BIG browns. Both of them came unbuttoned after short but intense line peeling battles, and
I went to bed with high hopes for the next morning.
My good friend Ryan Daniels (RD) had
shown up with his 2 young children and his sister that evening and we made the plan for him to sneak out with me for the morning
bite. There was a dense fog hanging tight to the water as we trolled our way
up the channel. The sun was just starting to break its way through as we approached a favorite casting area. We killed the
motor and drifted into the hole silently. Big browns were swirling the surface
here and there and potential was dripping. Just as we were talking about how nice it was to be casting for big browns on a
beautiful summer morning, RD’s plug got nailed not 30 ft from the boat. The fish fought hard and went air born a few
times before tiring to the net. This was the first brown over 5 lbs that RD had caught while casting and he was pretty happy
with this sweet hookjaw. As the sun rose higher, the area died down and we trolled our way back to camp to get RD to his family.
On the way back he picked up another nice brown of 4 lbs which made for a very nice morning on the water for him. I trolled
back up the channel and it being 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning, it was getting pretty congested with boats. I took
a chance and threaded the needle between a small cluster of kokanee jiggers. Just as my lure was pulling through them my rod
folded hard and there was no doubt that this was a fish and not a Buzz Bomb I had connected with. It took a small miracle
to weave the fish out of the web of lines that were cast over mine by other guys who had no idea I was on this potentially
big fish! With a lot of luck I finally slid the net under a chunky brown of about 5 lbs. I tossed it into the live well and
fished on up to the spot where I had arranged to meet up with Jordan. He took a photo of the fish for me and I sent her on
her way. Jordan and I tore up the Deschutes Arm trying to hook a monster and make it stick, but it was slow. We rolled into
the spot where RD had caught his 5 pounder casting and we decided to give it a go again. I chose my ultralite combo for this
round and within a few casts my little Lucky Craft 65 Pointer got pummeled by a hungry brown. He about shredded my light gear
and 4 lb line, but I eventually won the battle with this gorgeous, red spotted, male brown of nearly 5 lbs. He released fine
in the 54 degree water and we kept casting. There was some good surface activity all round us and we slowly drifted along
casting in anticipation. I nice fish boiled just 50 ft from the boat as I was about to cast and I launched my lure his direction.
Rip, crank, rip, crank, rip, SLAM! The big fish took off like a torpedo and then launched a couple feet out of the water while
thrashing and twisting all over the place. As he crashed back into the water my skinny line failed and the fish was gone. Jordan and I estimated it to be a 6-7 lb fish. Shortly after that the action died
and we trolled out again. I scratched up another fish of around 5 lbs that afternoon and we rolled into the evening with our
sights set on something much bigger. Okay, our sights are pretty much always set on the biggest brown in the lake, so I guess
this was nothing new, but there is something special about feeling the sunset coming on while working the waters of these
legendary waters. I chose a deeper diving lure in a bright fire tiger color.
I’m not gonna name it, but this was a one of a kind, very special lure for this lake and I save it for special moments.
The crowds of other boats had all gone in for dinner, and I felt safe running the 400 ft of line I prefer for maximum stealth.
I had just tied a fresh 20 lb test leader and a fresh snap, as well as swapping
fresh Owner hooks onto my special lure. I had no intention of messin around this evening! My lucky lure found its way into
the zone and it didn’t take long for my quarry to engulf it. All of the sudden I was wrestling with the brown I had
come for. This thing was pulling out all of the tricks with powerful runs mixed up with all kinds of headshakes and body rolls.
All I could do was hold on and keep my line tight. Just as I was figuring that I was connected solid with this trophy the
excitement gave way to nothing. The fish was gone and so was my lure! Sure enough, upon inspection I could see the tell tale
signs of a major chew off… That was our big fish encounter for the night
and we came up on the losing end big time. Jordan did pick up a nice buck that
was pushing 5 lbs and I hit a hen that went a little over 5. All in all, a great day on the water.
Sunday morning we decided to motor
up to the spot we had good success casting the day before. There was not as much
activity, and after 2 hours I finally stuck a 3 lb fish. We continued to drift cast with the nice breeze that was blowing
and had some nice big fish sightings around Brown’s Creek. There were some followers, but no takers. Hours were ticking off and our trip was coming towards its end. RD
and his family motored up to find us to bid farewell and give us their report. They had picked up a couple of 5 lb fish in
the main lake below Gull Pt. RD said there were a lot of nice arcs holding in a particular area and they were responding well.
We took his tip and headed down for our last couple hours. It was a good call, and I thank him for making the effort to find
us and tell us about this honey hole he had stumbled onto. In those last 2 hours I connected with 4 good fish, and I landed
two that went 5 and 6 ½ lbs. One that came off felt really strong and managed to open up my snap and get my hot Tasty Tui
Trophy Stick. Another one gone…
I didn’t get my monster this
time, but with seven browns over 5 lbs on my scorecard and many others in the 3-5 lb range, this was my most productive trip
to Wickiup to date. It’s tough not to focus on those 3 monsters that got away, but those are the ones that will haunt
me in my dreams and keep me coming back for more. I have to give big props to the Trophy Sticks. I fished a lot of different stuff on this 3 ½ day trip and there was no question that the Sticks out performed any of my
old standbys by at least a 2 to 1 margin. The runner up lure was the Lucky Craft Pointer 65 and 78 in the Aurora Black color.
