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I have been working around the house of late and after getting some landscaping projects down for the wife, I decided to take an afternoon to hit one of our Central Oregon lakes. I had talked with a good friend, Joe Mitchell, earlier in the day only to learn he was heading up there to hit it as well. His Dad, George, was in town for a few days and they were going to take the motorhome and camp for 3-4 days. We both got on the water around 1:00 p.m. and started watching the graph and working the riggers.

It turned out to be a tough day though I did catch a 3 LB. brown early in the afternoon and one other hit a little later. Joe and I talked by phone and were working different areas of the lake. He and his Dad caught one around 3 LB. and had a couple of hits. Early in the evening when the sun dropped into some clouds, I could see kokanee working the surface and I decided to come up and work the top. It was around 7:00 when I had a good hit and the water way back exploded when the brown came right to the top. I could tell he had a little weight and he dug in and stayed down which often means a better fish. When I finally got him to the back of the boat, I saw the buck was nice and around 26 in. I would guess. I never did measure him but estimated him around 7 LB. I have caught a lot of browns this spring so no real reason for a formal weight. I set up my stand for photos and set the self timer and took these 3 photos reviving him in the net between takes. He seemed none the worse when I finally released him.

Water was 59 degrees on the surface and the wind made it tough for a lot of the afternoon until the sun went down enough and it dropped to a more manageable light chop. I will be heading out again later in the week so check back a little later.

Tight Lines,
Rick