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After recently locating my old laker waypoints for Crescent Lake, I had a renewed interest in fishing them again. As I touched on in my report of 6-30 http://www.trophytroutguide.com/news/06_30_14.html it was a lot of fun to get on some lakers again......especially when it is much easier to locate them.

I headed back to Crescent this past week with Steve Kroll. When Steve guided up there for many years he established himself as one of the best laker anglers around. We also have a lot in common going back to our surfing days in the 60-70’s and of course a love for big trout. It was a trip for a couple of old gray heads returning to their roots.

We were both amazed at the lack of anglers overall compared to the old days up there. It seems that the recession and the $4 a gallon gas has taken its toll. We didn’t even see the skiers or jet skis we were used to in the middle of summer. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about less boats on the water......just sad that a lot of people have been forced out of recreating.

Anyway, we got on the water and made our way to the “promised land” The lakers were there but not nearly as interested as my last trip in June. For this drill a lack on wind is essential to control the speed and for good boat control. We weren’t all that happy that we had a light breeze early. The fishing was much slower overall and I suspect that the closely approaching (two days away) full moon cycle wasn’t helping us. We did mange a couple of smaller lakers as I landed one around 10 LB. for the first fish and then Steve popped this one we estimated at 12-13 LB. for his first. He hit that one fairly close to the waypoint where Steve Kelly popped his big 30 LB. 8 oz. monster with me back in 2003. That big male at 41 in. hangs on Steve’s wall and we will never forget that experience. The photo above shows the massive size of that beast! That is the largest laker landed in my boat.

As the wind increased, it forced us to work downhill the rest of the morning and right before lunch, Steve had a better one on that got off. It is always fun for he and I to fish together! On the way home we stopped by Wickiup to check out the water levels. It is starting to drop quickly as the Reclamation Dept. has cranked up the out flow to near capacity with the warmer temps and farmers need for more water.

I will be back up at Crescent later this month and over at Wickiup next month so watch for more laker and brown reports.

Screamin’ Drags,
Rick