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The “cabin fever” seems worse this year for some reason. Since the weather has been improving, I have wanted to get out as often as I could. This past week had two days that looked good so Steve Kroll and I decided on Thursday to make a run up to Crescent. As I have stated many times before, it is one of my favorite lakes here in Central Oregon and often accessible most winters.

I don’t really like to tell “The big one that got away” stories except maybe to whine and moan to my sympathetic buddies. Since I did a radio spot with Lance Fisher of The Northwest Outdoor Show a couple of Saturdays ago and let the cat out of the bag then at his request, I guess it doesn’t matter that I recant it again here.

Anyway, I was at Crescent by myself the week before and had caught a smaller brown of 4-5 Lb. earlier that day. Later in the afternoon a nice breeze came up making it a little more likely to get bit in skinny water. I set up to run a section of the lake I like and has been really productive over the years. I was fishing two rods and was actually setting back to relax for a moment when I saw the outside rod double over. The fish immediately hit the top and tore up some water.....I knew right then this was a good fish! I decided to clear the other rod and watched the rod in the holder loading as the trout surged off with the drag singing. By the time I got the other rod put up and got on the trout, my line counter had run out to 350 from the 210 feet I had put out.

It probably took me another 10 minutes before I finally had what turned out to be a big hen right behind the boat. My line counter read 23 feet and I could make out the deep body on her as she rose and made a hard turn away from the boat. I could only gasp as I saw the lure come out of the side of her jaw in slow motion. I think that perhaps because I had her on awhile and the lure had smaller hooks than I usually use, a hole had worn where the hook was and the #6 treble wouldn’t hold any longer. I was sick as the lure slowly floated to the top and the big hen swam back down. I saw here well enough to estimate her weight around 12-14 LB. A real heartbreaker!! She probably would have been my second heaviest brown and # 7 for me on the BB list.

Fast forward to a week later as Steve and I hit the lake on a nice sunny day. A front was moving in that evening so we thought the timing could be good. It was one of those days right “out of the book!” The Solunar table called for the best bite around 11:30-1:30 p.m. and it went off as predicted. We found bait balls of kokanee and I got into a nice brown on our first pass off a point. For the next few hours, we got into browns to 8 LB. and lakers to 15 LB. Unfortunately, my remote steering system popped a cable and we had to go in to replace it. By the time we got back to the dock, we made the call to head home.

A fun day that went as well as you hope. Look for more of my reports as brown trout season starts to take off!

Tight Lines,
Rick