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After a long winter off, it was good to get together again with my good buddy, John Werwie, on our inaugural fishing trip of 2015. After giving it some thought, we realized we hadn’t fished together since last spring. Time flies when you get to our age!

I was out for a few hours before John arrived and managed to get a nice 5 Lb. hen brown on the downjigger right before he pulled into the parking lot. I was thinking this was a good start at least. After meeting him at the dock and heading out for the evening drill, we got caught up and got some lines in the water. It was a slow outing with only a couple of dinks for the evening.

The following day was improving weather and we worked hard for a few dinks that morning. Right before we got off for lunch, John got hit on a “sparkle pickle” and it turned out to be a nice 6 LB. hen. Now he was on the board with one over 5 LB. At this point in our lives, we look forward to afternoon naps and usually get one in each day. That evening we had a couple of missed strikes and two smaller browns.

Wednesday morning was slow but we hung in there for a couple more dinks. That evening we had our best outing of the trip. Around 7:00 p.m., I got hit hard by a beautiful 7 LB. hookjaw as you can see in the photos. After a couple of photos, I released him. About 15 minutes later, I got hit again…….this time a hen around 2.5 LB. At least we seemed to be in a bit of a bite. At 7:30 John’s rod goes off and he said it felt pretty good as his rod loaded. It was getting darker by the time we got it near the boat and she exploded with two quick jumps. We got enough of a glimpse to know she was a decent brown. We have become so jaded that if it isn’t in the 10 LB. range we are a little disappointed. She really put on a good show, jumping twice more right at the boat. After a couple of photos, John dropped her back and we wrapped things up as it was getting dark.

Thursday was tough with only a couple of dinks early and then in the evening I missed a good strike and then another short strike. It was a pretty poor day overall.

Friday morning was slow and then around 9:30, John hit a fat 6 LB. hen off the planer board. She stayed down until he had her near and under the boat and then she lit up and took some line to get away. She was a very healthy hen that had been getting her share of kokanee for sure. After photos we slid her back. The evening was a bust for anything of size and a few more dinks rounded out the day.

All in all, we caught and released 20 plus browns with 5 topping 5 LB. Not quite what we were hoping but not a bad start to 2015 and our first trip of the year! We plan on getting together again this spring. As usual, we always have a ball together!

Screamin’ Drags,
Rick