Best brown of our trip. The hookjaw went 8.25 LB. and was released.
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The week before our trip, I did get up to Crescent for a day by myself. With the water temps at 37 degrees, I didn’t really know what to expect but with the warming weather and recent reports of some good brown action, I was glad to get out on a nice warm day. It was a good afternoon with 5 browns total and 2 nice ones, both over 8 LB.! A call to John later that week was all it took to get him out of his recliner and up to Central Oregon for our first outing of the year.
Our downfall was not giving enough credit to the weatherman and his forecast of a front coming in mid-week. I guess I had grown accustomed to their erroneous forecasts all winter long where they called for much more weather than what really showed up. They consistently over forecasted the weather from Jan. to March in Central Oregon. I should have known they would eventually get it right.......in fact, it was more than they called for!
It was in the high 50’s and nice On Mon. when we got up there. Tues. morn wasn’t too bad and we did catch the best brown of the trip.......John got a nice buck that weighed right between 8-8.5 LB. It hit on a new fly a friend of his is tying up. He also had a good fish on that bit him off and he did lose the plug. By that evening the front was coming in and we awoke to a steady rain on Wed. The wind picked up as well and it was a really tough day....never stopped raining for long! We did stick a few browns and I think the best was around 3 LB. The rain switched to snow that night and I had caught a horrific cold the previous weekend that was wearing me down. Thurs. morn was blowing snow that hung around for most of the day and we scratched up a couple of dinks. Fri. morn brought the same and the low pressure had pretty much shut down the bite. John lost one and I caught a fat 3 LB. rainbow right before we got off. We had breakfast at the resort and then hit the road for home.
I will be out on several trips through April and May for browns and the possibility of a shot at some big gerrards at Pend Oreille if things work out. Be sure to check back as I am “batching” it for several weeks and will be fishing more than usual.
