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I met Vince "Da Vin Man" Cacciottoli at the Portland Outdoor Show several years ago while working the Pro-Troll booth. He had read the TTG article ( A Tribute to Albert) I wrote about losing my son-in-law to cancer and it struck a chord with him because of his wife's battle with cancer about the same time. He booked a bull trout trip with me and a friendship has developed over the years.

We met up at Crescent Lake this past week for some early season brown action. He had purchased some new lures and wanted to share some "fishing bling" with me and hopefully put some big browns in the boat. They did work well as I will attest to later on in the report.

We didn't get out until late that Tues. afternoon and I headed straight to an area that I love to fish that has been very productive over the years. We were working "skinny water" with abundant structure and it paid off with 4 browns to around 5 LB. I am sworn to secrecy on the actual lure but I can tell you that he was on to something. The water temps ranged from 37.2 to 38.4 from one end of the lake to the other......pretty cold for this time of year. Seems like winter just doesn't want to let go this year!

The next morning brought full cloud cover and the promise of snow. It was total glass conditions all morning and we resorted to riggers for most of the day. Other than one little brown around 2 LB. early, it had been a tough day. Finally around 7:00 that evening, Vince dug out this saltwater lure and asked what I thought. It wouldn't be something I would normally run but "what the heck", nothing had been working. We happened to be in an area of deeper water and we figured this lure might dive to around 15-20 feet. He had it out for a while and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw his rod bounce and yelled " I think you got one!" When he got to it, the line popped out of the release. I thought it would probably be a Laker from the depths and area we were fishing. When we got color, I could see the golden hue and spotting of a really beautiful 6.5 LB. male brown. Turned out to be the fish of the day! Also the last bite for the day.

Next morning we awoke to clearing skies and a little sun. We started with riggers again with full glass over the whole lake.....not a breath of wind. Not a bite either. Finally, we got a little chop and started working some skinny water again. It was around 9:30 when we got the first bite. Turned out to be our best bite of the trip and lasted until around 11:30. We boated (4) browns from 2-8 Lb.+ with Vince nailing this long and lean hookjaw that was our best trout of the trip.

I have a trip coming up to Wickiup soon for several days and then a trip back to Wallowa for another shot at a trophy kokanee in later May. There have already been a couple kokanee near 8 LB. earlier this season......stay tuned!

Screamin' Drags,
Rick