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May 2011 Fishing Report from Northern California

Here is the info about our trip. My brother- in- law, Robert, and I went fishing in the Sierras on May 2nd and 3rd. It started out great Monday morning with macks to 8 LB. all while top lining. We knew we had timed our trip right due to all the shallow activity we were having.....a really good bite!

The wind picked up around noon so we started to head in for lunch when my rod went over with line peeling off like crazy. This was obviously a much better fish than what we had been catching. Once I set the hook, it peeled a little more line and then charged the boat. I thought for a second it had come off. It pumped again and we circled around to the fish. About 30 feet from the boat she rolled at the surface, waved her tail in the air and dove taking a bunch more line again. She surfaced again next to the boat and Bobby scooped her up perfectly.

We snapped a couple pics, weighed and marked her dimensions on the bench seat with a pocket knife for references and tried to revive her. After about 20 minutes of swimming her around next to the boat we decided she wasn't going to make it. It was an amazing fish but I was really hoping to release her. Since she wasn't going to make it, I decided I would mount her. Bobby and I had fished up in Oregon earlier in April and Bobby was considering a mount of his 28" hookjaw brown and had talked with Rick about it. I decided I would send her to him for the mount.

The wind was crazy the rest of the day with white caps higher than the sides of our 12' boat. Late that evening I hooked into a monster in the same area where we got the big brown. I am pretty sure it was a mack as it went for the bottom and stayed there pumping and peeling line. After almost ten minutes I had just started to gain some line when the fish sizzled off some line and SNAP! I blew it. Guess I was in too big of a hurry to see what was on the other end. The next day the wind laid down completely and so did the bite. We tried going deeper but no luck. Bobby got one more mack and we called it a day. Not the hottest bite but definitely a trip to remember.

Thanks, Randy

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Pyramid Report April 2011 by Randy Hansen

We fished 2 setups with the fly pole and the most effective was using 2 midges (black/silver and red/gold) size 8-12. The first fly starting at 4-5' and the second 2' below that under a indicator that really helps if you have a strong wind. The other setup was using a fast sink tip stripping a black Bead Head Woolly bugger with a White/Chartreuse foam beetle tied 3 feet in front of the bugger.

The bite seemed to be good all day the key is to just stay put and keep your flies in the water all day. You can expect to catch 5-30 fish a day with a average of 15 to 23 inches and if your lucky there are some monsters that tip the scale at over 10 lbs.

Fishing was good at all the popular spots (Nets, Pelican, Marina, Windless and Warrior Points). My advice for first timers would be find a beach with people and take your ladder out close to the ledge and spend the day with your gear in the water and the fish will come if you can just stay fishing. I was really fortunate to land this big lahontan on my first time to the lake. It weighed in at 12 LB.+ and after talking with local Mike McNeilly, I have decided to have Rick's Trophy Mounts do the mount.

Thanks,
Randy

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Wickiup Report May 2011

John "Dinker" Werwie and I were off and on with our first spring brown trip this year. John thought he was facing some possibly large truck repair bills that didn't materialize so we decided to meet up at the Wick for some spring brown action.

I did fish a little the week earlier with my wife and scattered some browns to 6 Lb. over a couple of days. The water should remain higher this year with a great snowpack and a long extended, cool spring.

As we compared it to last season, it was a little slower overall but we did hear that buddy, Chuck Jones, caught another brown over 10 LB. about a week earlier. Congrats man! Also, fellow Brownbagger, John Winterset, picked up a 10 LB.+ brown from a California Lake, after his stay at Wickiup on his way home. He was fishing with California State Brown Trout record holder, Danny Stearman. Congrats buddy!

We caught just under 40 browns for the week with just enough 4-6 Lb. fish to keep our heads in the game. I had one smoker right before dark that sawed me off at the end of the initial run.....sure felt good......wished I got to at least see it! I did hook up on a beautiful spawning male rainbow early one morning.....they aren't caught all that often in Wickiup.

Look for a report from Wallowa Lake next week as Eric Cole and I head up to hopefully sample some monster kokanee action.

Tight Lines,
Rick