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I have spent several weeks fishing up in Newberry Crater this spring and have enjoyed some of the best brown trout action ever at Paulina and East Lakes. I have a couple over 10 LB. from East and my grandson, Colin, caught his 2nd and BB brown from Paulina several years ago so I have some good memories of these scenic jewels setting atop an ancient volcano.

A couple of weeks ago I caught a nice 11 Lb. 4 oz. hookjaw and Vince and I caught over 70 trout in 3 days of fishing. Thinking it would be hard to top that, I was amazed at the bites John and I had this past week. In just five days, we have caught over 90 browns and a couple of rainbows. The number of quality trout over 5 LB. hit 16 this morning and we still have a few days to go. The bigger trout count was (7) from 8 to 9 LB.!! We didn’t bust any double digit fish but John had a big screamer on that chewed him off at the end of a long run....not the B-Day gift he was hoping for.

This was a first for us in that we had both of our boats out....mine on East and John’s on Paulina. It started as a trip that almost wasn’t! After dinner at the Mexican restaurant in LaPine, we pulled into the campground at Paulina around 7:30 p.m. this past Sun. evening. Deciding we were too tired to go out, we set up John’s camper and prepared for bed early. The shocker came early the next morning when we realized that his new batteries were too low and the fridge was not getting cold enough....something was drastically wrong! Luckily, we kept our heads and thought it through. At 5:00 a.m. we headed back to my house in Bend to pick up my trailer so we could utilize my refrigerator and salvage the trip. As it turned out, his LP igniter wasn’t firing for some reason and the fridge was trying to run on DC...draining the batteries. After shutting down his refrigerator, his batteries charged up and were holding. Three hours later we had my trailer right across from his camper and all the food transferred. We were fishing at East less than an hour later.

I like East in the morning and when I guided up there years ago, I actually focused on morning trips and, for the most part, set up half day trips the majority of the time. On the other hand, I have always enjoyed fishing the evenings at Paulina. In the fall of 2004, I lost a big hookjaw way over 10 LB. about 30 feet from the boat when he rolled up on the line and probably got it caught in the back of one of the trebles and popped my brand new 12 Lb. line moments before I was going to net him....a real heartbreaker for sure! I have probably lost at least 4 browns over 10 LB. at Paulina but am determined to hang in there with this wicked mistress!

What a drill we had going....put in at East in the morning until around noon then back to the trailer for lunch and a nice afternoon nap. In the evening, an early dinner and then out on Paulina in search of some big browns. We both have been loving it and wondered why we hadn’t thought of this before. Right now I am pounding the keys on my laptop for this update and then will be paying a few bills. After church with Jan in the morning, I will be returning to the crater tomorrow afternoon and John and I will be back at it for at least a couple more outings.

Look for the finish to this trip and then a report from Crescent in the next update.......

Tight Lines,