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I got a call from a buddy of mine, Tony Herrin, the other day. We realized we hadn't fished together in quite awhile and he had a drill he wanted to share with me. Since East Lake had been productive for better browns of late, we decided on giving that a shot for an early morning drill. He really wanted to me to do a drift of the upper Deschutes River with him so we came up with a plan.

We would hit East with my boat in the a.m. and have lunch at the resort and then drive back to town and pick up his boat to do the drift of the river. It was something that I had only done once before, years ago, when I had my smaller old boat. I remember that Jan and I and another friend, Fred Wagner, drifted from Tethrow launch below Pringle Falls down to the Big River Campground about 12 years ago. It was beautiful and relaxing day as we meandered along the river. I think we caught a couple of browns with the biggest going around 4 LB., if my memory serves me right. I think it took us about 6-7 hours to complete the drift.

Tony met me at the house and we got going right before light. On the way up the crater we had a big forked elk jump out and cross the road about 50 yards ahead of us....always cool to see stuff like that! Another 3-4 mule deer showed along the roadway before we reached Paulina Lake. It is predictable to see them out real early and late in the day during the summer months.

We launched over at the Cinder Hill ramp and got some lines out. It was a gorgeous morning, calm and cool.....mid 40's I'd say. After getting into a couple of smaller browns to break the ice, I noticed the rigger rod bounce and had Tony get on it. I think the biggest brown he had ever caught before was in the 6 LB. range fishing with me last year at another lake in the spring. We could both tell this was a good fish as the rod loaded nicely. It really fought well when we got it near the boat. She took several sizzling runs pulling drag before she tired and we were finally ready to net her. In the net, she pulled my scale to over 11 Lb. which translates to over 7 LB. for the nice hen brown. After a photo of Tony with his new, current biggest brown, we slid her back in.

After a few more dinks, I had a good hit that turned out to be this beautiful 6 LB. male that seemed to already be dressed up in his best fall colors. Some of the East Lake browns are the most beautiful Central Oregon has to offer! We ran into buddy and fellow Brownbagger, John Hofferd, while out that morning. He had stuck a 6.5 Lb. brown for his biggest of the morning. When the bite slowed, we headed in for lunch at the resort and to make plans for part two of the remainder of our day.

We got back to my house and, after a little nap, hooked up Tony's boat and got on the road to fish the river. A traffic accident had highway 97 backed up for several miles heading up Lava Butte. We decided to wait it out but fish the lower river instead of driving down to Big River campground to start our drift. With the evening slipping away, we decided to launch right above Benham Falls and drive up river a ways and drift back down.

It was a perfect evening with no wind. We saw numerous trout rising as there was a big hatch of something going on. Tony was going to drift a big night crawler while I decided to cast plugs. It was getting late when a cast I made up against the weed line got stuck for a second and then as it pulled loose, I got slammed by a beautiful 14 in. brown. He was the only trout we landed but it was so scenic and relaxing that neither of us cared about the slower action. I would like to try this again......we may hit the upper part of the Deschutes next time.

Tight Lines,
Rick