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After a trip to Lake Pend Oreille with Eric the week before you would think I would be satiated on the fishing front.....not so! With a pretty good chance my fishing opportunities this coming winter would be severely limited, I decided to head up to Crescent Lake to chase some browns or lakers.

With Crescent Lake Resort closing this winter, I knew I would be running out of time to get out on the lake before a big snow closes the public ramp. In years past, the resort has remained open through the winter and they charged us $10 to launch at the resort ramp. They plowed the road and ramp as needed. With low snow conditions the past few years, the resort decided to shut down this year. That only leaves the public ramp over at the campground and that traditionally closes around Dec.1 or when a big snow makes the road impassible. They will then close and lock the gate just outside the campground.

The docks had been pulled and a slight breeze made the launch a little dicey. I got in and was out on the lake a little after 7:00 a.m. this past Fri. right before a front was coming in that weekend. The weather was perfect.......cloudy with a sight breeze! If these conditions held I was going to stay with the pursuit of browns all day. If it flattened out, I would change speeds and slow down and look for lakers deeper.

I pretty much stayed with my plan and dissected the shorelines I wanted to work. I hit all the browns down in the west end working water of 10-15 feet with various lures. Three of the browns were caught before lunch including the best of the day......a long and lean hookjaw. I also picked up at native dink rainbow. All were released and I only took a photo of the hookjaw. After lunch I picked up one more brown around 3 LB..

I really appreciated the Navionics chip I had purchased from a buddy of John’s last year. The detail on the depths compared to the map exactly....I was really impressed with just how close to reality it was. It was not quite as accurate at Wickup and that is a crazy lake with winding channels and the map is often off enough to get you into trouble if you were trusting it completely.

With some snow coming to the hills this week, I will have to wait and see if I can get out this next week.......stay tuned!

Tight Lines,
Rick