Hey sports fans.......after a long layoff, I finally got out fishing for the first time in three months. That may be a record for me! The goal we had set this past summer, was to finish the new house we had started in June before the winter weather hit. Fortunately for us, we lucked out and did get moved in about a week before the snow flew. Thanksgiving weekend to be exact. With most of the finishing touches from the move behind us now, I decided I needed to get back on the water to restore my sanity. Steve Kelly and I never got out together during all of 2008 so it was a "no-brainer" for us to hook up. We have always enjoyed fishing together and were overdue as I said.
The only game in town here in Central Oregon is LBC for easy access during the winter. A few other lakes are open but launching a sled can be problematic with snow/ice, accessibility, etc. I had gotten a couple of reports from friends recently that it had been pretty tough fishing there of late, but the 60 degree days we have been having lately made it an easy call.
My main concern was how the kicker would do after my boat had been setting that long without being started. I wasn't worried as much about my big motor since it is injected. I have been using the "ethanol free" supreme gas that Shell sells here in Bend and that is a big help. I was smart enough to leave the gas tank almost full but when I dumped in the Stabil back in Sept., I never got back on the water to get it run through the carburetor as I had hoped. My fears were quickly dispelled though when Kelly got her fired up within 6-8 pulls on the starter rope. We dodged a bullet there! Actually, both motors ran great the whole day!
We started out right in front of the Cove ramp and headed out to deeper water where we usually graph some kokanee balls. We weren't out for 5 minutes when we started seeing some balls with bulls mixed in as well. I decided to give it a shot and we dropped the riggers and started working the area. After a substantial stab at them, we huddled up and decided to move up to the boundary area to see if we could improve our luck. We had made several passes without a bite and were thinking about another move when I saw my rod bounce and told Steve I was hooked up. He didn't get it out of the clip but the bounces looked good and I quickly got on it and popped the release to tighten up on what felt like a nice bull. A few minutes later I had him near the boat but he was staying down and that had me thinking he might have some size. Though he was long enough to weigh in at over 10 LB., the 28-29 in. bull didn't break the 8 LB. mark. He was a little snaky and needed to get some weight on to get back to pre-spawn shape. With no other action for the next half hour, we decided to make a move and target some brown trout.
On the way up the arm, I ran into Tom Staley and we chatted for a couple of minutes. He had one of his son's, Bob, out for his birthday. They had just stuck a small bull and a brown right before we got to them. I told Tom I would work the other shoreline going back up the arm and let him finish his run down the side he was working. As I usually do, I ran up the arm until it shallowed out around 7-8 feet and flipped the boat around before putting our kokanee pattern plugs to work. I no sooner got it back about where I wanted it when I got slammed. A few minutes later, I had a nice 19 in. brown next to the boat. After a quick photo, I released him to fatten up for next time. In the hour we spent up the arm, we stuck (3) browns all around 19-20 in. and one smaller bull. Since we wanted to give those marks we saw on the graph out from the ramp another shot, we headed back to have some time before dark. Conditions seemed right and we found more fish on the graph than I had expected but no biters before we got off around 5:00.
It was one of those days you dream about in Central Oregon in mid-Jan.......warm, with no wind.......I would guess that the temps got into the 50's easily. I was just glad I was finally about to "scratch that itch" that had developed through the fall. I'm already planning the next trip!
Tight Lines,
Rick
