I can't believe this was my first outing of the year but it was. Although the snow and cold (we got down to highs in the single digits and lows down to -14 below) had a lot to do with it, I then had some business in California for a week followed by the Portland Show for most of another week. Six weeks into the year and I am finally getting out to fish with my buddy, Steve Kelly, at LBC for the day.

The report I got from Dan McAllister (www.trophytrouthunter.com) from the week before didn't encourage me too much but then they had faced tougher weather conditions with a yo-yoing barometer that I believe can throw the bulls off. We had building high pressure for several days before we got out.

By the way, the reservoir is very low because they are working on the new water tower project. My guess would be about 4-5 feet below high pool. Consequently, the powers that be suggest that you launch at the Deschutes ramp. We pulled into the Cove Palisades ramp on the Crooked Arm and found that we could launch one the north side of the ramp. Be advised that it is still very shallow but doable. That is what the power trim is for!

As I pulled away from the ramp to warm the motor a little, Kelly put the truck up in the parking lot, I ran across a big school of bulls on a kokanee ball about 200 feet from the ramp. After picking up Steve, I drove right back to locate them and we decided that it looked too good to pass up. There was an interesting break line that was a 70 foot deep bowl that was only about 100 yards long before it ran into a point that came up to 50 feet. On the first pass through, Steve's rod bounces and he gets on it. After popping it out of the release, he set the hook and got tight on the bull. He thought that it felt pretty good and with little wind and cold clear water, it wasn't too long before we got some color and a good glimpse of a bull that we both thought was in the 10 LB. range. After a few passes by the boat and then dogging it back down, the lure hooks pulled out. We did notice that the fish was lightly hooked and hoped we could get her up long enough to get the net under her. It was not to be. No complaints.....nice fish on in the first 10 minutes!

On the next pass, his rod goes off again. This time the fish makes one good run and we then experience an LDR (long distant release) before we get it up. We are impressed by the action so far. I decided to run a 5 in. original A/C plug and Kelly was using the old tried and true Yo-Zuri TX Minnow that has been so good to him over the years. On this pass I got hit but it didn't hook up. On the next pass my rod goes off again and I can tell it isn't very big. The surprise comes when the 2 LB. brown splashes in vain to throw the plug on the surface. That fish was at 65 feet and seemed to be working with that school of bulls we had been pounding on for the last half hour.

After about an hour and a half of working on them, I decided to give them a break and we would come back and work on them again later if they were still there. Since we weren't that far from the upper Crooked Arm, we decided to take a shot up there to work the shoreline near the springs for bulls or browns that hang out there. I put on one of the newer 6" A/C Skinnies in rainbow pattern. Boy did it look good! I can't wait to drag some for browns a little later this spring...they should be killer! Half way down the run I usually make, I picked up a little bull right off a point. A dinker-stinker of about a pound if that. Not much going on up there so we head back out toward the dam to check some of our haunts along the way to the boundary area. Not much at the Deschutes Arm confluence and we made a corporate decision to not even fish up the Deschutes Arm. The wind has now died down to a light breeze and we are finally taking off some clothes and really enjoying the 50-60 degree day with full sun. After this kind of winter, you die for days like this!

We didn't mark near as many fish as years past and this has me concerned. After we passed over a kokanee ball spread from 40-80 feet with a couple bigger bull marks at the bottom, I dropped the 6 in. A/C kokanee plug I was pulling to 80 feet and we started back into our conversation. Immediately, my rod bounced and I was into what felt like a decent bull. A few minutes later, I had the 8 LB. bull to the boat and Kelly was ready with the net. She looked really cool with that plug sideways in her mouth. After a few photos, we slid her back in and made a few more laps looking for bait or bulls. We didn't see much more of either.

After a late lunch, we decide to head back to the ramp area to see if we could locate the school we worked over earlier. As the sun got low kokanee started working the top a little and we randomly chased after the kokanee balls we could find beneath the ones on top. Steve finally got hit at 45 feet and his 6 Lb. bull was the last fish of the day. If I compared the trip to years past it was fair at best, if I compared it to what I had heard about this winter so far, we did well. We landed 4 bulls to 8 Lb. and one brown to 2 LB. Lost a big bull and another decent fish and had another couple of strikes with nobody home. Best if all, I got back out on the water with a good friend! On the way home, we ran into one of those beautiful sunsets over the Cascades that Central Oregon is famous for. I am really blessed to live here!

Look for another report from this Monday as I head back up there with another buddy Tom Staley and his son Jared.

Tight Lines,
Rick