After all winter off, I got back out this past President Day holiday to fish with buddy Tom Staley and his son Jared. A little pumped by a fairly successful outing just the Friday before with Steve Kelly, we set out a little earlier in the day and got right on the downrigger drill where Steve and I did well a few days before. We did find some kokanee balls and a mix of bulls in the same general area but no biters to speak of. Finally we got hit around 10:30 but it didn't hook up.

We decided to go work a different spot I never look at much and I remember why after not marking anything at all. Off to the boundary area we went and set up to work depths of 45 and 65 feet as we watched the graph looking for the tell tale kokanee balls that will often produce pelagic bulls in deeper waters. No doing! Finally we decided to head up to the Crooked Arm to check it out near the mouth of the river. The shoreline didn't produce but we finally stumbled onto a drill that started producing. I was pulling a new 5" A/C Mag-Shad in rainbow on one side and a 4 " Lyman on the other. All of a sudden, the Mag-Shad was hit hard and was instantly out of the release and over with the drag talking for a couple of seconds. I was really upset when whatever it was that hit it didn't stick. This was a good fish by the way it hit. To prove my point a little later, a log about 8-10 feet long intersected the line from the reel as it entered the water from the downrigger and it didn't dislodge the release with all the weight against it. The line actually pulled the log sideways until the line slid down along the log without popping the release.

We went on to take 3 browns to 21 in. and 4 smallish bulls to 18 in. before we finally pulled the plug on the most successful bite of the day. We did get into a few schools up near the ramp right before we got off but no biters. I am not sure if I will get out again before my guide season starts, but will be out in earnest the first week of March. As of this writing, I am booked completely the first week and filling up the second week of March. Come see us at the Redmond Show next week. We will have some show specials on the new production A/C plugs.

Screamin' Drags,
Rick