I was working the Redmond Show during the opening of the Metolius Arm on LBC this past weekend. The reports I got suggested a tough opener. Lots of boats but few fish! I did get a photo from Ed Pond of his 31.5 in., 13.5 Lb. bull and that was the second biggest that I had heard about. The ODFW creel census gal at the ramp confirmed a 16 LB. bull trout from opening day as the biggest verifiable bull so far.

I had promised a trip to an artist friend of mine named Andy Sewell, from Washington, to fish on Monday after the show. We had met at the Portland show about three years ago and continued to run into each other every year since, while doing the shows. He had given me a painting a couple of years ago at a great price and I wanted to return the favor with a fishing trip. It worked for us both!

Unfortunately, the wind was up and supposed to increase during the day. For once, they got the forecast right and it was howling pretty good when we got out on Monday. I had much to do after the show, so we didn't hit it very early, in fact, it was around 11:00 after we switched to the Deschutes ramp, before we got in the water. With the wind whipped up, it was an easy choice to hit the Crooked Arm. When we were putting in, several boats began showing back up at the dock after battling the strong winds up the Metolius Arm and had decided to throw in the towel.

I had little choice but to run up the arm and troll back out. No boat control at all going into the wind. That is a simple little tip on how to fish when it is windy and you want to troll.....go down hill! After several passes, we finally hooked up on a 5 in. A/C Mag-Shad. It was a dinker but one of Andy's wishes was to be able to get good enough photos of a bull to paint one for his developing art collection. We got a few photos and put her back. We really had a great day of conversation and found we had many things in common. The time passed so quickly and we weren't doing much in the catching department and then suddenly the rod bounced and we were tight into a nice bull. I had changed out lures before we started the last pass and gone with a bigger 7 in. Mag-Shad in rainbow pattern and she seemed to like it. I had set the rigger at 30 feet in 70 feet of water as we had started seeing some koke balls in the area at that depth.

After some photos, we headed in to call it a day. Andy wanted to keep a fish and this one was a perfect specimen. He wanted to treat his family to a bull trout dinner and he had his limit with this 26-27 in. bull. It was a fun day in spite of the wind!

I will be out on Thurs. and Fri. with a client from last year, so look for a report to follow.

Tight Lines,
Rick