I met Dave Bishop at the Redmond show in early March. He had purchased a couple of Walker Downriggers from me and was just waiting for his boat to be built up in Idaho. His buddy Jim Marshall from Gateway Game Preserve joined him for the day as we pulled away from the dock under a dying wind.

Things had been slowing all week and I was hoping that we could turn it around on this Fri. the 13th. It was a slow day but under such beautiful skies that none of us seemed to mind the lack of action. Well, at least they didn't show it if they were bored. Dave stuck a nice bull around 8 LB. and another dink was all we could muster. This has been the slowest bull trout week of the season so far for me.

My luck wasn't as bad as it seemed after flipping my Shimano Clarus rod with a Tekota reel into the lake on a backhand cast. That was a first for me.....still not sure how I did it. Anyway, as I stood there looking at my rod slowly drop into the 61 foot depths, I realized that the Lyman plug was just setting there. With the bail open, the rod sank while the plug stayed on top. We motored back to pick up the plug and devised a plan to get the rod and reel back.

With Dave up on the shore holding onto the plug, Jim and I drove off to empty the reel of line (1,000 feet) so we could finally lift the rod. It worked out and we got most all of the line (it did finally break) and the rod and reel, a little worse for wear after running through some rocks on the bottom, back to the top. I guess it was my lucky day after all.

Tight Lines, Rick