I had Danny Zook and his son Jason along with an old friend for a day of chasing bulls. The day started with some wind that increased as the day progressed. Seems like the smaller bulls are starting to dominate the catch count and today was no exception.

We managed to land (5) bulls with one about 3.5 LB. that just approached the legal size of a keeper. The rest of the bulls were dinks. With deteriorating wind conditions, we finally through in the towel in early afternoon. The guys made the best of it and were an enjoyable group.

On Wed. I had Hank Hahn and his buddy Earl Ellsworth. The weather cooperated and we had much better conditions. On our first run in front of the island, Earl got into a nice 4.5 Lb. bull and we had the skunk off early. When that run seemed to dry up, we switched gears and headed over behind the island to work the south shore for a while.

After several small bulls popping the inside rod and Hank getting the lions share of the fish, I decided to put one of the larger Lyman's on the outside rod and set it at 6 feet on the rigger. With the lure doing about 13-15 feet at 150 back, we were working the 20 foot range.

The timing was perfect as Earl started to jokingly give me a hard time about not getting bit on the outside rod. As he was speaking, I noticed the rod jump out of the corner of my eye and turned the tables on him and suggested that he quit complaining and reel in his fish. As he popped the rod from the release, I could see the line start peeling off the reel as the drag is supposed to do with a bigger fish.

Earl's rod looked like it was getting the workout that all us big trout junkies like to see. When he did get the fish close, I didn't get a good look and wasn't sure of the size of it. Big bulls will sometimes surprise you as they swim around the boat without any big runs of line off the reel. Most of them seem to wake up and run when they first sense they are near the boat. When I did make out that this fish was huge, I went for the net and got ready. It took a couple of tries before I finally got the net under the big bull.

We got some good photos and Earl really wanted to put the fish back, and so we did. The second biggest bull on my boat this season weighed 18.5 Lb.+ plus in my net which equates to 15 LB.+ in the 3.5 LB. net. The fish taped out at a long 32.5 in. and was a beautiful and BIG specimen!

A little later, Hank got into his best bull ( 6.5 LB.) that had a little surprise for us. As it got close, I could see the tail of a kokanee sticking out of its mouth. The pre-spawn female was as pretty as the bulls get. The bluish hue in her side was more obvious than most bulls. A gorgeous fish for sure. After a few photos and the complete extraction of the kokanee, she was released to spawn this fall.

All in all, we caught and released 10 bulls with (3) legal fish in the take. It was the best trip of the last two weeks by far.

Tight Lines, Rick