My wife Sarah and I were joined by our friend Jerry for some still water fly fishing in the Cascades. We had heard conflicting reports about what was accessible, so we were not sure where we would end up. After looking at Davis Lake, we settled on fishing the Davis arm of Wickiup. The weather was pleasant and we were excited with the hope of catching a monster brown. We started fishing about 9:00am, and I was into a good brown trout right away. It made a long run that took me to my backing. After a short game of tug a war, I slid the 4 pound brown into my net. It was a great way to start the new season. Fishing was slow, but somewhat steady. In the next 5 hours, we all landed fish including another brown that was 3 pounds and three 2 ½ to 3 pound rainbows.

My wife takes her dog Snickers with her when she fishes from her pontoon boat and Snickers enjoys spending time out on the water running around on the pontoons and gets exited when Sarah brings in a fish. On this day Sarah was playing a nice 2 to 3 pound rainbow, getting readyto net it when Snickers got so excited that she fell in the water, getting tangled with the line and the fish. Sarah dropped the net, which for some reason was not hooked to the boat and it sank to the bottom. That is when I heard my name and the word “help” being called out. When I got to her, she had landed the dog, and was attempting to land the fish with out a net. I netted the fish for her, it was one of the biggest fish she had caught on a fly. We decided to take a short break, calm down, and dry off.

We had been fishing in less then 12 feed of water all day, I decided I wanted to try probing some deeper water. I set up a type six line and headed out to the deeper channels. I was in 25 feet of water and I knew I was getting down to the bottom because I snagged once and pulled up slime a couple of times. I was about to call it a day when my line tightened and I came up on something solid. No snag this time, I could tell by the weight and massive head shake that I had the one I was looking for.

I was starting to move him when he made a run, leaving the bottom for the surface, where he stuck his head out of the water as if to get his bearings before pealing off 30 feet of line in a run that ended in a 5 foot talk walk. After one more such run and tale walk, and a 5 minute battle, I was holding one of the most beautiful specimens of a rainbow trout that I have ever had the privilege to catch. I did not have a tape with me, so I am guessing it was 28 to 30 inches and pushing 10 pounds. I decide that was the perfect way to end a perfect day, and I didn’t think it could get any better when Sarah hooked and landed her biggest rainbow on the way in, a 4 ½ pounder. What a great day, I can’t wait to do it again.

Tight Lines,
Scott Robertson