Well, finally back and caught up on sleep. Here are the stats: driving hours = 37, sleeping hours = 44, fishing hours = 54...
Ok, left early Friday AM and traveled northeast to fish with a new buddy on a lake in CA. Fishing was tough with a 5.5 pound brown the biggest in the boat for 15 hours of fishing. After that, I headed north to Oregon to meet up with Dan and Jordan, a couple of guys that I have wanted to hang out with for a while now. Jordan is only 18 years old and has a bunch of fish over 8 pounds. If he keeps pounding it as hard as he is now, he will be able to put some good numbers of 10 pounders in the boat over the upcoming years. Dan is heading up the trophytrouthunter.com website and has a serious passion for big trout.
We pounded it hard for a solid 15 hours and didn't have anything over 20 inches for our efforts. Just when I was thinking our window was closed, I got shellacked on the 5" AC stickbait. That bait has been good to me lately and this trip was no exception. I wanted whoever I was fishing with to run their favorite lures versus the ACs to see how the ACs would do. I am happy to say that I did just fine with the ACs, got the big fish for the trip and had good numbers compared to the lures that the other guys ran
The fish boiled 300 feet back and I knew it was a decent fish. When I got the fish close to the boat he came straight up from 8 feet down and jumped a good 4 feet in the air...almost wrapping me in the downrigger arm! A couple more jumps all around the motor area made me nervous but I managed to control the fish enough to lead him to the net. Jordan did a good job in getting the fish into the bag. At first we were thinking 8 pounds, but after getting a better look at the fish I was thinking more like 7. It was a beautiful hookjaw, with large black spots and a blue iridescence sheen down the sides and operculum. The final weight of the fish ended up being 6.75 pounds. My trip was already made and I had lots of days fishing ahead.
I met Rick Arnold a few hours later and off we went for another couple days of pounding it. There is a blessing and a curse to fishing browns this time of year. The blessing is that you have lots of daylight to chase them. The curse is that a few 16 hour days of solid fishing can wear on you.
Rick and I had a steady pick on the smaller fish. I did manage to put a pretty 4 pounder in the boat and Rick put a chunky fish that we got some killer underwater shots of.
What really made my time with Rick special was what "almost" happened. I was reeling in a 12" brown and had it about 10 feet behind the boat and maybe 4 feet down when Rick yelled "there is a giant behind it"!! I moved my head so I could see past the glare and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Behind my little brown was an absolute GIANT of a hookjaw brown. The top of the head was 6" across and the thing was well over 30 inches long.
I have had this happen with many species including largemouth bass and mako shark so I thought I knew what to do. I freespooled my line so the small brown could swim thinking that the big boy might grab it. The leviathan took a swipe at the hooked brown and I about freaked out...was I going to get a shot at this fish?? Sadly, the largest brown I have ever seen in person turned and sunk out, leaving me with only a haunting memory of what could have been. I did feel privileged to have witnessed this special event though. Rick and I turned and looked at each other in disbelieve, not wanting to guess how big that hookjaw really was. I have thought a lot about this fish over the past few days and am conservatively estimating it at 12-14 pounds with a realistic possibility of it being a 15 pound plus fish.
Feeling pretty good about the decent fish landed and the leviathan sighting I packed up and started my drive to Idaho to fish with my brother John. John and I used to fish together every month or so but a move to Idaho has hampered our trips over the last year or two.
Our plan was to fish some rivers for browns and possibly head to Henry's Lake to chase the fabled cuttbows that inhabit that body of water. After talking it over we decided to fish closer to John's house instead of driving the 16 hours round trip to Henry's.
We ended up doing well on some nice river browns to 23 inches or so. Everything came on the 5" AC stickbait and small skinny. I had to modify the bill a bit to get the action that I wanted. It was actually the best river trout fishing I have ever had...in around 25 years of trout fishing rivers all over the west and beyond. There are still secret spots, even now...
Mark K.
Team TTG
