Fishing Report 8/5/06

My wife Jan and I took a couple of young friends of ours for a day at Newberry Crater for some fishing at Paulina and East Lake. Jonathan and Kristi Black, along with their step dad, Tony Herron joined us for a day of chasing some kokanee and browns.

When we arrived at Paulina, I was amazed at how bad the algae bloom had affected the visibility. As I pulled away from the dock, we lost visual contact with the bottom after we got over 5 feet in depth. I don't recall it ever being that bad, though it does occur each summer at several of our high mountain lakes with little effect on the fishing.

We got there a little late but went right out from the resort where several boats were already jigging and trolling for kokanee. We were approaching the full moon and it seemed like a tough morning. We only landed 1 kokanee out of 5 hooked and didn't notice anyone really tearing up the kokanee. After a corporate decision to move, we headed over to East to see if things might be better.

By now it was 10:30 and we had a time of it even getting bit on the kokes. After talking with a few other anglers, we determined that the kokes had turned off from not much of an early bite to begin with. In an attempt to salvage the day, we switched gears and decided to go after some browns.

We started working an area I like and managed to get a small brown on the downrigger that Kristi got to reel in. Next it was Jonathan's turn and he landed a nice little brown of 14 in. By the time we called it a day, the two kids got to reel in 5 browns to 15 in. and really seemed to enjoy a day on the water. East did not live up to the wide open brown trout fishing I experienced last year for browns, but I haven't put in the time on it this summer, to be fair.

No matter how the fishing is, the crater is a beautiful place to spend the day.

Tight lines, Rick