T
Thuggin4Life
Me and Bfishin loaded up the boat for the Wickiup opener despite the lack of my buddy Chris's attendance to the opener. Headed out friday afternoon to find TTFishon and his friends camp and get the boat in the water ready for the first light attack on the browns on opening day. After gathering some firewood and a lot of beer drinking and campfire storries getting to know TT's buddies we tried to sleep in the jeep. Must not have drank enough because neither of us slept well. We awoke a 4:15 to a bit of rain/snow/ice type precipitation. Sat by the fire for a minute and headed out in search of monster browns. Almost got lost in the dark trying to find the channel out to the lake and had one takedown before getting out of the channel. Made it out to the area were i lost a monster last year and. After some idiot(sorry if you are reading this) decided to cut behind my boat a little close snagged us up we got back at it. And procced to troll the south bank heading east. 20 minutes later the same boat got a nice brown to the boat not to far from us. We procced to troll over towards the dam pulling up to motor over water that didn't look productive. First pass along the dam I hooked a nice 3.5lb 22" hookjaw! Trying to reel in 3 rods one with a fish, all a good 200' behind the boat with the wind blowing you into the dam isn't to fun. Ended up with the 3 rod in the motor around the prop and getting battered along the dam into the rocks while trying to cut line. Ended up with some nice gouges in the side of my boat. Once we got all that taken care of we kept trolling the dam and I got a 19" 2lb brown to the boat soon after. Soon after that i had what felt to be a little one on for 20 seconds then nothing. Tryed the dam for awhile longer without any more fish so we decide to go check out the Deschutes channel and maybe bump into livin2fish whos number i forgot to write down before we left. Seen RD from trophy trout hunter out on the water by the channel out chasing trophy trout. Fished the channel for a while looking for a 12' fiberglass camo boat with a 9.8 merc but didn't go to far up the channel and turned back without seeing him. Had another idiot(sorry if you are reading this) cut to close behind us and snag our line. BFishing hooked his transducer good and we couldn't get his lure unhooked. Guy seem nice and said he could stash it somewhere for us on his way out so we decided on a drop spot and cut the line. After another misshap with the prop eating line we headed out into the lake for a little more trolling before heading back to camp for a lunch break to touch bases with the other boat. Spend some time gathering more wood and getting things ready for the evening troll. I OFFered up the middle seat on my boat trying to ease up the burden on the other boat having a 9.9 and 4 guys in a 14'er and to see if the kid wanted to fish with the younger crowd thinking we could show him how we catch trophy browns. With 3 guys and the high altitude we ran at full throttle which didn't happen to be much over trolling speed out the arm so we prettended to troll and let out some line while we motored out the davis arm into the lake. Started trolling again in the area were we lost the big one and procceded along the south bank. We had a few hits and all of a sudden the kids rod just started peeling line like a snag. So we killed the motor and he kept pressure on it while we turned around and drove up to the snag. After we got close the snag decided to start fighting and pulling and after rolling up in the line we got it in. A nice 4.5lb 22" brown! After a few more takedowns we headed Over to the dam for a repeat of the morning without any such luck other than another takedown. Seen TT's party in the other boat trying the same thing. So gave up and headed slowly back into the chop to get to calmer water closer to the arm before it got dark. Seen RD out in the same general area on his quest for trophy trout. Tryed trolling around the Deschutes channel towards the davis arm but gave up after awhile due to the rough wet ride had coming from the dam. Got back to camp shortly before it was to dark to see and really enjoyed the warm fire and cold beer. Switched seats with Bfishing and let him sleep in the back and I slept the fron seat. I must have drank enough because I slept like a baby and even opted to sleep in an extra hour after the alarm went OFF at 4:15. We were fishing again at 5:30. Suprise at how smooth the lake was compared to the day before and the sun came out and warmed up a cold day after awhile. We tryed all the normal spots on our way to the dam and Bfishin soon hooked a 19 3/4" 2 1/2lber! Soon after he had a 19" 3lber in the boat and then got a 14" dink. Tryed the dam for awhile longer with another takedown and then motored over by the Deschutes channel. Seen RD out again in the same area so we tried it out with out any luck. Stopped to use the outhouse and try to bum a smoke since I had ran out earlier. Talked to some guys who had some motor trouble but had done really well the day before. Bummed a smoke and got some tips and even some smelly jelly they had been using. Went back over to were we lost the big one last year and decided to toss a different lure out since the one that got me mine wasn't working. Not to long after that my reel started screeming and I grabbed the rod to feel something huge on the other end then nothing. Reeling in showed my line had been cut and lure stolen. I should have put the lure on my rod with 15lb test instead of just grabbing the rod it was on the had the 12lb on it. I guess thats what I get for not using my trophy trout hunting rod while out hunting trophy trout. Trolled the south bank for awhile keeping a close eye on the gas tank and headed back into to camp with 1/2 a gallon left in the tank when we pulled the boat out. Decided to see if the lure got stashed the night before and sure enough it was there so thanks guy for coming through on it. All in all not a bad trip out and I fillet them browns up when I got home and they are are in the brine as we speak. Even took a small piece and breaded it up for a quick snack before bed. I almost feel bad taking so many fish back but we didn't really get into anything that I felt need to go back to be caught by another guy in search of monster brown trout. And it had been a while since i had tasted brown.
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real nice fish
