O
OnTheDrop
Also known as the 'German Brown' trout was the game for the previous weekend. My good buddy Jared aka NoFishWilliams aka Rodney, and I set sail on a last minute decision for some early season big body brown debauchery at my favorite lake " East Lake ". We thought it would be a good weekend to let some more springers pour into the Tribs
East has had a special place in my heart since I was a child. It was where I started fishing and learned a lot of my basic fishing knowledge. I've been coming up there since before I could walk so it's easy to see why this place is special to me. Countless fishing and camping memories with friends and family that will never be forgotten. Including the "Ones that got away". In more recent years with my family and the others leading different lives the group camping aspect has pretty much disappeared and has turned into more of targeting trophy trout. Usually including my pops and I or a good buddy. We try to make it up atleast once early season and once more in the fall. Unfortunately the pops couldn't make this trip, but should be good to go by fall one. Either way, whatever I come up to the lake for these days I'm in heaven after turning left off 97 for the 18 mile climb.
We left Friday evening after Rod got off work with hope for atleast a decent couple passes with our rapalas before dark. Traffic wasn't bad and we breezed over into the high desert anticipating some good fishing the next few days. We got to the lake by 8:15 and set out for a little trolling with nothing for our first pass or two. We then proceeded to set up camp and build a little fire. We joked and conversated over copious amounts of beer getting excited for the upcoming day. We finally we retired ourselves and got to bed for a few hours before the 4am wakeup. The weather Saturday up there was typical for may. Rain, Sun, Hail, Snow, Wind was all on the menu. Constantly changing all day... We hit some nice fish including some really nice holdover rainbows and some browns but nothing clearing the 18-20" mark. We trolled hard in some very likely places where big browns are usually lurking. We had plenty of action Saturday but nothing that we were looking for. This is until the evening troll when my rod doubled in a very likely spot but had popped off before I got it out of the holder. That was a big fish! Oh well.. It was getting dark by this point so we came to shore and did a repeat of the night before. This time we cooked up a big ol' slab of Springer that was freshly caught the weekend prior. Hmmmm tasty!
Sunday morning started off the same except for it was nice out. Glassy waters and sunshine was on the table this morning making it much more comfortable out on the boat. We were really determined to get a nice fish this morning since we would be leaving in the afternoon. We trolled and trolled occasionally rippin' my rapala for some extra action to entice a big one and it wouldn't come. Fishing was overall pretty slow for us for the bigger ones we were after, but we knew we could still tie into one. We really started to focus on this one stretch near the warm springs that has givin' up big ones in the years past. About an hour of passing back and forth countless times jerkin' my rod finally something grabbed hold and started diving deep. I quickly yell to Jared " Big Fish " .. Finally, I knew we tied into something that was of decent size. After a nice battle we got this nice guy in and we were all smiles. Not that 10+lber we were searching for but a great looking fish. We tried to hook into one more but couldn't make it happen. Oh well, we gave it hell for the day and a half we were there and worked hard for that fish. Success in our books either way.
Another memorable trip up at the Lake...For all who have never been up there I highly encourage it. Good fishing for Rainbows, Kokanee, Atlantic Salmon. All techniques work here as well. Especially the fly fishing which is hands down some of the best in the West for a lake. Also, the owners at the resort Dave and Kathy Jones are genuinely nice people that have most of your needs if you forget something including some good breakfast!
Haven't made a report in a while so I thought this would be a good little one to share. Here's a few pics from the trip, i'll upload more later.
Tight Lines all!
East has had a special place in my heart since I was a child. It was where I started fishing and learned a lot of my basic fishing knowledge. I've been coming up there since before I could walk so it's easy to see why this place is special to me. Countless fishing and camping memories with friends and family that will never be forgotten. Including the "Ones that got away". In more recent years with my family and the others leading different lives the group camping aspect has pretty much disappeared and has turned into more of targeting trophy trout. Usually including my pops and I or a good buddy. We try to make it up atleast once early season and once more in the fall. Unfortunately the pops couldn't make this trip, but should be good to go by fall one. Either way, whatever I come up to the lake for these days I'm in heaven after turning left off 97 for the 18 mile climb.We left Friday evening after Rod got off work with hope for atleast a decent couple passes with our rapalas before dark. Traffic wasn't bad and we breezed over into the high desert anticipating some good fishing the next few days. We got to the lake by 8:15 and set out for a little trolling with nothing for our first pass or two. We then proceeded to set up camp and build a little fire. We joked and conversated over copious amounts of beer getting excited for the upcoming day. We finally we retired ourselves and got to bed for a few hours before the 4am wakeup. The weather Saturday up there was typical for may. Rain, Sun, Hail, Snow, Wind was all on the menu. Constantly changing all day... We hit some nice fish including some really nice holdover rainbows and some browns but nothing clearing the 18-20" mark. We trolled hard in some very likely places where big browns are usually lurking. We had plenty of action Saturday but nothing that we were looking for. This is until the evening troll when my rod doubled in a very likely spot but had popped off before I got it out of the holder. That was a big fish! Oh well.. It was getting dark by this point so we came to shore and did a repeat of the night before. This time we cooked up a big ol' slab of Springer that was freshly caught the weekend prior. Hmmmm tasty!
Sunday morning started off the same except for it was nice out. Glassy waters and sunshine was on the table this morning making it much more comfortable out on the boat. We were really determined to get a nice fish this morning since we would be leaving in the afternoon. We trolled and trolled occasionally rippin' my rapala for some extra action to entice a big one and it wouldn't come. Fishing was overall pretty slow for us for the bigger ones we were after, but we knew we could still tie into one. We really started to focus on this one stretch near the warm springs that has givin' up big ones in the years past. About an hour of passing back and forth countless times jerkin' my rod finally something grabbed hold and started diving deep. I quickly yell to Jared " Big Fish " .. Finally, I knew we tied into something that was of decent size. After a nice battle we got this nice guy in and we were all smiles. Not that 10+lber we were searching for but a great looking fish. We tried to hook into one more but couldn't make it happen. Oh well, we gave it hell for the day and a half we were there and worked hard for that fish. Success in our books either way.
Another memorable trip up at the Lake...For all who have never been up there I highly encourage it. Good fishing for Rainbows, Kokanee, Atlantic Salmon. All techniques work here as well. Especially the fly fishing which is hands down some of the best in the West for a lake. Also, the owners at the resort Dave and Kathy Jones are genuinely nice people that have most of your needs if you forget something including some good breakfast!
Haven't made a report in a while so I thought this would be a good little one to share. Here's a few pics from the trip, i'll upload more later.
Tight Lines all!
