12/16/11

Big gerrard rainbows continue to show at Kootenay Lake.

Check out this report for Dec. from Gill and Gift.

12/16/11

The end of November already. Kaslo held their annual Rainbow derby on the Nov 11th long weekend and three more nice fish were brought in by the winners. Read here

12/9/11

Lots of great trips happening making for lots of smiling faces. The fishing is just awesome. Last trip out was saturday. We landed 7 rainbows between 11 and 18 lbs. Read here

12/2/11

Primetime Kootenay lake is on. Excellent fishing for Gerrard's. Water temp is in the low 50's which is prime. Most days out getting fish over 10 lbs or multiple fish over 10lbs. Read here

10/28/11

The middle of October and we have things happening. Water temp is in that 56 degree area where anything may work on any given day. Some guys are telling me that they are having great days on plugs and apexes, the next guy will tell me that everything was taken on hair.Read here

10/21/11

Kootenay Lake is fishing very well. The last 7 trips out we've landed at least one Gerrard Rainbow over 10 lbs. My top 3 producing flies have been the 228, 215 and the 205.Read here

10/13/11

Dan and I meet a couple of years ago when he ran his boat across Paulina Lake that October afternoon to get my help in taking some photos of him with his big male brown. He had just popped the gorgeous 13 LB. male a few minutes before. here

10/3/11

My buddy Phil Brelje caught his second brown trout over 10 LB. this year from Wickiup this past week. Back in the spring, he put a friend of his on a 15 LB. hen brown and then caught a 10 LB. male the same morning. Too bad he is so unlucky! Congrats again buddy! here

9/14/11

Though Wickiup didn't produce the incredible number of big browns it did last summer, there were still some quality browns caught. Read a report from the last couple of weeks here

8/31/11

My oldest grandson, Colin, has fished with me for most of his 17 years now. He has been coming up to Central Oregon every summer since he was 5. I have fond memories of his first trout that he actually hooked and reeled in by himself. Read more

8/18/11

I got a call from a buddy of mine, Tony Herrin, the other day. We realized we hadn't fished together in quite awhile and he had a drill he wanted to share with me. Since East Lake had been productive for better browns of late, we decided on giving that a shot for an early morning drill. Read more

8/10/11

Saturday morning was our best action of the trip. We found plenty of browns and Vince popped this beautiful 8 LB. hookjaw buck that really gave him his money's worth on the fight.Read more

7/21/11

I finally got the chance to take my buddy, Dave Rossberg, on a long overdue fishing trip. We have been planning this for some time now. Part of the delay was the logistics of getting him in and out of the boat. Read more

7/13/11

I was also going to test some new fishing products from www.cut2spec.com that owner, Paul Dubriske, had recently sent me. Paul was the original designer of the Downjigger many years ago and had, in 2007, revived his latest version of the G2 Jigger and his G2 Planerboard.Read more

7/6/11

I just returned June 21st from my third annual week long fishing trip to Wallowa Lake with my good friend. Wallowa Lake is such a special place so it is never hard to stay one week fishing. The thought of catching a large Kokanee easily keeps your interest peeked.Read more

6/29/11

When Alec arrived this June, I asked him what he wanted to accomplish as far as "fishing goals" go. He thought about it a bit and said "How about a 20 Lb. lake trout and a 10 LB. brown?"Read more

6/22/11

I thought I could catch 10 LB. browns at will back in the late 90's and the early 2000's when I put four on the Brownbagger list in a couple of years after 18 years of trying to get my first. Boy, was I wrong! It has been a humbling nine years since I landed my last brown of 12 LB. from Wickiup back in 2002.Read more

6/16/11

After a long winter off, I have been describing my behavior lately as a "fishing drunk." Seems like I haven't been home much in the last month and a half and fishing is the reason. Some of the trips were already scheduled but I have worked in a few more and the bottom line is...I have been "fishing my face off."Read more

5/25/11

We held the Bill King Memorial Rainbow derby on the May long weekend and had the best turnout since we started hosting the event, we had 93 participants take part in the derby. Read more

5/25/11

Some of my friends have asked me why I would get so excited about fishing for kokanee. It was never one of the highlights in my fishing experiences until I had heard about the enormous kokanee that Wallowa lake was starting to kick out about five years ago. Read more

5/18/11

Spring 2011 Fishing Report Collage

We knew we had timed our trip right due to all the shallow activity we were having.....a really good bite! The wind picked up around noon so we started to head in for lunch when my rod went over with line peeling off like crazy. This was obviously a much better fish than what we had been catching. Read more

5/11/11

Spring is here!!! Having some warm days finally and it feels great. The lake has been a bit behind because of the cool spring, but is turning on now. Usually it happens around mid or third week in April, but is a couple of weeks behind this year. Read more

5/4/11

There has been a ton of snow in the Sierras this year, and the Truckee River is raging into its terminal, Pyramid Lake. It has caused the fishing to be up and down, and the term I am labeling this spring's fishing with is "manic." Read more

4/27/11

We were working "skinny water" with abundant structure and it paid off with 4 browns to around 5 LB. I am sworn to secrecy on the actual lure but I can tell you that he was on to something. Read more

4/20/11

It was a day between storms with little wind and ample sun. It felt so good to be back home and fishing again. That is probably the longest stretch that I can remember when I have not fished. A little more than 4 months! Read more

4/13/11

About 11.30am a 6# bow hit and app. 20 min. later in the same area I took a 8# bow. Two gorgeous bows, one male, one female, both back in the water for another day. After a couple of hours without a hit I figured the bite for the day was over so I started the 3 mile troll back to the launch site. Read more

4/6/11

My friend, Phil Brelje, put his buddy, Bob Braman, onto this monster hen brown that was pushing 16 LB. during a recent trip to Crescent Lake. Phil caught his second over 10 LB. during the same day. What a day! Read more

3/30/11

Now that the Nets have closed, fishing has been spotty and the action sporadic. There has been a very good bite early in the a.m., but these fish are mostly small slot sized fish. read more

3/23/11

Kootenay Lake continues to be exceptional. I've been telling everyone to expect things to slow down, but the fishing has continued to be very good. read more

3/16/11

Some of you may already know this, but RD and I had some of the best bull trout fishing of our lives at Lake Billy Chinook this last weekend. I was able to catch the largest bull trout of my life! read more

3/9/11

Fishing all through January has been generally good with the odd bad day especially around the full moon. Rainbows up to 24 lbs were being caught. There seems to be more guys getting out there than last year even though the weather seems to be worse. read more

2/27/11

Mike McNeilly recently sent me this Pyramid report with a photo of his best lahontan cutt yet. The big buck weighed 12 LB.+ and was released! read more

2/20/11

It seems that Mike Mott's new record rainbow broke the old one going back to Dec. 1971 that came out of Lake Mojave. His big beast weighed in at 16.5 LB. read more

2/13/11

Well the first annual Hook it Up Tackle's fishing derby in Nakusp was a huge success. Excellent turnout with 139 people entering, and approx 41 boats. read more

1/22/11

End of December and into January has been very good for trout. Most of the larger Gerrards are in the 15 - 18 lb range. I did see numbers of fish coming down as the water got colder, so I slowed my presentation down and threw out some Lyman plugs. read more

12/22/10

December continues to be excellent fishing. Still pulling hair on top at around 3 mph. Lyman plugs and flasher and hootchie on the downrigger is producing some nice Bullies. read more

12/6/10

I got a call from fellow Brownbagger and buddy, Jim Bringhurst, back in Oct. He asked me if I could join him for a trip to Lake Michigan in November. read more

11/27/10

Kootenay Lake is fishing hot. Great numbers of big fish coming in. Many days we're having multiple rainbows over ten pounds on the same day. A good example of this was on Nov.11 when Karl a new guy came out with two of his buddies. read more

11/20/10

Kaslo Derby Report. On the Friday I caught five, the largest about 12-pounds, two about eight-pounds and two shakers. I didn't take photos with the quite severe wind and rain. In fact, I didn't even net any fish, prefering to use plyers to release them next to the boat. read more

10/29/10

Catches of the week! read more

10/18/10

Fall is a special time to me... the end of summer and a shot at the big browns during their pre-spawn and spawning cycles. When you do tag one, they are usually breathtakingly beautiful in their best fall colors. read more

10/11/10

It seems like fall is coming early this year and this one may be the prelude to a bigger winter if the Almanac is right. read more

09/26/10

I had been up earlier in the week to fish with Dan Stewart and we both thoroughly enjoyed the time together. The fishing was tough and remained slow for most of Jan's and my stay. read more

09/12/10

It seems like fall is coming early this year and this one may be the prelude to a bigger winter if the Almanac is right. read more

09/05/10

After my report to the "Dinkmeister" the week earlier, John decided to make a trip up for some of the Wickuip brown action before the fall season ended and while you could still get a boat in. read more

08/29/10

A Trip to Remember! I met Chuck "ZZ Top" Jones back in the late 90's while I was pursuing trophy browns on our Central Oregon lakes. We hit it off right away with our mutual zeal for big browns and dedication to catching them. read more

08/12/10

I decided to meet up with the Dinkmeister and Mikey at Crescent for a couple of days. Colin and I had some decent luck on a couple of nice browns and a large laker the week before. read more

08/06/10

For my final fishing trip of the summer with Colin, we decided on heading up to Crescent Lake. I hadn't been there since the spring and hadn't fished it as much as I have in the past few seasons. We didn't get away until late and finally got on the water right around 8:00 p.m. read more

07/31/10

I had the opportunity to have my good friend, Rick Coffin, and his grandson, AJ, out this past Thurs. evening at Wickiup. We had hoped to get AJ his first brown trout. read more

07/24/10

After a whirlwind trip to California to swap grandsons and deliver several fish to the taxidermists, it felt great to be back in Central Oregon! read more

07/10/10

We decided we would head back to Paulina and East for our final outing this year. It seems that the fishing is in a bit of transition from the spring to summer pattern. With the long wet spring, it has put everything about a month behind schedule... read more

07/02/10

Congratulations to my Grandson, Alec, on his biggest brown to date. We released this nice 8 LB. hookjaw right after this photo... read more

06/09/10

Fishing on Kootenay has still been great! Splitshot has been hot out there!... read more

05/29/10

The Bill King memorial Rainbow derby was held over the long weekend, with 60 participants vying for the bragging rights... read more

05/27/10

Hot off a trip back in April, John "Dinker" Werwie and I had made plans to hit Wickiup for part of a week in May. We met at the Gull Point campground on Wed. evening and got out for an evening run at the browns. With some great action early this season on some bigger browns, we were excited as usual... read more

05/21/10

It's interesting how it goes. Some days it's just fairly steady action, and other days you have a 1 to 2 hour window of opportunity when the bite turns on, and the big guys hammer your flies... read more

05/07/10

Kootenay Lake is fishing very well right now. There's been a couple of 20 pounders weighed in this spring already, and good numbers of 10 - 15's... read more

04/28/10

Sittin' here in my camper watching the snow fall and having some lunch. Fishing your old stomping grounds here at LT Bridgeport. This is my 4th day with 5 browns total... read more

04/29/10

I was driving home from a fishing trip of my own when I got a call from buddy, Eric Cole. He and one of his friends, Darrell Todd spent most of the opener at Wickiup in pursuit of big browns... read more

04/28/10

I was really pumped for our first fishing trip of 2010. What a sweet set-up we have dialed over the last several years. He brings his Lance camper and I meet him with my boat... read more

04/25/10

My buddies, Vance Haug and Scott Johnson, came west from Nebraska to fish Pyramid with me last week. I told them that a realistic goal for a big fish for them would be a 7Lber... read more

03/24/10

I couldn't believe that I was finally heading to LBC for the first time this year. More than three weeks after the Metolius Arm opening, I was just now getting out. Part of the problem is that larger bulls or even legal fish (24 in.) have been on the decline for the past couple of years... read more

03/23/10

Fishing has been nothing short of sensational for the last two weeks. The ice in our marinas has disappeared and that only means one thing...big fish... read more

03/03/10

This past Tuesday I called Jerry to go over the paint scheme of his mount. It was then I learned that a buddy of his and 35 year resident of Joseph, OR, Gene Theil, had just broken the record... read more

2/21/10

The water here on Lake Michigan is warming up and so is the fishing. Fished a couple of trips this week and we are averaging over 20 brown trout per trip. The water has been clear so stealth presentations have been key... read more

2/5/10

December was a tough month to do much fishing on the east slope of the Sierra's. Temperatures in the negatives,icy roads, and unplowed boat ramps made it difficult to get around... read more

1/29/10

What a month December was. Excellent numbers of rainbows to 15lbs. I think my favorite story was when my little buddy Tom came up for a visit, and we took the kids out fishing for a day... read more

12/1/09

What a great month November was. A very fishy month. Good numbers of Gerrard Rainbow Trout 11 - 14 lbs. The usual gear has been working well on top, although I took a couple of rainbows at 77 ft... read more

11/4/09

Last week I was out for three days. Day one we started hitting fish, but nothing of too much size. But we hung in there keeping busy with the small fish, waiting for that window of opportunity when the big guys light up. Sure enough at about 2:00pm we hook into a real nice fish, but after a short fight he comes off the line. We hope that wasn't our opportunity of the day, and sure enough a couple of hours later the planer board line pulls way back, snaps free, and the reel lights up. After a great battle, we finally boat a 14lb Gerrard Rainbow... read more

11/1/09

The 2009-2010 Pyramid season is off to a very exciting start. It appears that the Tui-Chub, the main baitfish in the lake had a very good spawn this year. The lake is loaded with very trout friendly sized bait, and the fish are putting on the pounds. Fish are running heavier per inch than they usually do, and they are fat and fighting well. At this time last season, one fish over ten pounds had been weighed in at Crosby's Lodge... read more

10/23/09

I had originally hoped to return to Kootenay lake up in BC this fall for a shot at the big gerrards, but it wasn't meant to be. With a sparse showing of the really big rainbows over 20 LB. these past few years, we decided to wait and see what develops this fall-spring (2009-2010) and possibly hit it next fall. I truly love that whole scene up there and have been dying to get back since our inaugural trip from Nov. 2007... read more

10/12/09

Fall is here and maybe winter is right on its heels. With 4-7 in of snow (depending on where you lived in town) falling on Oct. 4, a new record was established in Bend. The most snow for a day in Oct. EVER! I thought I better get back our there before it is all over this season. Most of our lakes will be closed at the end of this month. Dink and I will be hooking up this next weekend for probably our last trip of 2009... read more

10/2/09

I got a call from the Dinkmeister last week asking me if I would meet a buddy, Dave Peterson from Santa Rosa, while he was on a trip up here to Central Oregon. After a call from Dave, I decided to meet him at Wickiup and we spent a day and a half scouting for browns. It had been really productive the last few weeks. If you could locate the bait (kokanee) and knew what to do, you could score on the browns... read more

9/17/09

Wickiup remains good on the brown fishing. It is difficult to launch now that the main ramps are closed but beach launching is possible, but tenuous, as the water levels continue to drop. With dreamy weather of late, I couldn't resist and headed up by myself this past Thursday for an evening out... read more

9/10/09

This is my favorite time of the year to fish. The arrival of fall is always a welcome change for me. The crowds are gone, the air is getting to an ideal temperature, and the brown trout are preparing for their yearly spawning ritual. They are fattening up before it starts and getting into those exquisite displays of color that make them so distinct and unique.....the most beautiful trout of them all, in my book... read more

8/20/09

It had turned hot again and that is the kind of weather it takes to get my wife, Jan to got out fishing with me anymore. It is usually about 2-3 times a year that I can twist her arm and get her into the boat.....1) when the Grandsons are up and want her to go......2) and when it gets way over 80 degrees and she is comfortable. That is what we ran into last Thurs. when the weatherman called for 96 degrees and got it right.... read more

8/5/09

The highlight of my summers these past few years has been entertaining my two oldest Grandson's for a large part of the summer. They are 14 and 15 now and have enjoyed my spoiling them as we camp and fish for trophy trout each summer. They come in shifts with one of them here from mid-June through mid-July and then we swap them with the next one coming from mid-July to mid-Aug... read more

7/22/09

After a fairly long layoff with sprinkler systems and landscaping at the house, I managed to finally get out to fish with Alec, my middle grandson, in early July. We didn't stick anything to write home about but landed a few browns to 3 LB. at East Lake. The highlight of our fishing adventures took place at Klamath Lake in lower Oregon... read more

5/11/09

I had the opportunity to get down to Crescent for an extended trip this past week. My wife was fulfilling a scheduled visit with her Mom and sister in Indiana and I took advantage of the opening to meet the "Dinkmeister" at the lake Sun. eve. With a mixed weather forecast calling for everything that next week, we didn't know what to expect besides getting wet, wind blown and cold. Sure enough, the weatherman got it right this time... read more

4/29/09

One of the guys who shows up a lot in my reports is John Werwie. Since I am a nickname freak, I have assigned to him "Dink," short for Dinkweeder or one who "weeds the dinks." Though his accomplishments of catching (5) browns over 10 LB., including a monstrous 17 LB.+ hookjaw, would seem to conjure different visions than my nickname implies. I met John at Paulina Lake about 8-9 years ago . We were both members of the Brownbaggers Club and that was our open door. We hit it off immediately and started fishing together whenever we could. We have fished Pend Oreille and Kootenay for giant gerrards. Crescent Lake for big macks and numerous lakes in Central Oregon and several lakes in other western states for our biggest common denominator....big brown trout! ... read more

4/17/09

This time of the year in Central Oregon can often produce rain,snow, sun and wind all in the same day. With these weather changes comes the icing out of many of our lower for most of the winter from any opportunities to fish for these big browns, the true die-hard brown trout junkies are licking their chops and doing whatever it takes to get after their favorite query... read more

4/6/09

I finally got onto one of our Central Oregon lakes this past week. The ramp was open with only a little snow to deal with getting to it. It was a warm, calm day with temps reaching into the 70's. The kind of day you really welcome coming out of winter here in Central Oregon... read more

3/19/09

With the Redmond Show behind me and after getting caught on on some business items, I took my old buddy Steve Kelly to LBC for our first outing on the year up the Metolius Arm. I had caught a few reports from friends that smaller bulls were the majority of the catches but I did get a good report from Dave Lemke the prior week... read more

1/15/09

Hey sports fans.......after a long layoff, I finally got out fishing for the first time in three months. That may be a record for me! The goal we had set this past summer, was to finish the new house we had started in June before the winter weather hit... read more

11/19/08

Heyyyyyyyy Guys: What a trip ! What started out as a 2 week trip over to the Arrows, Slocan Lake and the Kootenays ended up being a 2 week trip to the Upper Arrow Lakes. One Derby I was to fish wound up being a catch and kill derby fishing for wormy fish I had no use for after I would have killed it so I canceled out.... read more

10/14/08

As many of you are interested in Kootenay Lake, I thought I'd drop a brief email and pics. of how I made out this past weekend at the Woodbury Resort Derby. I don't know how many rods were entered, but my early entry ticket was # 108... read more