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Summer brown action is heating up at several of our local lakes. I was out for a couple of days this week and managed to get some time in on Crane Prairie, Wickiup and East Lake for rainbows and browns.

I started up at Wickiup on Tues. and worked the Deschutes Arm both casting and trolling for brown trout. It was a slow start, probably because it was hot and flat, but things got better as a slight breeze picked up in the afternoon. I caught a nice 5-6 Lb. brown while casting and ripping a chub pattern plug on a wind drift. The brown hit about 30 feet from the boat and exploded on me. It is so much fun to catch them on spinning gear and a break from the trolling! I ended up with (3) browns going 4, 5 and 6 LB. by evening and had a few good strikes that didn’t stick.

After dinner I decided to head up to East and spend the night. I was out early the next morning and worked it until mid morning when it slowed. I was going to meet Steve Kroll up at Crane so I was planning to leave by 10 a.m. I did catch a couple of 3 LB. browns and then stuck this nice 6 LB. brown that hit on the rigger at 28 feet out over deeper water. The thermocline has set up and more fish are showing around 25-35 feet now.

I met Steve at his campground at Rock Creek on Crane early in the afternoon. He had been doing well on bugs below floats around standing timber on his last couple of trips. It was a fun change of pace for me to set back and wait for your float to disappear on the take of a nice rainbow while we sat under the shade of his canopy. The best pattern seems to be on the usual west wind that prevails in the afternoons. Unfortunately, we had a north wind and the bite was slower. We did catch one rainbow and I say we because it hit both of our bugs and we played him from both rods....a first for both of us!

Early that evening, I headed back to Wickiup to see if a bite would develop before I headed back to Bend. Right outside of Brown’s Creek I stuck a nice brown of 4 LB. while casting a plug. While working my way up the arm, I ran into Eric Cole and Mark and his brother, Johnnie Knoch. I hadn’t seen the Knoch boys in several years so it was good to see them again! They said they had picked up a few smaller browns earlier in the day. We all started trolling until dark and managed a few smaller browns before calling it quits. The lake is dropping quickly due to little snowfall this past winter and hotter than normal weather which has kicked up the irrigation water releases from the reservoir.

Tight Lines,
Rick