Well, after getting a late start and arriving at Wickiup around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we were finally getting our lines wet. We had fished for over an hour when Jared said "I've got a fish - a nice fish."(3.5#) He was using that outfit I bought from Rick after our last trip to the same lake with a Pointer attached to the far end.

I had another pole on the down-rigger which was for my grandson Gabe (age 8). We fished another hour and a half with no action (except running aground while watching a guy on shore reeling in a fish. Needless to say, we didn't see his fish.)We got out of that fix and Gabe's turn was up without catching anything but he said it was "really fun" to watch Jared catch his fish. We then went over to South Twin where Ruth Anne was enjoying the afternoon with the rest of the kids. I had a sandwich and watched the kids swimming and catching minnows to sell at the lodge.

After that, I took Gabe's brothers Jack and Bo for another try at fishing. This was a short excursion that yielded no results. When their turn was up, They went home with the rest of the family while Jared and I stayed to fish. We had spent the whole time in the Deschutes arm but on this circuit we had gone little further toward the main lake when a fish popped my line out of the release. Another nice 3.5# brown. This one put up a real nice fight for the enjoyment of the bank fisherman who was watching and said "that 'ill do!" when we finally landed it. We made that run again and this time Jared hooked into another brown right in front of the same guy on shore. This one was a little smaller and the fisherman on shore didn't have anything to say. Later on, I had another bigger brown pop the release. This fish did a lot of dancing at the surface trying to shake the Pointer I was using but to no avail. It was just under 7#, close to my record.

After we released that brown, Jared stuck a 5.5 pounder still using the same outfit only with the Pointer this time. By now the sun had gone down so we decided to try flat lining in the shallow water like you suggested but we saw no action after that. I think maybe we should have stuck with what was working. All together, we landed 5 nice browns with two over five pounds. Not bad for less than half a day for a couple of semi novices. Thanks Rick for all the tips and time you have spent with me.

Sincerely, Tom