Final fishing report of 2006 (what a surprise!)

I can't remember for certain, the last time Steve Kelly and I fished together this year, but I think it was a trip at the end of Aug. for browns. In fact, I had to think back to determine how many trips I had made this fall.

I could only come up with (5) since Sept. and one of those was a saltwater trip with Mark to Newport Bay in Oct. We had a ball catching and releasing spotted bay bass on lightweight tackle. The highlight of that day, was the legal size halibut (about 27 in.) that hit my sardine offering that I flipped back between some docks. We were really pumped to see the flattie when he finally came up next to the skiff. Made the day!

This has got me thinking back on the whole year. How blessed and fortunate I have been this year. The filming of "American Outdoorsman" (that will air probably next month) was something I will never forget. We also completed the first of our "Trophy Trout Series" DVD's titled "Monster Bull Trout." Those were both filmed in April at Billy Chinook Lake, here in Central Oregon.

In May, Jan and I sold our home after 11 years out in Sundance. We hit the market right at the peak, and the house sold in 4 days!

When Colin, my oldest grandson, arrived in June for his summer vacation (he usually stays 4-6 weeks) with Grandma and Grandpa, we quickly went to work on the browns. The second week of July, Colin tied into his first brown over 10 LB. That huge buck went 12 LB. 2 oz. and taped out at a little over 32 in. The mount will be ready in another month (you will be able to see photos of the mount on the taxidermy page soon).

On a trip in Aug., John "dinkweeder" Werwie, his Grandson Mikey, and I hooked up for a killer trip for browns. We did really well with a bunch over 5 Lb. and an 8 LB.+ and (2) 9 LB. browns. John got busted off by something we never got to see!

At the end of Aug., I had the privilege of starring in an episode of Justin Wolf's "Angler West" TV program with my buddy, Gary Miralles from Shasta Tackle Co. It was looking like a "stinker" until I busted a 9 LB. hookjaw brown with a couple of hours to go. Thank you LORD!

And last but not least, we got word last month that we were selected to do the mount of the biggest documented brook trout of all time, caught up in Manitoba, Canada. The big brookie, that was released, was estimated at 15.5 to 16.5 LB. Both photos and the audio interview have been featured on this site.

Well enough of the reminiscing, I bet you wanted to know how Steve and I did on this last trip. It turned out to be surprising, to say the least.

We had decided to hit LBC. Actually it is the only game in town for trout this time of year in Central Oregon. After many nights below 10 degrees through the middle of the month, most all of our lakes are frozen over or impossible to get to because of snow.

We decided to sleep in a little, so I didn't arrive at Steve's until 7:30. We were at the launch around 8:15 and trolling soon thereafter. Steve had brought some Herring to try and I went with an old standby that both Steve and I have taken many bulls on, a Bomber B-16 that was custom painted in a kokanee pattern.

We headed to one of our winter spots and started working the riggers at 50-70 feet, where we marked a few bulls. Don Ratliff, the biologist from PGE had informed in a phone call earlier in the week, that their recent hydro-acoustic survey's had shown record low numbers of kokanee so far this winter. Our observations seemed to back his findings, as we didn't graph the usual number of kokanee balls that we often see.

Finally around noon, Steve's rod bounced a little as something hit his herring. After watching the rod for a little while, we determined that "nobody was at home" and brought the set-up to the top to check the bait. Sure enough, he had been hit. It was probably about 30 minutes later that I heard Steve say, "Did you see that?" I didn't but he exclaimed that his rod went over hard with another hit. Again, close but no cigar! We had found some fish, but after about an hour of beating on them, we decided to check some other spots.

We didn't really find anything that impressed us so went back to the school of bulls where we had those earlier hits. On the second pass, as we were about to change lures, Steve had just pulled his rod out of the clip and had the rigger on the way up.

Suddenly, I saw the telltale bounce on my rod and jokingly said " I'm going to watch it for a minute to see if he stays on." When I pulled the rod out of the holder, the release came out and I felt some decent head shakes. As I brought the fish to the top, I assumed that I had a 4-7 Lb. bull trout from the weight and fight. When the hookjaw brown was identified simultaneously by us both, we were a little more than surprised. I told Steve, " Get the net, I want to land this fish for sure." I knew this was my biggest brown from LBC in 11 years of fishing there. I had previously caught (2), 4 LB. browns in the same year on the riggers at 70 feet. They were both caught about a month apart and it was about 2-3 years ago.

What really blew our minds was that the brown had hit on a flasher/herring rig. That was a first for us both. We had tried it before, but had never had a brown hit this rig. Just goes to show....you never know!

The buck was pretty beat up with a tear near his adipose. I figure that he had just come out of the spawn. We did weigh him at just over 5 Lb. and I would guess he taped at 25-26 In. When we released him, he swam on top for a little while before dropping back down to chase the kokanee that he usually feeds on.

What a way to end the year. Look for some exciting changes coming in 2007 at TTG!

Happy New Year to all you fish heads!