I just got a call from Dan McAllister from over at Trophy Trout Hunter. Dan is one of my buddies from the valley who loves big trout as much as I do. I had forgotten that a group of them were heading to Crescent Lake for a shot at some early season browns.

As you can see by the photos, they had extremely difficult conditions to launch in. So bad that I would have tried something else besides fishing myself that weekend. With yards of ice before you got to the waters edge, they had their work cut out for them. I don't know all the details, but they managed to get their boat on the water and it paid off well.

One of the highlights was Dan's big, old, hookjaw brown. This fish was 32 in. long but weighed 9 LB! By comparison, my Grandson's big hookjaw from last summer was also 32 in. but weighed a little over 12 Lb. Dan's fish is one cool looking hookjaw!

Ryan Daniels was the only other guy that could make the trip with Dan and was rewarded with a nice hookjaw brown as well. A little smaller but a nice brown anywhere.

Later in the day, the guys switched over to the downrigger drill and stuck (2) nice lakers in the teens. Quite a productive weekend to say the least! Congrats guys...your persistence paid off.

My guess is that it will still be quite a while before anyone can launch at the public ramp. They usually don't plow the campground or the ramp. The policy for years has been to wait for the snow to melt before they unlock the gate. In case your getting worked up by the size of these fish, I would call someone at Crescent Junction before I drug anything besides a cartopper up there.

Check out the full story and more pictures over at the TrophyTroutHunter website.

Tight Lines, Rick