Lake Billy Chinook 4-15-05

Steve Kelly and I went to Billy Chinook yesterday to pre-fish for the upcoming Promo trip with a houseboat magazine crew. They are doing a piece on Jim Cyr and Cove Palisades Marina. I will have them out for half a day on Sun.

We got on around 6:30 with a slight breeze coming up. I was hoping that the forecast of 10-20 mph winds would be as accurate as most of the weather forecasts this winter. Luckily, it was more like 10 than 20 but we did get a few good gusts off and on.

It was a slow morning with nothing going on until around 11:00. We were working a point where I caught a 15 lb. bull last year and that has been good to me before for a number of bulls. I was using the Super Shadrap SSR14 that has produced 4 bulls over 10 lb. alone in the last year! We were within 50 feet of the area where I hooked up last year, when the rod went over and the drag started singing. There is not a sweeter sound in fishing to me than the drag and the line clicker screaming as a big fish bolts after he is hooked. I got on the rod and knew instantly that this was a nice fish. Turned out to be a dark, male bull that read on my Rapala griper scale 11lb. even. He measured a hair over 28 in. After some quick photos on Steve's digital, we let him go.

We worked hard all day to scratch up a total of 5 bulls with 4 being under 20 in. The big bull really made the day. I will have a report up by midweek for my efforts on Sun. and Mon. and then we will be up at Crescent for the opener.

Tight Lines, Rick