|
THE GOOD:
I received a text from Jimmy Lewis (The Godfather/Founder of "TrophyTroutHunter" and Founder of
"HookjawHunter.com) on Thursday around 7 am on my way into work. The message read "Bret Caught his First 10!"
I knew that Jimmy and his best fishing buddy, Bret Martin, were going to be hitting Crescent Lake starting Thursday morning.
I called him immediately, and sure enough, Bret had caught a gorgeous, 28.5", 10.5 lb brown trout at 6:30 am on Koke
Pattern Bomber Long A minnow. I was so happy for Bret, and just getting pumped about things to come!.
Same
day, more text messages with more GOOD NEWS rolled in. I received a text at 11:30 am from Jimmy that he just busted
a 5 lb brown on a jointed rapala-type lure. 2 browns over 5 lbs on the first morning with one over 10 lbs!?!?!
Crescent lake was on fire! 2 hours later, Jimmy sends me a text. This time, he busted an 18 lb, 38 inch mackinaw
on an AC Stickbait! I couldn't concentrate at work with all this fantastic news from Jimmy and Bret.
That
night, I was getting packed and ready to get to bed early as I knew I wasn't going to get hardly any sleep for the upcoming
weekend. I decided to call Jimmy to see how the evening "prime time" drill went. I call and to my surprise, Bret
Martin answers the phone. I asked, "Hey, how's it going?" He answered "Well, right now I'm just messing with my
livewell." I responded with "If you're messing with your livewll, you must've caught something." He said "Yep,
just got a nice, long, hookjaw brown." I was floored. He had just caught a 27 inch, 7 lb brown. Bret did
tell me though that another of our fellow TTH'ers, Jordan Whitton, was up there and he had caught a REALLY NICE brown earlier.
Jordan didn't have his scale, but he did have it safely alive in his livewell.. Since they still had about 15 minutes
left of legal, they said call back in about 30 minutes and we'll tell you.
I was like a kid sitting on
the stoop of a staircase on Christmas morning, just giddy with anticipation of what could be under the Christmas Tree.
Except, all I wanted for Christmas was a 10 lb brown! I didn't even have to call. I got a call from Jimmy Lewis
and the first words out of his mouth were "10.5 lbs, 30.5 inch long Hookjaw Brown for Jordan!" I just screamed in excitement.
Jordan now broke the 10 lb brown barrier! And to add a little more gravy to the day, his friend Josh had also caught
a great 5.5 lb brown as well. Jimmy said, "It's pretty unbelieveable when the smallest brown caught for the day between
our group was a 5 lber!" I said congratulations and "hi-fived" Jordan through the phone. I hung up, called RD
and we decided that we were changing our plans. Screw Wickiup, we're going to Crescent Lake.
Friday morning
through early afternoon, the text messages kept coming! Jimmy sends one early morning that he caught a 6 lb mackinaw
flatlining. 2 hours later, Bret caught a 12 lb mackinaw by the Boy Scout Camp. 2 hours later, I received a text
that our friend Joe, (a.k.a. Fish-on-Bend on Ifish) and he joined the fun with a great 18 lb Laker off of the downrigger.
I sent him a congratulation text and then Joe called me. We chatted for a bit and couldn't believe the incredible bite
that was going off at Crescent. Hopefully it would last. 30 minutes later, I received a text that Jimmy had decided
to "one-up" Joe with a 19 lb mackinaw. That was it! I couldn't take it any longer! I asked my boss if I
could leave a little early, I told him the results of what was happening, and being the excellent fisherman and sportsman
he is, I was on my way to Crescent with RD.
The trip up there, RD and I couldn't get to Crescent Lake fast
enough!! We pulled up to the boat launch, and low and behold, one of the best fisherman on the west coast (if not the
best), Chuck Jones was putting in. I said "Hi" to him and helped him get his boat tied to the dock. As I was doing
this, a couple pulled up in a camoflauged jon-boat. I said "Hi" to them and they asked "Excuse me, sir. Do you
know your trout very well?" I said "I think so. Whattdya got?" That was when they hoisted up a perfect specimen
of a hookjaw brown trout. I told them they had a tremendous catch on their hands. We exchanged pleasantries, and
their names were Diane and Robert Hamman. I asked them if they weighed it and they didn't have a scale. I grabbed
RD's scale and we weighed the amazing trout. It ended up being a 10.5 lb, 31.25 inch Hookjaw Brown. We hi-fived
them and congratulated them on an amazing feat. This was the 3rd brown over 10 lbs that had been caught from Crescent
lake in less than 48 hours. We told Chuck just as we were pulling out about what was going on, and he was visibly
excited as well.
THE BAD:
That night, nothing. Not a bump for anyone in our group. We
sat around the campfire, and we actually ended up having Chuck Jones camping with us. It was a great group, with Chuck,
Jimmy, Bret, Jordan, his buddy Josh, RD and Myself. We had a blast exchanging stories. We went to sleep
The
next morning came way to quick with the alarms going off at 4:30 am. We begrudgingly awoke to a very cold, crisp morning
with a slight wind blowing from the SW. We hit the flatlining drill straight out from the resort. The water temps
were really cold between 36.5 to 38 degrees. We trolled for about 3 hours along Simax beach without a bump.
Jimmy had caught a tiny dink, but that's all we heard of. We found out later that Diane and Robert hit gold again and
got into a very nice, 27 inch brown. They were on fire. At 9 am, I caught a 16 inch dink brown. Skunk was
off the boat, but still not very good results for what we were persuing.
THE UGLY!!!:
Just around
9 am, ol' Mother Crescent reared her ugly head at us. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing off of Diamond Peak.
We tried to get some protection in Tandy Bay, but it wasn't helping. We pulled off for a bit to get warmed up.
RD and I built a small fire to get warmed up. After we'd slowly thawed out, we went out to face Mother Crescent to see
if she'd be willing to reward us for our trying efforts. She had different plans for us. Crescent got UGLY.
We tried the downrigger drill for macks along the summer homes, trying to ride the 2 to 3 foot swells and waves back towards
the resort. Mother Crescent must not have liked our tactics. She got EVEN UGLIER.
We decided
to head towards Simax for a little downrigger action. The swells had now increased to 3 to 5 foot rollers with white
caps breaking everywhere. It was all RD could do to keep our nose right into the waves. We then said "If we get
a hook up, what are we going to do? We'll be screwed!" We both agreed to get off the lake ASAP!!! RD did a fantastic
job of angling through the waves and rollers. We were back at the campsite at 3:30 pm. We hung out with fellow
TTH'ers Andy and Allen Dahlber (Allen had busted a 16-1/2 lb brown out of Crescent in late November). They caught a
2 - 3 lber early in the morning, but that was it. Jimmy came back and had nothing since we saw him first thing in the
AM. We talked about the nasty conditions and he said that there was a 21 foot sled that went down at Odell Lake!
Fortunately, the people were okay, but that gives you an idea of how nasty it was.
That night, the winds calmed
slightly. But, with the unstable weather pattern, it was not helping the brown trout bite. After talking with
Jimmy, Bret and Jordan, they reported nothing. I did find out that a good buddy and co-worker of mine, Cody Olson, had
tried the brown drill that evening and he stuck a nice 4 lber. Way to go, Cody. .We also talked to Chuck that night
around the fire and I said to him, "Well Chuck, you probably kicked out butts today." He said "Well, you'd have to do
pretty bad for me to kick your butt. I only caught 3 dinks!" I said "Well, we caught 1 dink." He started
to chuckle and he said "Well then, I kicked your butt!" We had a good laugh. We sat around the campfire, exchanging
stories with each other and we just had a ball with Chuck. That man has some incredible fish stories, and I have a feeling
we only got the tip of the iceberg. That was fun, Chuck. Hope to see you on the water soon!
Sunday
was not any better. RD got a bump about an hour after legal. We fished until 1:30 pm but to no avail. We
heard of nothing else being caught at all that day. That's trophy trout hunting for you. It's all about
being at the right place at the right time. RD and I were there at the right place, but our timing could not have been
worse. It is what it is. It's those times where you get humbled where it really makes you appreciate the good
times. But I wouldn't have changed this weekend for the world. I (and I can speak for RD) had a great time with
Jimmy, Bret, Jordan, Josh, Chuck Jones, Andy and Allen Dahlberg, Robert and Diane Hamman, and Cody and his dad, Lauren Olson.
We even got to meet Mike Ryan (a.k.a. FishmanMike on iFish). He ended up taking our camping spot as we left.
Chatted with him for a while and wished him best of luck. It was so great to meet up with so many great people that
share the same passion for our sport of trophy trout fishing. Although we took our lumps, I'd do it again in a heart
beat!
It was great to hear that 2 guys from our gang broke the heralded 10 lb brown mark. They were long
over due and could not have happened to 2 nicer guys in Bret Martin and Jordan Whitton. Another sincere congrats to
our new found friends Diane and Robert Hamman for breaking the 10 lb mark with such a beautiful brown! Tremendous accomplishment!
Until
Next time….
Brian Wildish (a.k.a. B-Wild)
|
|
| Jordan with his first brown over 10 lbs. What a fish! |
|
|
| Bret Martin breaks through with a mean looking hookjaw! |
|
