I planned to camp for 4 days. I arrived Monday it looked like a nice fall weather pattern had settled in. Day time high mid 70's, overnight low mid 30's. The lake is 1000+ acres and can get windy.
It is getting more attention this year from communities on both sides of the Cascades due to the average size of the trout (rainbow/brown/tiger). It was much more crowded at the boat launch than I had remembered it to be on my 1st trip last fall. I asked both gear and fly fishers 'How did you do' and got a wide range of answers. I tried to pick through the info, understanding that a fishing report by anglers is suspect at best.
The plan was to use my Thomas & Thomas Montana 6/7 wt with an intermediate sink line and search for the big ones. The Schliske 6 wt was on hand for any surface/hatch activity.
The first two days the fishing was low numbers but decent size. Due to weed growth and algae bloom I ended up using the 6 wt with floating line to avoid constantly clearing my flies of lettuce and algae. This would be a critical decision later on. I pickedup a few browns up to 22" and rainbows up to 18". These numbers are consistent with some of the 'reports' I had heard the first day, though some anglers had said they were also catching tiger trout.
On the second day the wind was too much in the afternoon so I visited a nearby lake that has the reputation for producing large browns. I did some recon, checked out the inlet and decided I would return after giving the primary lake another shot
On the 3rd day I fished the area I had taken the browns. I had another hookup. After clearing a large clump of vegetation off the line I went at playing the fish. It became apparent it was larger than the fish I had been catching, I just wasn't sure how much larger. After a substantial battle where it did show itself on the surface to be a very large fish, Eventually I had a 10-12 lb tiger trout wallowing on the left side of my canoe, eye catching bright orange brook trout pin striping. My net seemed soooo small at that time. My thoughts were how do I land this fish (I never thought about going into my pocket for my phone camera) I was using the Schliske 6 wt (8') with a 12' hand tied leader that tapered down to 6 lb test flouro). I decided not to reel the leader into the rod guides fearing if the fish took off knots would possibly cause problems for the rod. Being right handed, I tried to sweep the rod to the right, front, opposite side of the canoe while using my left hand with the long handled net to scoop up the monster trout. The fish was still out of reach and must've gotten a second wind. It made a long escape run.
I basically repeated the whole thing a second time. Sadly, this time when the trout made it's escape dash the 6lb leader broke. Reflecting on it, yes, I would really like to have had a picture. No, I was not going to compromise the battle fumbling with a camera. I should have put the floating line on the Thomas and Thomas 7wt rod which has allot more power in the butt section. I feel the additional butt strength would have given me more control over the fish when it was at the canoe. I am also second guessing my decision not to reel the leader into the guides. The Schliske rod has sentimental value but risking it on that special fish may have been worth it.
Needless to say, I never made it to the second lake. I finished out the trip with one more decent brown and some rainbows, Definately will buy the Oregon out-of-state annual license again next year.
Figured I'd add a more detailed photo of the net. Opening measures about 19", handle about 18.5"
