Something Different

[Phil Lilley]

I'm not sure if I should report this trip or not . . . but it'll come out in the KC Star this weekend I think.

Fished with Brent Frazee last night. He wanted to catch a brown fishing at night. I told him he was a little early but we'd try. I wanted to try something I hadn't done but once before - night fishing from a boat in the summer in the fog.

We got to the ramp about 10:20 pm last night. I had not called to see what the water was doing cause I was going regardless. I was surprised to see it running though. I called- 2 units at 704 ft. Put in and pushed off= called again is it was 1 unit so I knew it was shutting down.

Dropped the trolling motor- batteries dead. Mental note: check the batteries after the son-in-law borrows the boat.

We started- Brent throwing a F-7 black/silver rapala and I was throwing a dark 1/8th oz jig.

Fog wasn't too bad- I could see the tree tops. The moon was half so we had plenty of light.

No action till we got almost down to Lookout Island. Brent caught a couple of rainbows and so did I. Below the island it got good. I was hooking more trout on the jig so I handed him a rod with a black jig and he started catching rainbows too. It was great - lake was dropping out and we had plenty of current to move us downstream. Fish were nailing our jigs. But we needed a picture fish. It didn't take long.

I hooked one and said it was a nice one. Brent got the camera and started shooting. It was a pretty 18 inch rainbow. After a few pics, it swam away. Further down, almost to the Narrows, I hooked another heavy rainbow. This time I didn't lift it out of the water- Brent was to take pictures of the fish splashing on the surface. So I held the line and tried to get it to thrash- line broke, no good pics. It was pushing 20 inches.

We boated back up a ways and drifted that area again and caught more rainbows but no big ones.

Was getting late so I boated down to Short Creek to try for a brown in the deeper water. Only small stockers there- pecking at the jigs. I had given up and was ready to head in. We were just talking, fishing what I'd call the flats below the mouth of the creek when I hooked a very heavy fish. I was very, very aggressive, pulling hard. I worked it in and Brent started flashing away. We got good pics of this rainbow - I measured it over 22 inches.

How did this rainbows survive the most fished area on the lake? He had to of passed on tons and tons of power bait in his lifetime.

Great night - should be a good article. Can't wait to see the pics!

[Gatorjet]

Great report as always. I just might have to try some night fishing this weekend!