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The world is a good place, not only was I able to get out on the boat again but my good friend Tony was able to join me. Between the two of us we have a constant string of fish stories going. Many years, fish and future fishing trips to plan the company is always enjoyed.

Having actually planned the trip, I woke up ahead of the alarm and got the boat ready and hooked up to the truck. After a quick stop at Fred’s for gas and another stop for coffee I was on the road. Arriving at Campbell Lake in the dark I got the boat ready to launch and a short while later was off the trailer without incident. After parking the truck I settled into my boat seat to set up the gear before Tony arrived when I noticed that it wasn’t getting light yet. I dig the phone out of my bibs and realize that it wasn’t quite 6:00 yet. What? I was an hour early, how in the world did I do that?

Tony and the daylight arrived at 7:00 and shortly thereafter we were underway. Tony was running a small dodger and a homemade silver spinner and I was running a home tied red/black fly on one rod and a 2 ½” gold Rapala on the other. We targeted water that was 8-10’ deep, trolling at 1.0-1.8 mph. We ran the dodger rig 30-40’ and the other gear 60’ behing the boat on 6# fluorocarbon. Right off the bat we hooked a number of small 6-8” rainbow and after a minor gear modification I noticed that my Rapala was acting funny. I got up and saw that it was off to the side tracking the boat. Thinking that I had hooked a reed or stick that was swimming off to the side I was going to quickly reel in a reset the gear. I picked up the slack and suddenly the water behind the boat explodes and we went for a sleigh ride. The fish made numerous long runs frequently interrupted by displays of aerial acrobatics before we were able to slide the net under our first monster of the day. The fish ended up weighing 4.1 pounds and was just the beginning of a fish-a-pallusa day.

Catching the big fish was like opening a flood gates, from that point until we called it a day we had constant action on a mix of very nice smaller rainbow to more Moby-bows. Not fishing any bait our plan was to catch and release, only keeping the injured or bleeding fish. In the end we caught 20-25 fish to 4.1 pounds. We kept 6 fish, releasing all others unharmed. We had a day for the record books and set the bar pretty high for future trips.

After a tough year last year, with fishing trips few and far between this year is off to a great start. Today was a kick in the pants and thoroughly enjoyed. And before anyone comments; my kids hate the hat also. At my end the hat is warm, windproof, waterproof, I’m old and don’t care…

downriggeral

2/13/2016 7:04:00 PM

Hat...what hat? Old and warm is good trust me.
Nice fish, looks like you had a BLAST!
Tight lines - Alan

Toni

2/14/2016 6:48:00 AM

I didn't even notice the hat. All I was looking at was the fish. But I am old too. Great report.

afk

2/14/2016 8:32:00 AM

Old! Heck, you still get excited enough about fishin' to wake without the alarm, arrive an hour early & have the boat prepped and ready before your partner is out of bed. I'd call that GOOD! Thanks for the report & pics. Glad you guys had a good time. Andy

strikezone

2/14/2016 8:57:00 AM

rseas: Looks like you guys had a ball. Good for you. I used to fish Campbell once in awhile back in the 70's&80's. It wasn't anything to write about back then. We lived in Sedro Woolley at the time. I fished mainly Pass Lake back then. I see we have the same Lund 1650 Renegade. I love mine too. Good fishing to you.
Denny

bassplayer17

2/14/2016 10:43:00 AM

Always a blast. Next up Everett blackmouth derby...

MotoBoat

2/16/2016 12:10:00 PM

Was a variety of gear used other than what was originally tied on? Once the small trout were found, was there a fishing gear depth change or lake contour depth change to find the larger fish? Many others fishing the lake? Awsome day!

rseas

2/19/2016 8:09:00 AM

MotoBoat, I'm sorry about the late reply. I had pecked out a reply on my smarter than me phone, posted it and then realized that the reply didn't post.

With a couple exceptions for the most part we stuck with the gear that we started with. We did make a gear change when we lost one of the custom spinners to a fish; went from a silver spinner to a green spinner. Tthe fish climbed all over both colors but the green seemed to have an edge. On my side of the boat I started with all flies with the intent to go to a Rapala on one rod and a fly on the other. I wanted to test the balance on a few new fly patterns that I have been messing with. Once I tested the few flies I settled in to a fly on one rod and a Rapala on the other and never looked back. Actually not quite true, I looked back often as fish slammed my offerings and went airborne.

We didn't intentionally do anything to avoid the smaller fish. It seemed that the smaller fish were equally mixed with the larger fish, especially when we were trolling out in the deeper water. The larger fish seemed to be hugging the shore around lake feature changes in 8' - 10' of water. There were 2 or 3 other boats on the water with one reporting similar results. There were also a number of people fishing from shore at the boat launch.

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