Long time no report, however, this trip is certainly something worth breaking my silent streak. After having done a marathon fishing day of hitting two sub-alpine lakes earlier in the day and fishing a mid-afternoon high tide for SRCs and Bulls, I decided that I would finish the day off by blowing up my raft and seeing if I could find a Brown Trout on Martha Lake. This was only my second time fishing Martha (and the first time I was stuck at the boat launch) so I was excited to get out and see some more of the lake, as well as to try to catch my first Brown from there. I'll keep things short, but basically I spent most of my time working the north shore within about 30' of the shore casting predominantly big and bright lures in "warm" color tones (gold, pink, orange, red). I haven't fished for Browns a lot simply because there aren't a huge number of places to fish for them on the west side, but it is something I want to try more, and in my limited experience (as well as reading other reports) it seems to me that Browns in general are fans of bigger lures and the aforementioned "warm" color tones. As I worked my way down shore I would cast right up at the bank, reeling back fairly soon after the lure hit the water (I discovered that Martha gets deep pretty quick right from shore), or I would cast parallel to the bank, letting the lure sink and then bringing it back after it hit bottom, or had gone at least a little ways down. On one particular cast using a size 2 silver blade/pink body Vibrax I had something stop my lure in its tracks down deep, and then proceed to fight like a dog. This fish stayed deep the entire fight and put a good bend in my pole, which caused me to believe I had found what I was looking for. And indeed it was. After a nice fight a netted a great looking Brown (my new personal best!) that measured about 15". I took some pictures and then sent it back to the depths to be caught another day. It was a pretty short trip, and that was the only bite I had, but I certainly accomplished my goal, so I won't complain!

Tight lines.

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