I got to go on a much anticipated and looking forward to “Cast and Blast” adventure this weekend!
Saturday was fishing Deer Lake with Aaron and Dave Mason of Toyota, and then Sunday we got to go pheasant hunting at the Double Barrel Ranch south of Spokane. Too much fun!

We started fishing Saturday morning around 7:30am out of Aaron’s boat. Dave brought his boat so we decided to use him and his wife as the “chase boat” for filming this future TV adventure. Our plan was to go after the lakers. I had some left over herring strips from fishing Area 10 and thought it would make for the perfect laker bait paired with a magnum hoochie and large smile blade, trolled just off the bottom.
We set out to the east side of the lake and trolled from the south to the north end along the 60-70 foot contour line. Immediately we noted fish marks hanging just off the bottom. “That’s what we’re looking for!”. My hopes and expectations went up a couple notches. Deer Lake has some quality lakers in it and I was excited to have the chance to tangle with a few. I love the challenge of a new fishery.

No fish on the first pass so we started rotating lures. We were running four rods – two right off the bottom and two targeting suspended marks we were seeing around 40-45 feet deep. Another pass, another switch of lures, and still no biters! OK, now things were looking a little bleak as the morning grew long and approached noon. Dave and his wife had to leave and still no takers, except for a trout that I lost at the side of the boat.

Aaron and I decided we didn’t want to go fishless so we hit a point on the south end of the lake that Aaron has had good luck fishing in the past. We transitioned three of the rods to trout set ups and shortly thereafter Aaron hooked and landed a beautiful three pound rainbow. That’s more like it!

At this point we decided to change the target to rainbow trout. We worked the point and a bay to the west hard and steadily pulled in some nice fish, including a two pounder for myself. The wind started to come up a bit more and around 2pn it was time to call it a day. As we were pulling gear the last rod blessed us with another nice rainbow, giving us six for the day. We didn’t get the lakers we wanted and I hope to have another shot at them in the future. None the less, it was a very nice way to spend the day and thanks Aaron for taking me out.

BTW, the hot rod and lure for the day was a pink kekeda fly with a herring strip. It caught almost every fish today.

The next day we drove over to the Double Barrel Ranch 25 miles southeast of Spokane and met up with Guide Joe Biggs. Joe and his dog Ruff took the three of us out for a morning of pheasant hunting, which included some Hungarian partridges. The facilities are very nice and Joe took us out to a couple ravens that held nice numbers of birds. The ranch is a private hunting preserve meaning no hunting license is required. When you hunt the lodge releases pheasants to the area ahead of time to supplement other birds like the partridges.

Ruff started pointing birds right from the get go and in no time at all we were getting in some fun shooting, all three of us bringing down birds. What a fun experience and ending to a very enjoyable weekend! We ended up with 11 pheasants and 5 partridge, nicely cleaned and bagged. I really enjoy pheasant hunting – it’s so nice to get out and walk the hillsides, and the shooting is a bonus. The Double Barrel Ranch has first rate accommodations for groups large or small. And the hunting is excellent.

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