I had a few hour window to fish today so I figured that I would hit Cavanaugh and do a little on the water research. Arriving at the launch around 9:00 I found that there was only one other rig in the parking lot and the water was dead calm. Although my plan was to fish for trout, after launching I head up towards the islands to look for kokanee. A couple passes confirms that the kokanee are not in their usual areas by the islands. Gear up, I head to the flats at the SE end of the lake and break out the trout gear. I decide to run a 3” and a 3 1/2” stick bait. One is orange/gold/red the other is spotted-orange/silver/brown and I run both at 25 pulls in 8-12’ of water at .8-1.0 mph. I didn’t have to wait long to find out if the fish gods were smiling. They were and it was fish on immediately. For two hours every time I got a Rapala out to 25 pulls it was instant fish on. All the fish were 10”-15” cutthroat and I had a blast. The Rapals were fished without any bait or scent and all the fish were released unharmed. I still had some time left so I decided to go look for a larger fish or find the kokanee.

After a short run to the NE shoreline I put the larger Rapala back in the water at 75 pulls and chased meter marks with standard kokanee gear off the downrigger. I did locate the kokanee and got 3 or 4 to the boat but the highlight of the day was in the form of a very large trout. It hit the Rapala just as I was getting things ready to head in. It absolutely slammed the gear and headed for parts unknown. After about 10 minutes I got a good look at it and was able to guesstimate it’s size at 26-28”. I never got it close enough to identify it but it was huge. About 5 minutes or so after I saw it, the fish and I parted company as my jaw hit the deck of the boat. One minute I was fighting it, the next it was just gone. I had had an incredible day of fishing already so although I lost the fish, the fight was a gift from the fish gods. A rare chance to do battle with such a magnificent fish.

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