Henry Hagg 4/20

NOTICE: The OK Big Game owned by the fish killer formerly known as Green Butt Skunked is officially no longer up for bids. The stink is off!

It was a fierce competition. I shot first after affording Brian and Scott an hour head start (I take too long to rig). I caught up with Brian who was working a cove and he chased me off. So I paddled over to Scott who was in the fight off his life (day? moment? ok, it bent his rod ) Then we went over to check on Brian's progress, and Scott said he'd have four. He had three and proceeded to put on a clinic of how to catch stocker's.
Tale of the tape: Scott's skunk off was the biggest fish of the day, Brian had the biggest stringer, and I caught the 1st fish. We all walked away with the $5 we came with. And the weather was actually kinda nice! It was a good day. (and no, Brian did not actually chase me off )

Congrats to all. Welcome Scott to the stinky fish kayaks.  Where at Hagg did you catch those fish?

Jay

Thanks for posting Wali.  It was good fishing with you again and I look forward to your next visit back to Portland in July.

I ended up landing six and missing another half dozen or so bites.   The limit of five I brought home were actually my first planter trout ever.  My family, although dissapointed it wasn't a salmon, seemed happy to eat them steamed Chinese style.  I haven't had the heart to tell my wife that they probably aren't orgainic. 

Jay, those damn fish are dam fish.

Brian

Alright fellas! Looks like a good day on the water. GBS, way to get that skunk off your back.

Z

Wally,

Thanks for the pix, here's another picture for your scrap book.  Something's up with one of those fish you're holding...wonder what it is?

Ended up with another planter in the boat on the way back, and about 6 more that flopped off.  Did see a nice "hold over" of about 19", so there are some bigger ones in there.  Seems there were fish caught all over the lake.  I'm thinking the weather and Salmon fishing kept a lot of people away. The weather tuned a bit nasty later in the day, but overall was quite a nice day.

Nice to get some skunk off the boat.  Now just need to get some "grown up" fish.

-= Scott

Ok, after talking bad about planted trout and the size of our catch, I followed Brian's lead and steamed the little fishy but with a Vietnamese bent. I stuffed his belly with ginger and Sate (a spicy ground chili and fried garlic condiment) and steamed him with green onions.
OMG! That was wonderful! Those little buggers are delicious and have a lot of meat for their size! I thought I was going to Gilbert river today, but I may have to shorten that to a "field trip" to Bethany pond!
Again guys, it was a pleasure fishing with you and look forward to July. Heck at this rate, I may have to throw my hat in to the AOTY and make you guys actualy work for it!

This is a bit of a blurry photo (the flash didn't go off), but my son Owen really enjoyed helping me clean my fish last night.  He also enjoyed eating them.

That pic of FFTW and the swimbait... er uh stocker.. is too funny!

Z

Brian ... no AOTY entry on those stockers?

Looks like a fun day.  Nice.

-Allen

Allen,

Yeah, if there's a price for lowest scoring fish, I'm in the lead.  Scott's trout barely squeaked by mine and I have 76.125 points coming. I just need to download my photos but my wife has my card reader.  It'll be up soon enough.

Brian

I was just noticing that the fins on those stockers are nice and in tact. Nothing like the finless monsters that I used to see a lot in Cali.. What's the deal w/ these stockers being so healthy? Any ideas?

Z

I was just noticing that the fins on those stockers are nice and in tact. Nothing like the finless monsters that I used to see a lot in Cali.. What's the deal w/ these stockers being so healthy? Any ideas?

Z

They don't hold them in pens as long ... much smaller stockers than CA.

-Allen

Z,

I'm not sure, but they did seem nice and pretty relative to the CA trout I've seen.  In fact, a couple of mine had some really nice color to them with a nice red banding.  Maybe it's because they were only like 10 inches long and hadn't lived in the concrete tank very long.  Maybe we rear them in real ponds in Oregon.  I don't know.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to taking my son out when the weather gets nicer to see if he can't manage to pull a couple of these in from the kayak.

Brian

Hey Allen,

Shouldn't you be enjoying the sun or something?  Or are you home already?

Brian

We're 3 hours off here.  I'm just enjoying my morning cup o' coffee.

-Allen