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Stinging snowflakes hammered my exposed eyes as I peered through near white-out conditions at central Oregon's Lake Paulina. Writhing snow demons were scrawling images across the lake surface, but it looked like two anglers in a small aluminum boat were hefting a big fish to show to passing boaters.
"Hey, Guy!" I hollered at my companion, "I think they've got a big fish over there." The wind whipped my words over the frothing lake surface, but I knew he had heard me.
Guy Carl, holder of the Oregon state record brown
trout, a 27-pound, 12-ounce fish caught at this same lake on May 21,
1993, reluctantly hooked his Rapala to a rod guide and steered our
boat toward the other. When we neared the small boat, the two anglers
displayed a pair of big browns that made most everything I had ever
caught look like small brookies. The largest, a hook-jawed male,
pulled the anglers' scale to a whopping 13.2 pounds. The other fish
went 9.6 pounds.
The fishermen were trailing their lures in the water: silver FlatFish in the T-20 size.
"What did you get them on?" I ask. "Uh, well, we caught them on Rapalas before we changed lures," replies Steve Albertson of Klamath Falls, Oregon, who had taken the larger of the two fish and was as close-mouthed about fishing secrets as any other "brown bagger." "Yep, you should write down that we caught them on Rapalas," his partner, Larry Embertson, adds. They admit they were fishing the 20-foot line of the lake, though.
The planning of this trip actually had begun three years earlier during one of the annual trips that Guy Carl and his father, George Carl, take to Oregon. This outing was timed for the mid-May season opener at Paulina. However, this trip actually began with a phone call from George Carl in 1993:
"Bill? We were fishing up at Lake Paulina last week and Guy caught the new Oregon state record brown trout," Carl said. "Bill? Hello, Bill?" I hadn't quite passed out, but I was close to it. The only other state record brown I had seen was the Wyoming record caught in the 1980s at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Ever since I had wanted a double-digit brown of my own.
Carl was vague about the manner in which his son had caught the fish. It had to do with big lures and cold, nasty weather. None of which seemed strange because the only thing common among all trophy brown trout fishermen was the fact that when it stormed, they went fishing.
Lake Paulina is not well known in the big-brown fishing world, but for biologists it's a world-class trophy fishery that produces browns every bit as big as waters in New Zealand, Arkansas or elsewhere.
"Lake Paulina and its neighboring East Lake probably are two of the best trophy brown trout lakes in the world," says Ted Fies, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district fish biologist. "I'm sure there's a 30-pound brown in there right now."
Carl invited me on his annual trip to Oregon the following year, which I couldn't attend, but he returned with photos of big, big browns. Most of them were in the four to six-pound bracket, but almost every year the father and son caught browns in the teens, too. The Carl team knows brown trout. They know where to get them, when, and how. I wanted to go. Bad. But it wasn't until this past May that I could pull three days for the first part of their trip.
Guy Carl (below) displays his 27-pound,
12-ounce Oregon state record brown trout, the fish that spurred the
author's desire to fish Lake Paulina.
The closer our departure date came, the nastier the weather looked. A big low had been building in Alaska, and it was dipping over the West Coast. As we left for Oregon, we entered major rainstorms that didn't let up until we hit snowstorms and whipping winds on the opening day of Lake Paulina's fishing season.
Jetstream deviations, dropping barometers, low pressure troughs or high pressure ridges -- none of them make any difference. When you're going to a trout opener anywhere in the Western states you're almost guaranteed to have bad weather. And that's what we encountered at Paulina.
Opening day anglers were hampered by an overnight snowfall that blanketed the ground and made the road tough for two-wheel-drive vehicles. Many were turned back by the freezing, wind-whipped snowfall, which could discourage the hardiest individual.
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Ted Fies, district fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife at lakes Paulina and East, reveals the apparent reason why the lakes hold potential record-setting brown trout. "Obviously, to raise big trout you need productive waters, and Paulina fits that category," Fies explains. "There are some unique characteristics to the lake, and water quality is part of it. The water is highly mineralized, and this is due to the hot springs present in East and Paulina." After the volcano blew its top to form Newberry Crater, the resulting caldera filled with water, creating the two lakes. The mineralized water comes from hot springs in the lakes, which are very deep and cold. Paulina is 240 feet deep and the bottom temperature is 39 degrees year-round. Minerals in the water create a productive food chain, and the lake is rich in aquatic invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp. These are an early food organism for trout, and the lake produces abundant insects. There is a prolific supply of plankton, specifically zooplankton, that's necessary to raise the chubs in the lake. Chubs were introduced illegally prior to 1920, Fies says. Chubs now are abundant in both Paulina and East lakes, providing an excellent forage base for brown trout. Chubs also are a particularly good food source for brown trout because they stay near the shoreline and rocky habitat, while other potential forage such as kokanee usually are found well offshore. However, what Paulina has that East Lake does not is crawfish, which also provide excellent forage for browns. Fies has no explanation for the lack of crawfish in East Lake, but the department is considering introducing them to help supplement chubs as a food source for big browns. While Lake Paulina was the source of the state record brown trout, a 27-pound, 12-ouncer caught by California angler Guy Carl on May 21, 1993, it also has produced the state record kokanee, 23 inches and over four pounds. "That gives you an idea that the whole food chain is very rich," Fies says. Surprisingly, there has been no evidence to suggest that brown trout reproduce in Lake Paulina, and all of the fish in the lake have been stocked. However, some limited shoreline reproduction has been documented at East Lake, according to Fies. "Brown trout are very long-lived fish," Fies says, "and 20 years of age is not uncommon. That gives them the ability to grow to a large size. Their longevity, along with the abundant food supply, gives Paulina the ability to raise trophy-sized brown trout. "These are probably two of the best trophy brown trout lakes in the world," he adds. "There's no question in my mind that we'll see a 30-pound brown come out of Paulina. If Carl's fish had been caught later in the season, I'm sure it would have been over 30 pounds. The ice had only been off the lake two weeks when Carl caught it." Bill Karr
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Even so, the launch ramp at Paulina Lake Resort had a long waiting line when we arrived well before dawn. My wife, Marilyn, had intended to fish with one of the Carl's friends, Bill Bayless of Susanville, California, but she opted for the truck with the heater turned up. She muttered something about not wanting our dogs to be lonely. I fished with Guy Carl in his Tracker boat while George Carl left the dock with his brother, Jim, who lives at nearby LaPine, Oregon.
Breaking the morning ice, literally, Guy Carl took the trolling motor seat in the bow and guided us along the shoreline, holding us over about eight to 10 feet of water most of the time. The trick was to cast floating Rapalas to the bank and retrieve them in rip-bait fashion in the same manner as bass anglers do.
"This is how we get all of our trout, everywhere we fish," Guy remarks as he pitches his silver No. 12 Rapala at rocks sitting off a point we were approaching. I was working the stern of the boat, and one of my casts made directly astern in about 12 feet of water got hammered. I saw the silver twisting antics of a brown in about the three-pound range before the hook pulled out. Carl gave me one of those "Why are you messing around with little guys?" looks, and we kept fishing.
Then the snow hit in earnest, and all conversation was muffled by the swirling whiteness.
After seeing the anglers with the big browns, we flayed the water for another three hours. We didn't have any more activity in the top 12 feet of water along the shore and we were getting a bit discouraged. Other boats were trolling all around the lake, most of them on the outside of us, and therein lies one of the secrets to the Carl's success.
"Most trollers don't want to get snagged on the points, rocks and trees," the senior Carl explains. "But that's where the big browns position themselves when they're feeding: near cover, in water shallow enough for them to launch an attack but close to deeper water. That's why we work it just like bass fishermen, to put the lure where the fish are."
Indeed, on the day before both Carls and I had fished nearby Wickiup and Crane Prairie reservoirs, using the same technique. At Wickiup we had eight browns to six pounds in just a few hours of fishing during sporadic rain squalls.
One brown had followed the younger Carl's Rapala right to the boat and nabbed it with only 1 1/2 feet of line off the tip of the rod. It snapped the eight-pound line like it was one-pound leader and promptly jumped all over the bay trying to dislodge the lure. Another came out of the depths, grabbed Guy Carl's lure alongside the boat and threw it back at him before anyone could do anything.
I had a four-pound specimen on for 15 minutes before we realized it had hooked itself in the dorsal fin during its attack. That one "self-released" just out of net range, which saved us the trouble of releasing it ourselves.
The frontal attack on Crane Prairie turned into a disorganized rout when gusting winds began kicking up whitecaps and an ice-cold rain explored our parkas for openings.
Our long morning of fishing at Lake Paulina on opening day ended pretty much the same way . . . with falling snow, a biting wind, frozen joints and the wind whipping small particles of ice and snow everywhere. Besides, sporadic operation of the Carl's main outboard had them worried, and they wanted to get it checked out in town.
That was our experience in the La Pine area of Oregon, and in particular the opener at Lake Paulina. Lakes Paulina, Wickiup and Crane Prairie are only an hour's drive apart, but Paulina sits in the Newberry Crater of Deschutes National Forest, a thousand feet higher than the other lakes. All of them offer excellent fishing opportunities for big trout, with Wickiup and Paulina more apt to kick out browns and Crane Prairie the one to go to for big, fat, football-shaped rainbows. East Lake also is a good bet for trophy browns.
As far as fishing methods, "brown baggers" use big fish-imitating lures to take the larger brown trout and rainbows. They work shallow flats and points where the lake bottom breaks into deeper water. The important thing is to keep giving the lure action by working the rod.
And a final reminder: wear warm clothes. When stormy weather hits, trophy browns go on the feed.
Outdoor writer Bill Karr is associate editor of Western Outdoors and Northern California editor of Western Outdoor News.
HOW TO GET THERE: Lake Paulina, East Lake, Wickiup and Crane Prairie are located near LaPine in central Oregon. To reach LaPine from the south, take Highway 97 north from Klamath Falls, Oregon. From the north, LaPine also is accessible via Highway 97. LaPine is about 167 miles south of the Washington border, and 125 miles north of Klamath Falls.
WHERE TO STAY: There are campgrounds around Lake Paulina and all of the other lakes. Paulina Lake Resort is located on the shoreline of Lake Paulina and offers all amenities, as well as a boat launch. Nearby LaPine has motels, gas, food and other services.
BEST SEASON: For brown trout, early spring and late fall -- and the later the better. The lake is crowded during spring, but in fall there are only about 30 percent as many fishermen due to competing hunting seasons. Kokanee and trout fishing is good during the entire general trout season, which opens April 26 and runs through October 31.
APPROXIMATE COST: A non-resident Oregon fishing license is $40.50. For shorter fishing excursions non-resident anglers can purchase a one-day license for $6.75, two day for $12.50, three day for $18.75 or a seven-day permit for $30.50.
WHO TO CONTACT: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, (541) 388-6363; Paulina Lake Resort, (541) 536-2240.
⌐ Western Outdoors 1997. All rights reserved.
