my two buddies and i arrived in bridgeport friday to pick up our derby packages and to fish the lower end of the lake and get my boat 'rufus-ized'. we only fished for about 3 hours friday starting up around #3 pump trolling and pitching spinnerbaits towards shore. one of my friends got two nice hookups after about 20 min but they didn't stick. we stopped and drifted for a bit, bait fishing, and i picked up a nice little 2 #er on a roostertail. we then hit a few spots on the way back to chief jo but brought home just the one fish. saturday was derby day and we were at seaton grove at 0400 launching the boat and waiting to check in prior to running down to the lower pens. it was a beautiful, leisurely run down river in the twilight and we arrived at the pen at 0515 and tied up to the line at the lower side. with fishing being so unproductive friday, we decided to start with bait fishing and just keep whatever the fish gods threw our way. we had a few hits, very light ones, and no hookups so we started trolling after and hour or so. on one of our downward runs i noticed my rod acting a bit funny and i reeled in only to find a mini trout on the wedding ring. my friend was about to release it but i stopped him and told him to put it in the well. i felt a little guilty, but it paid of later...

we continued trolling and pitching a few spinnerbaits til about 1145 when we headed back to the ramp so we could get back to chief jo for the weigh-in. i managed to pick up one at about 1.4lb, and my buddy got one just slightly bigger. not the kind of fish we wereused to or hoping for, but it was an awesome day on the water with plenty of wildlife to view. aside from all the deer, we saw a coyote that was harassing some geese that were nesting. or i should say the geese were harassing him, lol. it was a good show with the geese coming out on top...

we dropped the boat in grand coulee and headed for bridgeport for the weigh-in and some food. it was a really nice turn out and the folks that ran it and sponsored it were great. it was a bit of a process to get to the awarding of the prizes. everyone was hot and tired (except for the kids), and we didn't stay for all of the awards. there were TWO tagged fish caught, but i don't think the boat was won. the largest fish weighed-in at 8.6 (?) lbs. we hung around for the awarding of the prize for the SMALLEST fish, and i'm not too proud to say that i won that catagory, and walked away with a $50 check... my modest catch weighed-in at a whopping .377 lbs, lol. i've used herring that size to fish salt. although fishing was very slow for us, i gave these two days a 4 star rating because it really doesn't get much better that than getting out and fishing this body of water with some friends and enjoying our beautiful state and some great people...

afk

5/14/2012 6:47:00 AM

Sounds like a bit of a marathon. But, you were in the money!! Thanks for the report.

Highcountry

5/14/2012 10:24:00 AM

We were also in the derby Sat. I fished hard up by the upper net pens with nothing! I've never seen it like that before. Talked with one of the tribal enforcement guys at the Coyote creek launch and he said they lost a lot of fish earlier in the year in the net pens. Maybe the reason for no fish?? Don't know though it was very disappointing. Didn't make it to the weigh in but I heard there was a 13# er. Anyone else heard anything about the poor fishing and the reason? Thanks.

dave g

5/14/2012 2:05:00 PM

yeah, it was a bit of an ordeal with alot of lost fishing time covering all the miles between grand coulee and bridgeport, but well worth it..one contributing factor to slower fishing has been the number of people fishing rufus. just the numbers the corps of engineers guy was throwing out there really surprized me. he said it now gets in excess of 60,000 anglers per year there. as far as i know, the largest fish still was at 8 lb something...

Highcountry

5/14/2012 2:37:00 PM

Thanks for the info Dave! Still had a blast and love the landscape there. Saw three nice bucks with horns already out past their ears and lots of turkeys and geese around too. All in all great time and can't wait to hit it again.

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