Secret Creek
It was 3AM and I was paddling down a river in a canoe… in the dark. What was I thinking? Only one thing would drive me to do something as crazy as this… brown trout! I felt something scrape along the bottom of the canoe and realized there was a fallen tree to my right. I illuminated the branches that were pushing against the side of the canoe with my headlamp and shoved off with my paddle. The current was swift and we were moving quickly. This was nuts!
I had floated many dangerous rivers over the years including the lower Deschutes in Oregon, (has some nasty rapids that kill anglers every year). I had even done some crazy floats for winter steelhead in rushing rivers like the Necanicum and Nehalem in my pontoon boat. But, things are different in the dark. You can’t see what is coming up and you don’t have much time to react to fallen logs and other debris. I had a close call one time on the Deschutes above Wickiup Reservoir and that was fresh in my mind as we continued down river.
“How much further”, I asked, a bit of fear creeping into my voice. “Not much longer now… I think”, my buddy Mark whispered. I stopped paddling for a moment and listened to the current moving against the river bank. After another 20 minutes or so we had arrived at our destination, a widening and slowing of the river. This was the money spot.
I would never have been floating down a river in the dark if it hadn’t been for a few old photos that caught my eye some time back. I was looking through Mark Wiza’s photo album one night when I saw some nice browns that looked like they had come out of a river. One of my bucket list items is a brown trout over 8 pounds that I would catch out of a non-great lakes river system. I have caught many quality river browns, but nothing over 8 pounds. I had hooked a giant on the White River in Arkansas. It had stripped out 100 feet of line on heavy drag heading up-river… but that is just another “fish story” without the fish to hand.
“Tell me about these fish”, I asked Mark. He took a look at the pics and a wry grin came across his face. He proceeded to tell me some amazing stories of an incredible bite that happened at a certain time, at a certain spot, when water conditions were just right. I asked him if he would be willing to take me if I swore to never tell another soul about it and he agreed. The following year I was out on Lake Tahoe fishing with Mark and we started talking about the “secret creek”. I asked him how the conditions were looking He had been checking water levels and timing with the season and everything was lining up perfectly… this was the year to try it!
I kept checking my watch and as soon as it hit legal I was casting. I had decided to use a small custom AC Plug that Allan had built for me. I had caught many fish on it and had a lot of confidence in it for this type of situation. After an hour and 30 minutes of nothing, I was starting to wonder if this had turned into a snipe hunt. How could we be covering all of this great water without any grabs? The river looked like a dead zone.
Just as my confidence was starting to wane I got slammed… hard! The fish pulled a couple of quick bursts of drag and the battle was on. I was fishing light mono so I had to let the fish dictate the fight for the first few moments. I gradually wore him down and we both saw a flash of gold as we strained to catch a glimpse of our quarry. Nice brown, nice brown! Mark scooped him up as he came up to the side of the canoe and suddenly my 7 hour drive to Mark’s house and the long drive from Mark’s house to the river were all worth it. We snapped a couple of pics and slipped him back into the river. He powered off strong, no worse for wear. What a beautiful little buck!
We kept casting as the sun started to creep up the horizon. I knew our window was tightening by the minute and begin casting with renewed vigor. BAM! Another good fish crushed the AC. This one didn’t pull quite as hard as the first but was still a great battle none the less on the light tackle. I admired the fat hen as she lay at the bottom of the net. Another quick photo and off she swam.
The sun was bright on the water now and the bite died as quickly as it had begun. We pounded it for another few hours for a few small rainbows but the browns were gone, probably hiding under some of those stickups that we had paddled past earlier in the day.
I will be back some day, when the conditions are perfect, to Secret Creek. It might take ten years for all of the conditions to line up, but when they do… I will be ready! Maybe next time I will get lucky and stick that 8 pounder I am looking for.
Mark Knoch
