Retired Cop Puts In A Plug For Trolling

You may have met Jim Hough if you ever were cited for a traffic violation, reported a burglary or were involved in a domestic dispute. He may even have written a much-deserved citation against you for speeding or running a red light.

Hough was a cop in Spokane until four years ago. He cruised the streets in patrol cars and on a motorcycle for 25 years. Now, he does what he likes best. He fishes from Washington to New Mexico and Arizona.

“I’m happy I retired,” he said. “There was so much more to do. Now, my boss is my wife, Karyn,” he said.

Karyn doesn’t fish, but she likes to travel and doesn’t mind living in the fifth wheeler that she and Hough bought after he left the police force.

She is still the C.E.O of Audry’s Boutique, a business the Houghs have owned for 18 years, but a daughter-in-law, Danniell, manages the store.

“I can’t remember not enjoying fishing,” Hough said. “My main outlet all the years I was with the (police) department has been fishing. My dad got me interested in fishing when I was a boy.”

Although Hough’s father introduced him to fishing, Don Ostlund, one of the region’s best-known and talented fishermen, was the man who taught him the most about how to catch numerous different species.

“I tried to persuade Don that fishing wasn’t everything,” he said. “He convinced me otherwise.”

Hough fished scores of lakes and reservoirs during the years he was a cop. When not patrolling the streets, he learned more about how to catch bass, crappies, kokanee and all the different trout.

Finally, he became eligible to retire and he decided he’d like to spend much of his time fishing. Karyn didn’t fight the inevitable. Hough sold his 18-1/2-foot boat because it was too big and heavy to tow around the country and bought a 14-foot aluminum boat and a 15-horsepower outboard engine. > He said he and Karyn decided in 1995 “to take a breather from the store and do the RV thing.” During the next nine weeks, they visited his daughter in Florida and, on the way back, stopped at many nationally known fishing spots in Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico and Missouri.

“The trip changed our lives,” he said. “We found that we loved the RV life.”

By last year, the couple had become acquainted with numerous other couples who spend most of their time in RVs. And they found a beautiful RV campground at the south end of Lake Havasu in Arizona.

Hough, who had never seen a striped bass, discovered the pleasures of fishing for the voracious species. When he and Karyn arrived at Havasu, local anglers told him fishing has been slow.

But Hough was anxious to fish. He went out late in the afternoon and soon saw gulls diving for shad. He raced for the area, expecting other anglers also would do so. But none did. He stopped at the edge of a big school and began casting a shad jig. He had 15 hits on 15 casts and landed 13 stripers, all 2 to 4 pounds.

Later, while at Elephant Butte Reservoir near Truth and Consequences, N.M., Hough, drawing on his knowledge of the techniques for catching the big rainbows in Lake Pend Oreille, convinced even the local experts, including guides, that they could catch big striped bass by changing their techniques.

Local fishermen told him that the only way to catch the stripers in the winter was by stillfishing shiners or shad at about 50 feet. However, only one striper had been caught during the two days before Hough arrived.

Hough decided to troll a 7-inch-long chartreuse Bomber from a downrigger at 50 feet. A striper took the plug soon after he started to troll. After a tug-of-war, Hough netted the 28-pounder. Later, Hough took another fisherman out and that man caught a 22-pounder.

The word spread. Other fishermen began to troll plugs. Even the guides were impressed. The Houghs stayed 10 days at Elephant Butte Reservoir, where he continued catching big stripers by slowly trolling plugs from downriggers.

Early this year, he and a Spokane friend, Lefty McLeod, caught big stripers the same way. They discovered that Apex plugs, one of the most productive lures for catching rainbows at Pend Oreille, was equally effective on big stripers.

Hough said he and Karyn plan to pull their big fifth wheeler to Lake Havasu later this year and stay for several months. It’s possible, he said, they will sell their house here and live in their fifth wheeler, traveling back and forth between the Northwest and the reservoirs that are so alluring during the winter months.

Meanwhile, while her husband fishes, Karyn will keep in close contact via computer and phone with Danniell and son Mickey, the family’s other stockholders in Audrey’s Boutique.

For Hough, his days as a cop are now just memories, some good, some bad.

You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.