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Back in the late 80’s while on a week trip to Upper Twin Lake in Oct. with my Dad, I was taking a walk after a morning outing at the lake. We saw several giant browns breeching and jumping but didn’t get a hit as we worked the shoreline along the south shore heading toward Robinson Creek where it enters the lake. After breakfast, I decided to head over to the creek to see if any of the large spawning browns would be visible. What I saw was something that I would never forget for the rest of my fishing days.

I could make out the guy kneeling down as I approached the bend in the creek where he was fishing. I said “Hi” and he almost jumped out of his skin! I guess because he didn’t hear me coming but later I thought it was about something a little more sinister. A nervous “Hi” was his reply. When I got close enough to see, I could make out a large hen brown, easily in excess of 10 LB., hanging under a submerged log with something white in her back. The water current was waving intermittently and it made it hard to make out just what it was. When the current smoothed out for a few moments, I could make out a giant white spinner hung in her back. The guy said he was broken off but where the spinner was located, I knew he was trying to snag her. Luckily, she was tough enough to bust off his line. After later describing the guy to a friend, I found out who he was.

For the purpose of this article, he is a known snagger with many giant browns to his credit and his name will not appear here (not to protect him but to avoid any problems....I try and run a clean site and don’t need anymore stalkers than I already have) but if you recognize yourself, then we both know who you are. That was my first hand exposure to someone snagging a fish.

Over the years there has been a lot of controversy about guys snagging browns from creeks in the fall. It is easy to understand why someone would really like to get their hands on one of these magnificent specimens. They are gorgeous in their fall spawning colors of gold's, yellows and oranges and the males get big heads with oversized kypes. The reality is that when they get far enough along, they stop eating and put all their energy into sex for several weeks in the fall/winter and the timing depends on the elevation and water temps. It is actually a stressful time for them!

Though some big browns are caught occasionally each fall, the majority will be caught throughout the rest of the year. Because they will congregate in the shallows each fall and mostly around rivers or creek entrances where, if conditions are right, they propagate and produce the next generation of browns. Even planted browns, that can’t spawn, will “false spawn” and go through the motions anyway and return to the areas where they were planted. Some of the big browns that are caught each fall are actually aggressively swatting at your lures to remove it from the area where they are attempting to spawn and that is why the lure may end up near the head but not in the mouth.

There have always been a few guys around that would practice this illegal action and usually the motive is to show off their angling expertise if they can fool others about how they took the trout. Big browns will always “draw a crowd” because they are the hardest trout of all to catch and especially if they are over 10 LBS.

Lately, there has been some news about a few guys down in California claiming to have caught some big browns in late fall. Things become suspicious right away when their clothes are wet or their stories are sketchy. On top of that, the weights of the trout weights seemed very exaggerated when they claim 18 or 20 LBS. and the photos reveal trout of 10-12 LBS. Believe me, I have seen a lot of big trout in reality and through my taxidermy business. These guys are often fooling a large group of anglers but not everyone. It is sad that this goes on and I wish that fish and game departments would do more surveillance at this time of year and close and post these waters where the trout will be spawning. Keep this in mind if you are out on the waters in the fall and if you see something suspicious please notify the authorities.

So to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this commentary, yes, for some anglers the temptation is just too great!

Screamin’ Drags,
Rick