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I thought I could catch 10 LB. browns at will back in the late 90's and the early 2000's when I put four on the Brownbagger list in a couple of years after 18 years of trying to get my first. Boy, was I wrong! It has been a humbling nine years since I landed my last brown of 12 LB. from Wickiup back in 2002. Though I have probably landed 30-40 browns over 9 LB. since I moved to Bend back in 1995, they are simply "close, but no cigar" fish. I have had at least (3) on, that I saw but lost, that were definitely bigger than 10!. They all turned out to be long distant releases for the most part.

The 13-14 LB. hookjaw that I lost at Paulina back in 2003 was the real "heart breaker" as I had played it after about 10 minutes and had him about 30 feet from the boat lying on top and tired. There was one hook of the Rapala lure clearly visible in his lower jaw and another in his gill cover along the side of his head. I remember thinking I had him for sure as I grabbed the net that was laid against the rail next to me. "It ain't over till it's over" as Yogi once said. He made a big roll and my line popped. The brand new 14 Lb. test which was wrapped around his head may have been caught in the rear vortex of a treble or maybe the line running through his mouth had been frayed and sawed off. Whatever happened, he laid there exhausted on top. I yelled a loud "NO!" as I realized he was free and watched helplessly as he slowly righted himself before his descent back down. Some bank anglers watching the whole fight yelled to me; " How big was that brown?" "Big" was all I could get out.

I was really pleased that I did put Colin, my oldest Grandson, onto a beautiful big hookjaw brown back in 2006. The 12 Lb. 6 oz. mount hangs on my living room wall until he gets a little older and out on his own. That was the last brown over the magic 10 LB. mark until this past Thursday.

A good family friend and fishing buddy, "Fast Eddie" Stanley, was up for a couple of days to fish with me as we had done many times over the past 8-9 years. Of course he is still looking for that 10 LB. brown but has caught some up to 8 LB. on previous trips with me.

The day before we were on another lake and the wind and rain ran us off early as we could hardly mainta*in any boat control. Discouraged, we went back to Bend and made plans to head to East Lake the next day as the weather was supposed to improve. I picked Ed up and we made our way up the crater as the sun was just coming up. We were welcomed with no wind, beautiful blue skies but 26 degree temps.

After a short run of top lining in the shadows of the east crater wall, we finally changed up for a deeper drill and moved out. Since we usually release all but a few browns that he likes to take home, the drill is he gets to take all the rods. After the 3rd brown was landed, I had a hit as I was about to put the rod in the holder. I set the hook and said "here you go." Ed just said "Why don't you take this one?" I tightened up on the trout and began playing him but didn't really think he was that big at first. About 125 feet out, he came up and we caught a glimpse and realized he was bigger than I thought. When I finally got him near the boat, I knew he was a good male and might make 10! Now he was ready to fight. I would get him up and he would run back down near the bottom. This went on about 4-5 times before I could get his head up and coached Ed in netting him. Right after he rolled in the net, the lure was out and hung in the side of the net.

After several photos and a weight, we released him. East Lake has new regulations that won't let you keep any browns over 20 in. due to mercury levels. Of course, I wouldn't have kept him anyway since he was in good shape and I already have too many mounts on the wall according to my wife. Actually, I released (2) of the (4) original BB list browns. I have mounts of my 19 LB. 6 oz. Wickiup hen and my second, a 10.75 Lb. hookjaw from Crescent Lake back in 2000. It will take an extremely big or unusual brown for me to mount anymore at this point in the game.

Looking back on it, I guess you could say it must have been meant to be. Of the 13 we landed that day before 3:00 p.m., that was the only really big brown we caught. I felt really bad that Ed had actually passed off what would have been his first brown over 10 LB. He was so gracious about it and said "Lets get another one" and we went back to fishing. We decided to give it a go the next morning so I brought Alec, my middle grandson, along and let those two take turns on the browns. Though we caught nothing bigger than 3 Lb. when we got off around 11:00, it was a lot of fun and they caught 12 between them. I promised Ed that we would get back out when he returns in August. I will be praying that I can finally get him a 10 this next trip! He sure deserves one after what just happened!

Look for another report next week as the wife, grandson and I take the trailer up for a week.....stayed tuned!

Screamin' Drags,
Rick