Click to view image

My oldest grandson, Colin, has fished with me for most of his 17 years now. He has been coming up to Central Oregon every summer since he was 5. I have fond memories of his first trout that he actually hooked and reeled in by himself. The photo sets on my desk of him and I, on the beach at East Lake back in 1999, holding that 8 in. rainbow that he caught on a spinner. Hard to believe he is almost 6 feet 2 in. and over 200 Lb. now.

He called on a Wednesday about two weeks ago and said he wanted to come and see us before he departed for basic training this coming winter with the Army. Of course we were delighted to have him and helped him make arrangements for the Am-Track ride to Chemult. Jan and I had been thinking about a camping trip anyway so it was a no-brainer for the three of us to head up to East Lake to fish and camp for most of a week right after he got up here.

He has been enamored with the idea of getting into the Brownbagger Club with me ever since he hooked up on a 12 LB. 6 oz. hookjaw male brown back in the summer of 2006. The 32 inch male was his first over 10 LB. and he has dreamed about getting another one ever since. Something that isn't that easy to do.

To prove my point, I like to use the story of Jon Minami who caught the California State Brown Trout record back in 1983. The 26 LB.+ beast is one of the most impressive female brown trout I have ever seen. You can see a photo of the mount in my brown trout gallery on page 11 in the middle column. Long story short, this excellent, hard fishing angler never caught another one over 10 LB. to make the club. I was there the night he caught a 9 Lb. 12 ounce brown from Lower Twin Lake right before dark about 4 years later. That was as close as he got. As I like to say, "there are no guarantees" on 10 Lb. browns! Fishing the Great Lakes is probably your best chance of getting one in a lifetime.

Though the overall fishing was slower than usual, we did get a couple of nicer browns including a beautiful 6 LB. slab in full spawning colors and an 8 LB.+ hookjaw male. The highlight of the trip came on Tues. evening when Jan, Colin and I were working a favorite stretch of water when he got hit hard. I could tell the way the rod was loaded it was a good brown! It was right before dark and when she hit the top of the water, we couldn't really tell how big she was. When he finally got her right behind the boat, I put a light on her and realized she was bigger than I originally thought. Weighed in my 4 LB. Stowmaster net she pulled my Boga-Grip scale down to right between 14-15 LB. We called her 10.5 LB. She was probably real close to 30 inch though I didn't measure her. She was in great shape and we really wanted to release her. After a couple of photos, we slid her back to fatten up some more.

I did get a chance to fish with fellow Brownbagger, Dan Stewart, a few days before our East trip at Wickiup one evening. We stuck 3 browns with his 5 LB. male being the best of the outing. We seem to enjoy each others company and I always like to get out with him when we can.

Look for more reports to follow as summer brown fishing evolves into the fall pattern.

Tight Lines,
Rick