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I have been all over the place these past few weeks with little chance to fish. I just got back from my 45 year HS Reunion and a trip to visit kids and grandkids in California. When we got home, I was chomping at the bit to get out to pursue some browns in the waning days of our fishing season here in Central Oregon that ends Oct. 31. I did get a call from my buddy and fellow Brownbagger, Dan Stewart, about the final days of his trip here in early Oct.

You can see by the photos he did get a couple of nice browns with the male a little over 8 LB. and the hen just under that. Unfortunately, he had some boat issues and went home a little earlier than planed. The weather had been unseasonably warm until this past weekend.

Eric Cole and I did get out this past Thurs. for an afternoon at Paulina Lake and had fun with a mix of browns and rainbows to 3 LB. The majority were browns and the biggest a beautiful male was around 21 in. Most were smaller browns and the rest some of the recent rainbow plant. We didn’t keep an actual count but probably caught between 15-20 trout before dark between us.

The difficulty in catching bigger browns in the fall is because they are transitioning into the spawn and will quit eating at some point in the process. The larger spawning class of fish from about 24 in. on up will then start to school up. You can see them in the shallows during the fall and this can be very exciting. We saw at least three bigger browns over 10 LB. this past trip.

The browns, especially the males, will become more aggressive and you can get hit if you are lucky enough to drag a lure close enough to arouse them. Often you will snag these fish as the are attempting to remove the intruder from their space and will literally swat at the lures in a charge or with their tails. Every year some monster browns are caught in the fall. You just have to be in the right place and the right time......something that is not that easy!!

My biggest fall brown is an 8 LB. male I caught several years back. I can tell you for a fact that I have personally seen females up to around 20 LB. and I lost what would have been my biggest male at an estimated 12-13 LB. back in 2003 at Paulina Lake right next to the boat! Fellow Brownbaggers, Gordon and Pops Hahn, caught browns of 15, 19.5 and 22 LB. during October going back to 1998. My buddy, Jim Bringhurst, got a gorgeous 12 LB. buck back in the early 2000’s. And to top that, Ron Lane’s State Record Brown of 28 LB.+ was also caught in Oct. Just a few good reasons to continue the chase of the fall browns!

I will be hitting a few of our CO lakes over the next couple of weeks and then Dink and I will be heading up to Kootenay Lake in pursuit of the monster gerrard rainbows at the end of the month.......stay tuned! Check out the mount photo of his 22.5 beast from last year in our rainbow mount files. We are hoping to hit a 25 this year!

Screamin’ Drags,
Rick