I had originally hoped to return to Kootenay lake up in BC this fall for a shot at the big gerrards, but it wasn't meant to be. With a sparse showing of the really big rainbows over 20 LB. these past few years, we decided to wait and see what develops this fall-spring (2009-2010) and possibly hit it next fall. I truly love that whole scene up there and have been dying to get back since our inaugural trip from Nov. 2007.

I decided to stay at home and work some of our local lakes for the big browns as they move shallow during this time of the year. Only last week, I was able to help weigh in a monster hookjaw of 13 LB. for Dan Stewart on a pre-fish trip before my scheduled week with John "Dink" Werwie. That got both of us pumped up and ready to go. I met John at Paulina on Sun. evening after dinner and we got ready to hit it early Mon. morning.

Weather was supposed to be stormy off and on the whole week so we didn't really know what to expect on the fishing. Dan Stewart was staying for two weeks so he was still there and I was able to introduce him to John. We kept up on our progress each day and Dan filled us in on the week before. He had done really well on some nice browns. Besides the 13 Lb. male I had celebrated with him the preceding Mon., he had picked up browns of 5.5,6,7,8.5,and 9 LB. during the rest of the week on through Sun.

To summarize a bit on the overall fishing at this point, I will say that for John and I it was pretty much a collection of smaller (dink) browns early and late each day with an average total of 10-15 browns per day. On Wed. evening I got into a nice 7 Lb. hookjaw that I caught on an old Rapala Husky 13 that was hand painted by a guy from California that now has his own lure company. He hit in 15-20 feet of water and was a beautiful specimen as most of the spawning size browns are at this time of the fall. That would be my best brown of the trip.

On Thurs. I was taking my buddy, Steve Kelly, in my boat and Dan was gracious enough to invite John to fish with him. That way we could all fish instead of running (3) guys out of my boat. It was a sunny flat day and Kelly got up there a bit later than he planned because of ice coming up the hill. Dan and John were already out by the time Kelly and I got after it. We were both working an area that had been more productive than the rest of the lake. Steve and I stuck some smaller stuff as did John and Dan. Steve and I decided to make a move to work some undisturbed water at the north end of the lake. After about an hour of little success, we decided to head back to where we started.

As I made a pass outside in a little deeper water, John and Dan passed in the opposite direction. I could faintly here John yell at me over the motor noise. I heard him the second time. He asked if I was ready for my burn ( a term we use for bragging about the big one you just caught.) I laughed and then he bent over to lift the big male brown off the deck of the boat. I couldn't believe it....a monster 14 LB. male hung from the Boga-Grip and boy, was it impressive. I thought he had broken the dreaded " Mother's Day Curse" from 1987. That was his last brown over 10 LB. He wouldn't really confirm it was his as I kept questioning him about who really caught it. Finally, he admitted it was Dan's after all. He had me going for a little bit.

For Dan, it was his second brown over 10 Lb. in two weeks and to top that, his fifth for the year! What a fantastic year he is having. Rick's Trophy Mounts will be doing the mounts for both of his big male browns.

Later that evening with John back in my boat after Kelly went home, Dink got into his best brown of the trip. The fat 6 LB. male was gorgeous and released in good shape after a photo. Rain moved in on Fri. and Dan, making the right call, left early that morning. Several boatloads of anglers had gotten the word on Dan's brown the week before and converged on the lake that morning like "flies on stink." That made it easy to pull out. We took a ride up to East and made a lap, for a change of pace, and got into a couple more smaller browns before we packed it in and headed home.

Look for a couple more reports as I head to LBC later this fall and then maybe a brown trout trip or two before the snow gets too deep.

Tight Lines,

Rick