On what would be our last brown trout trip of summer 2007, my grandson, Colin, and I headed up to East Lake. We decided on East based on some reports I had gotten back from a few friends that had done well in the preceding week.

We didn't get the earliest of starts and the boat didn't hit the water until around 5:30 Sat. evening. I spotted a buddy, Dan McAllister and we had a short chat about how things had gone for him earlier that day. He had really been getting into some fish and if I remember right, he had already caught and released over 20 browns by the time we saw him. One of them was a 7 LB. killer hookjaw that was one of the most brilliant brown trout I have ever seen.

I have gotten to the point where I don't want to divulge too much specific information on exact brown trout techniques. I will say that summer time brown trout fishing is a depth control game and lures are probably less critical than the depth you fish at.

We started working an area that has paid off well recently and ran lures that mimic the chubs and kokanee that the bigger browns target. Colin and I had a nice 6.5 and 5 Lb. double right out of the gate. What a way to start the evening!

The best brown of the evening was Colin's male that bounced my scales in the net at between 11.5 and 11.75 LB. That actual weight for the fish is 8.5- 8.75 LB. What a beautiful brown! After a couple of photos, we dropped him back in to add some pounds over the next few years....who knows, we may see him again over 10 LB!

The big male crushed a custom painted B-16 Bomber in a rainbow pattern. He hit it so hard that it came out of the release immediately with the rod throbbing hard the first few seconds! The stuff that dreams are made of.

By 9:00, when we pulled the plug, we had caught and released 7 browns with a 3 LB. fish being the smallest. We had fish of 4,5, 5.5,6,6.5 and 8.75 LB. These are quality browns anywhere you fish.

On Monday, we headed back to East to get our licks in one more time. I was going to hook up with Lance Fisher, fishing guide and outdoor radio talk show host from the Portland area, for an outing, Tues. morning. I have had the opportunity to do a few of Lance's shows this year. We have had a such great time on the air, that we were looking forward to finally fishing together.

Monday night was a complete bust for Colin and I but we only had about 45 minutes to work them before dark. Lance and I meet at 5:30 a.m.on Tues. and we did well with a sprinkling of browns to around 2 LB. No decent fish to speak of but we caught and released about 7-8 browns before we went in for breakfast at 8:30. Lance was so kind to fix us the whole meal deal....scrabbled eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast, coffee and orange juice.

When we got back on the water around 10:30, Colin and I were on our own as Lance had to take some of the other family members out to fish from his boat.

Right around 11:00, the line flies out of the release as the big headed hookjaw grabbed a Yo-Zuri Mag-Minnow painted up in a tui chub pattern. At first I thought he was bigger than he turned out to be. The heart of a 9 Lb. fish in a 6.5 LB. body. How cool was it to look down in the clear calm water with my Polaroid's and see that 6 in. plug cross ways in his mouth?

My big motor quit spitting water from the water pump indicator and that was the end of our day. Luckily it turned out to only be plugged up when I got in into Central Lakes Marine later that afternoon.

Tight Lines, Rick