My job this time of the year is as tough as it gets! Don't bother sending me any consolatory emails for the difficult task....I'm tough and I just "buck up" and go for it. I take my grandson's fishing for trophy trout at some of the most beautiful and productive lakes in the Western United States. This has been a tougher summer for bigger browns for us, though we did manage to put an 8.5 and 8.75 in the boat the last two months along with enough 4-5 LB. browns to make most guys ecstatic. Being a member of the Brownbaggers (catch 2 browns over 10 LB.) and pursuing trophy trout for at least the last 30 years, has made me more than a little jaded. That coupled with the fact that several more guys (3)got into the brownbaggers this year and a couple of long time members added to their numbers has me fired up. I have hopes of getting my two grandson's into the club. Alec was up with me in early June and tied his best brown with another at 5 LB. Colin, who got his foot in the door with a 12 LB. brown last year has been fishing with me the last couple of weeks. We haven't been able to get him past the 5 LB. mark so far. Chasing 10 LB. browns can make you a little crazy if you let it. To keep things in perspective, I have a good friend that has (5) to his credit and at least (4) more out of his boat, who hasn't caught one since 1987! Another top notch angler from California caught the state record (26 LB.+) back in 1983 and then got as close as 9 LB. 12 oz. a few years later, but never did get another over 10 LB! These statistics mean little to the masses of fisherman who pursue whatever fish they love on the limited trips they might make in a year, but to the "died in the wool" trophy trout angler, this kind of stuff is what keeps them grinding for that "trout of a lifetime." Back to our fishing trip. Colin and I didn't get to the lake until near dark but did get in a couple of laps with limited success. We did get a couple of good strikes and a 3.5 brown to show for our efforts. Next morning was tough and we only landed 6 browns to 4 Lb. This may not sound all that bad, but we had been catching a lot more quality trout on previous trips. What can you say......fishing can always be good but catching varies a lot! Perhaps the highlight of the trip was when I brought out my fly collection and passed on a special fishing technique that I have employed since I was a kid in the 50's. I showed Colin how to rig a bubble and fly set-up on spinning tackle. This is a deadly way to fish flies and can be a big numbers producer at times. He really got a kick out of it when we started to catch both the planter rainbows along with some smaller browns. We were pulling mosquito patterns and having a blast catching trout after trout. I think the best was (5) trout in (5) casts before we didn't land one. We were getting several hits per cast. What a great way to entertain kids! With the bubble full of water, you can cast a mile. We had a blast doing this mid-day from the back of the boat right from shore. I did run into Jimmy Lewis and Brett Martin who showed up on Fri. night. Brett got into a nice 8 LB. brown that night and a 6 LB. fish on Sat. morning we I talked with them. Because we have to leave mid-day Sat., I don't know how they did for their weekend but they were off to a pretty good start. I will be working on a couple of different lakes this next week and then will be taking my elderly aunt and uncle from California on a nostalgic trip to Klamath Lake the last week in July. Hopefully we can tie into one of those monster rainbows that have made the lake famous. Screamin' Drags, Rick