I am truly blessed! Not only because I get to live near some of the most prolific trophy brown trout waters in the Western United States, but because I have quite a few really good friends. John "Dink" Werwie is one of them!

We meet several years ago at Paulina Lake after my entry into the Brownbaggers Club. Our mutual love of pursuing big brown trout allows us to get together at least 2-3 times a year to see if we can finally lift the dreaded "Mother's Day Curse" that came upon him back in 1987. It has been 20 years since his last brown over 10 LB. There have been a few landed in his boat since then, but none of them belonged to him. We have fun playing up that aspect of his big brown drought. I continue to tell him" It is just a matter of time."

Our last time out was May 2007 and we had a great trip. This trip started on Sun. evening at East Lake and we settled in for what we hoped was some sizzling brown trout action. Monday morning produced about a dozen browns but nothing the size we were looking for. I think the biggest brown was pushing 4 LB.

I apologize for the fact that many of us who pursue the big Salmo Trutta (brown trout) have become completely jaded about size. The 10 LB. brown trout has become the "gold standard" because of the criteria of 2 of them for entry into the baggers. Some anglers have put too much emphasis on that aspect and can longer appreciate anything less. We still get a kick out catching them over 5 LB!

Around noon, as we were contemplating our plan for lunch, my rod went off and I could feel the surge of a good fish. When I finally got him within site of the boat, I could tell it was a nice hookjaw brown. He turned out to be a beautiful 9 LB. specimen that provided us with a few nice photos before we watched him swim away. What a gorgeous fish!

After a lackluster evening, we found ourselves enjoying the sunrise and working a run we liked the next morning. I felt the line tighten and new instantly that I was hung up. Ironically, we were in close proximity to the same area where I had lost a custom painted lure ( and very hot at catching browns recently, I might add) when Mark K. and I were trolling 10 days ago.

I got out my trusty "hound dog" lure retriever and as we got back over the line, I said a little prayer about getting this custom lure back if at all possible. After about 10 minutes of working on getting it free, I could see the "when are you going to give up and bust it off" look on John's face. Right about then, I could tell I had something heavy on the retriever. I started pulling it up and soon could make out the anchor rope with my lure and retriever in sight. I grabbed the rope when it was high enough and starting hand lining in the whole rig. What I saw next, I will never forget!

Ten days prior, while Mark and I were trolling the same area, I had a fish hit and then it ran into something fast to the bottom. We attached the retriever and gave it a shot. This was a lure that a buddy in California had painted for me a couple of years ago and I had just started using it the last few weeks with much success. We couldn't hang onto anything to help us free it and after about 10 minutes of working on it, I finally popped it off. Mark must have gotten tired of me moaning about the loss for the rest of that morning.

As the whole mess was nearing the top, I saw the lure that I had hung 10 days before with a 5 LB. dead brown trout carcass still hanging from my lure. We couldn't believe it! Talk about finding a "needle in a haystack." I had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting that lure back! At the end of it all was somebody's home made 5 gallon oil container loaded with concrete. There were jigs and a few bait rigs in the mess as well. It was interesting to observe how quickly the brown had deteriorated. When I lifted everything out of the water, gravity caused his body to separate from the head. We watched as it slowly began to sink back to the bottom.

That was a our highlight of the day and something I will never forget! With a few fish and a big missed strike that evening, we decided to make a move the next day. We arrived at Wickiup mid-day and had lunch before heading out to work some kokanee balls for the browns that are feeding on them. We graphed a ton of kokanee, but only had one smaller brown before we realized that they had more to choose from than we could offer.

Our final stop was a lake that we keep to ourselves. We didn't get to the lake until late that night and decided that we would drop the boat in so we could hit it early. We managed some dink browns early but didn't get into anything we were looking for.

That evening we did score on a couple of nice browns with Dink getting a 6 LB. hen. His best brown of the trip. The following morning produced a few more smaller browns and then around 7-8 a.m. I got popped by a nice male brown that weighed in around 7.5 LB. Later that evening, John got 2 more nice browns of 4 and 5 LB. and then I stuck a 4 LB. hen and that was the end of the evening bite.

I had to be up at 8 to take my step-dad to the Tradition Golf Tournament the next morning at Sunriver, so I bid Dink goodbye and headed home to make it in bed before midnight. Another great trip in the books!


Screamin' Drags, Rick