Since playing professional baseball of 12 years in the minor leagues with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, I really never got a chance to chase the big browns since the season was from March-Sept. Right during the brown season.  Instead I chased big stripers and largemouth bass during the winter months.  

After retiring from baseball a couple years ago and moving to Oregon one year ago, it's not much of a better place to be to start.  I always got calls from my dad telling me his brown catches and couldn't wait that one day I will be able to once baseball was done.  I have caught some nice browns up to 8.5 but nothing what I was going to get this day.  

I had a great 2010 opener with my buddy Darrell from California who him and I have caught stripers to 42 lbs together at the river. That weekend we caught 9 browns over 5lbs and 4 over 6.5 with a 8.5 with a ton of smaller ones as well that weekend. 

My dad told me he was heading up to fish so I tried to finish my jobs so I could meet him up at the lake.  We couldn't figure where to go Paulina, or Wickiup. Since the weather was so crappy (35 Degrees 35 mph winds) Paulina would be much worse as it was the day before when I was there. (20 degrees 35 mph winds)  We headed over to the area where I was having success at the opener.  We fished for 3 hours with nothing at all.  The weather was awful! Cold windy, water splashing on our faces, we were going to stick it out.  About 7pm, the moment I and every brown trout angler was waiting for a long time...  My rod slammed down and a huge boil.  I saw the tail come up and flop on top and I knew it was big.  Ive been fooled a few times thinking that "this might be a 10" and seeing that it was only 8.5. But this one I had a good feeling it was it.  After the boil, the fish took off like nothing I have never seen before in a brown.  It took off on the top with its back out of the water in a S motion and seeing a "V" from his back for a 40 yard run on top150 feet away along side of my boat and eventually ending the run in front of my boat.  Finally the monster was coming in and I said to my dad "get ready and don't miss!"  "Hes coming"  Finally I saw it and I knew it was over 10 and thought it was about 12-15.  My dad said "oh no that's a monster"  She came to the boat and I got a decent look at her before she took off again after seeing the net.  I felt like I was having a heart attack and was shaking 10 times more than when I have shot big whitetail in Texas. Brown fever! She was tiring and finally a big scoop and in the net! He pulled it over the edge of my boat and my dad screamed "its over 20!!!! I screamed and my dad gave me a huge high five and I yelled as loud as I could again!  I was in shock seeing this huge brown in my boat.  I pulled it out of the net and saw that my lures back hook was in the back of her throat! She just inhaled it!   I Have seen that only a few times with big stripers.  We weighed it on 3 scales and went 21 lbs! What a way to get my first one over 10! I couldn't even eat dinner or sleep that night and have been stumbling around all the next day in a daze at work making stupid mistakes because I couldn't think straight. That fish did something to me! 

The best part about this fish was that my dad was there to net it for me.  I have netted 3 over 10 for him and I said that its time for him to net one for me.  The fish is all ready to go to the taxidermist, and I cant wait to have it hanging on the wall for the memory I had with my dad that that day I will never forget.