Love those November Browns

‘Tis the season to be jolly. Not because of the holiday but because the Browns are in the harbor.

Things are setting up perfectly right now. We have hungry post-spawn fish coming back from the tributaries. We have some of the smaller juvenile fish moving in off the main lake. And, we have pre-spawn Seeforellens coming in. You can encounter any one of them at any time right now and we have been doing just that.

The action seems to be on shallow minnow baits in the shallower areas and the deep diving crankbaits in the deeper areas. Not much action on spoons right now, but that’s typical. The Rapala DT series baits have been solid performers. DT-10’s to DT-14’s. I’ve caught a few literally grinding a DT-14 on the bottom. That seems to trigger strikes when everything else is slow.

It’s also the time when small musky baits work well. In fact, they will also work when all else fails. No, not a Suick, but small musky sized crankbaits that imitate shad are great. Two in particular would be the Rapala Super Shad and the Bagley Monster Shad. It seems nuts but these fish are looking for a big meal and the size of these baits really get their attention. The bad news is that they will still shy away from heavy line so 10-12 pound test is the maximum you can get away with.

An event from this weekend has me rethinking line weights. For 30 years I have preached 8 pound test for most of the season except for the salmon run (September and October). This weekend I hooked and fought a Brown that I can’t begin to guess what it weighed. Well over 20 pounds, likely over 25 pounds. I had it whipped but as I tried to get to the net it was able to dive down and use its dead weight to sound. My 9 ½ foot MH rod and 8 pound line wasn’t enough to control the fish in the close quarters where I was at and it took off along the bottom raking my line through rocks and mussels. It broke off leaving me with about 3 feet of line that looked like it was run through a box of broken glass.

I rarely get too upset about a lost fish, but this one had me ready to scream or throw up, or both. It took me all weekend to get over it. This was a special fish and I had It whipped but couldn’t close the deal at the end. It was literally 10 feet from me wallowing in the shallows, but the 20 seconds I fooled around getting the net was enough to give him an opening to make one last deep surge and there was no stopping him.

Is 8 pound too light? Do I need a heavier rod? That would all be an answer, but it comes with a cost. I may have never made that long cast with a light lure with heavier tackle. That fish may have seen heavier line and shied away. I’ll never know. And he may have shredded 10 pound line as well. I hate to change what has worked for 30+ years because of one fish. But then again, that one fish is what I am after all year and the tackle failed me in this case. I landed a 25 pounder in April and this fish looked heavier.

It’s a great story that will haunt me for a while. Hopefully there is another one out there and the heavens will align again. Luckily events like this don’t defeat us but feed the obsession. It validates the wonder if there are true giants out there. Just to remind you, there are only about 4-5 places in the world that we could be having this conversation about Browns approaching 30 pounds! This is one of them.

Tight lines and smooth drags.
Marc