Matching the hatch on Oak Orchard Creek usually means presenting an egg pattern. That might sound easy, but often there are so many salmon in the way that it can be difficult, sometimes even impossible, not to catch or foul hook one of these transplanted Pacific kings.

Another challenge to getting your line where you want it, when you want it there, is the presence of other anglers in close proximity. Not to say that Oak Orchard is always elbow-to-elbow, but it can seem that way if you go on a prime weekend like Columbus Day or Thanksgiving. During these extremely busy periods, you may want to visit the other fine brown trout streams in the area like Johnson's Creek, Maxwell Creek, and Eighteen-Mile Creek. The folks at the Oak Orchard Fly Shop can give you the details on these, and several other good waters in the area.

To create your egg patterns for Oak Orchard Creek, you can spin egg yarn onto a Mustad 9174 or equivalent hook and trim to shape, or purchase colored pom poms from your local craft store. (A lifetime supply shouldn't cost more than a few dollars. ) To imitate salmon eggs, you'll need orange, red, or pink, 1/4-inch pom poms. To create your egg imitation, put a drop of glue on the hook shank, push the pom pom of your choice over the point, and slide it around the bend. The result is an easy, cheap, and very effective imitation of what the brown trout in Oak Orchard Creek are feeding on. If desired, a permanent marker can be used to add a dot.

In order to get your fly to the bottom as quickly as possible it is often necessary to use a small amount of lead. If you fish in the slower, shallow water in the Archery Pool, a sinking-tip line or a mini-tip is usually all you need.

The giant browns of Oak Orchard have a two-fold purpose during their fall migration. First, they are there to spawn, and second, they love to eat salmon eggs, as do migrating steelhead. When the browns get ready to spawn, they will stop eating for several days, maybe even a week. During this time, you need to use a large, colorful streamer that will either irritate them or make them feel that their eggs are in danger of being eaten by a marauding minnow. After they're done spawning, they'll resume feeding on salmon eggs as well as nymphs and local minnows.

The browns in Oak Orchard are big, but not nearly as big, or easy to see as the Chinook salmon. Here, sight fishing often means finding spawning salmon, and drifting your egg pattern downstream with the naturals. To do this, cast your fly a few yards upstream of any salmon that you see, especially a group of actually spawning salmon. Let your fly drift under the salmon so the fly is dead-drifting by the time it gets to the tail end of the salmon. This is where hungry browns wait for their next meal.

Too often I see over-anxious beginners lift their rod thinking they had a strike when, in reality, the leader was bumped by the tail of a salmon. Setting your fly while under a salmon is not a good thing to do. It often results in belly-hooking a salmon, which, although it may give you some frantic action for a minute, is only a waste of time and energy--a distraction from your goal of catching a trophy trout.

Although Oak Orchard browns can reach weights of up to 20 pounds, don't expect their take to be violent. These big trout will either lay right behind spawning salmon, or in a good current that funnels eggs to them. In either case, they are inclined to just lay still and gently suck in eggs as they drift by. It is not until you set your hook that the violent head-shaking begins. While this technique may seem strange to some, it's not really different than drifting your stonefly nymph to a big cutthroat trout on the Yellowstone River. If you are good at nymphing, you should be a natural at fishing for these browns.

Hooking one of these beasts really isn't the most difficult part of fishing Oak Orchard Creek--landing one is. Many people find netting even moderately sized, stream-born trout on fine tippets and small flies to be extremely difficult. Doing it on Oak Orchard Creek with 4-pound test and a fat, lake-raised brown trout borders on insanity. But there are several things you can do to give yourself the advantage.

For starters, make sure to use quality hooks sharpened to an extremely fine point, and pinch the barb down. When you set the hook, you'll need to drive the hook into the tough, sinewy tissue inside the mouth with a minimum of pressure. If your hook isn't as sharp as possible, and doesn't penetrate sufficiently, your trophy brown will probably throw it immediately.

When you set the hook on a big brown, the first thing you should feel is violent head-shaking. A steelhead will generally take off like a rocket, jump, and a throw the hook. A Chinook salmon will sulk, or swim off like a Mack truck. But the first thing most big browns do when you set the hook is violently shake their heads--often throwing the hook or breaking the fly off in the first few seconds of a very short-lived battle.

Working with a partner, and a large net, is the most effective means of landing a large trout or salmon on a light tippet on Oak Orchard.

When you feel the head-shaking begin, it is critical you do not panic. You must act purposefully if you are to land a trophy trout on Oak Orchard Creek. After performing a quick, deliberate hook set, drop your rod tip to the fish and give him all the slack he wants. Now he is shaking his head against the wind--still exerting energy but not endangering the thin strand of monofilament connecting the two of you.

As with most large gamefish, browns tend to react to the pressure you apply, not the fact that they have a small hook in their lip. The more you pull, the more they pull and shake. After years of experience, and hundreds of battles with these fish, I've learned less is more when using light tippets. You need to slowly and gently fight these giants--so gently that they don't realize that they have a problem. If you panic, and apply too much pressure, they will snap you off in an instant.

As you wear the fish down, gently apply pressure to move it toward slack water. Be patient. You will be surprised how willingly these browns gravitate toward easier water. If you try to move the fish too quickly, it will fight to stay in the main current. When you get your brown near the edge of the calm water, be ready for him to make a quick run back to the main current, as he will not want to completely expose himself in very shallow, or slow water.

The trick here is to position a person with a net between you and the main current, about 25 feet downstream. Your netter should be behind the fish, out of his line of sight, ready to scoop the trout before he can make an escape. As the fight progresses, you and your partner should close the distance between yourselves, eventually easing the net under your unsuspecting quarry.