sarce
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2013
- Messages
- 1,504
Not really, but maybe retiring from the stream where I caught this.
In advance of the rain yesterday I headed out to a favorite wild trout stream. After catching a 22" here last year and getting broken off earlier this year by an 18" range fish while nymphing, I started fishing this place exclusively with big streamers and heavy tippet (0X or 16-lb hard mono). It's a small mountain stream so essentially I just hit the big pools, drift along the undercut rock ledges, and hope for the best. Many, many times this year I have gone fishless doing that, aside from a lone 17 incher a few months ago. Yesterday wasn't quite that slow, but then in the last pool of the day, I hooked into an absolute monster.
Thankfully I didn't actually see the take, if I had, I have no doubt I would have blown it somehow. But I could quickly tell this was a big fish, over 20", but until I got it close I didn't really see just how massive it was. The fish made some short, powerful runs back under the rock for about 2-3 minutes before seemingly realizing she was not going to win.
I quickly moved a couple small rocks around and created a little holding spot for her to recover in the water while I took a few photos. The fish was about 25" and fat and healthy as could be! Just absolutely stunning that a fish that old in a small stream could still have that much weight. I would guess 6-7 lbs. That's what prime habitat will do, I guess!
She was nearly ready to go back when I finished with the photos but given the fact that the water is low (though still very cold in this particular stream) I held her back to revive for a few extra minutes to be safe. Finally she had enough of that and with a big splash of her tail soaked me in water and swam back to her lair.
I highly doubt there's a bigger fish in this stream...but it has been full of surprises these past two years so who knows! And no, I will not give info on the location ;-)
In advance of the rain yesterday I headed out to a favorite wild trout stream. After catching a 22" here last year and getting broken off earlier this year by an 18" range fish while nymphing, I started fishing this place exclusively with big streamers and heavy tippet (0X or 16-lb hard mono). It's a small mountain stream so essentially I just hit the big pools, drift along the undercut rock ledges, and hope for the best. Many, many times this year I have gone fishless doing that, aside from a lone 17 incher a few months ago. Yesterday wasn't quite that slow, but then in the last pool of the day, I hooked into an absolute monster.
Thankfully I didn't actually see the take, if I had, I have no doubt I would have blown it somehow. But I could quickly tell this was a big fish, over 20", but until I got it close I didn't really see just how massive it was. The fish made some short, powerful runs back under the rock for about 2-3 minutes before seemingly realizing she was not going to win.
I quickly moved a couple small rocks around and created a little holding spot for her to recover in the water while I took a few photos. The fish was about 25" and fat and healthy as could be! Just absolutely stunning that a fish that old in a small stream could still have that much weight. I would guess 6-7 lbs. That's what prime habitat will do, I guess!
She was nearly ready to go back when I finished with the photos but given the fact that the water is low (though still very cold in this particular stream) I held her back to revive for a few extra minutes to be safe. Finally she had enough of that and with a big splash of her tail soaked me in water and swam back to her lair.
I highly doubt there's a bigger fish in this stream...but it has been full of surprises these past two years so who knows! And no, I will not give info on the location ;-)