On my way home from fishing the Letort today, I decided to stop by a stream that I had some luck on last year. I wandered up the stream hitting a few holes, enjoying the nice weather. Then I got a text beckoning me home, which is wise not to ignore. So I turned around and began a leisurely walk back to the car. When I got back to the fist hole I had fished, I decided to take a few last casts. On my first cast in to the top of the hole, I hit a snag. Or at least I thought I did. I thought it was a tree limb. You know, the one's you drag through the water like a dead cat. Except this cat moved. And it didn't just move, it launched. And it wasn't a cat. I had just hooked into my biggest wild brown yet on the fly, and I was in for a ride. The click and pawl drag on my little flyweight reel was screaming. There was running along the bank. There was tripping into mud. There was praying. The monster didn't even seem to be trying. It kept scraping its head back and forth on some rocks on the bottom of the stream. Would it break off? Was I about to lose the best fish of my humble fly fishing career thus far? After about 2 minutes, and countless runs back and forth within a 50 foot hole, the beast submitted. Yes, I hauled it in on the bank. Yes it was on the ground for some pictures. Yes I got mud on it. But it was back in the water within a few seconds, ready to continue it's reign as the king of the stream.

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  Stream.jpg (109.90 KB)


  Brown 1.jpg (86.16 KB)


  Brown 2.jpg (135.81 KB)


  Brown 3.jpg (144.04 KB)


  Back In.jpg (107.02 KB)


  Tail.jpg (75.45 KB)

Nice post and nice fish! I really think you need to do a replay with an audience though.

Very nice Klingy. Congrats.

Now that's a great fish (and story)!

Well that gives me confidence. Know exactly what stream that is. But the two times I've been there I haven't seen anything.

Beautiful pics. Big Spring?

Wow, that was great. Thanks for the post and pics.

The stuff of which great memories are made.

dude, you da man!

remember just one more cast deserves another!

nice pics, what a beaut!

Great lookin fish.

I love it when an expected snag turns out to be a hog! Nice fish man.

Nice. I would have liked to been witness to that action.

Sweet brown! I had a very similar fish fight on spring creek a year ago. Last spring the flows were up as we all know and I was at the fisherman's paradise stretch. Now, when I was still at school, I would fish 4-6 times a week after class or my internship. One week I fished the paradise stretch 3 times. The first two outings I hooked a nice rainbow and had it spit the hook and break me off. On the third outing I had the fortune of hooking into the same fish for the third time in a week. Spring was running about 200cfs at the time, so it was high to say the least. The high flows combined with a clever 20" bow shooting downstream forced me to chase the fish downstream. I jumped two waterfalls rather gracefully, and fell flat on my face on the third one. I sprung back up out of the water like a resurrected rat and somehow brought the fish in. Because of my experience, I love hearing big fish catching guys by surprise.

I'd like to get snagged like that. Nice fish and glad to see he went back to rule the waters. GG

Now THAT is a hero shot, done properly. Attaboy. Great job. You should be very proud. No sarcasm whatsoever--when I see pic attachment next to the topic, THAT is the pic I want to see. Just great!