Big Fishing Creek, Clinton Co., 3/18/23

[discomidge]

Had a decent day on BFC euro nymphing. The sky was partly cloudy and air temps were in the upper 30s. There was a little color in the water but it was clear enough that I had to be sneaky. I fished from 12:30 to 5:30. #16-18 BWOs and little midges came off pretty much the entire time. Fish were occasionally rising to emerging bugs but seemed happy to eat nymphs as well. I fished perdigons and iron lotuses and had consistent action.

BUT, that's not exactly what I came here to post. I lost the biggest trout of my life today. It ate a #14 olive iron lotus on point in a deep pool. The water was clear enough for me to see it emerge from under a big rock and as soon as I saw it move I lost my mind. Lots of tense/giddy cursing and hollering ensued as I fought it. Every time it decided to come up a bit I freaked out. Maybe not great form. But hoo boy it was an order of magnitude larger than anything I've run into. I'm reasonably familiar with 19-20" fish, or at least as much as one can be, and this fish was much larger than that. It looked like a freaking carp or something with its shoulders, but it was a brown. I got it upstream of me and was working it across the current when another perfectly respectable brown took the perdigon. After some wild shaking, the big one broke off. I landed the interloper and was never less happy to see a 15" wild brown in my net. But it was still cool. I went a flopped down in the leaves and tried to gather my wits, not sure if I was pissed or elated. That fish will haunt me.

Attached are a few fish that I snapped pics of before I got too lazy and cold to take pics.

 

[moodyblues]

Had a decent day on BFC euro nymphing. The sky was partly cloudy and air temps were in the upper 30s. There was a little color in the water but it was clear enough that I had to be sneaky. I fished from 12:30 to 5:30. #16-18 BWOs and little midges came off pretty much the entire time. Fish were occasionally rising to emerging bugs but seemed happy to eat nymphs as well. I fished perdigons and iron lotuses and had consistent action.

BUT, that's not exactly what I came here to post. I lost the biggest trout of my life today. It ate a #14 olive iron lotus on point in a deep pool. The water was clear enough for me to see it emerge from under a big rock and as soon as I saw it move I lost my mind. Lots of tense/giddy cursing and hollering ensued as I fought it. Every time it decided to come up a bit I freaked out. Maybe not great form. But hoo boy it was an order of magnitude larger than anything I've run into. I'm reasonably familiar with 19-20" fish, or at least as much as one can be, and this fish was much larger than that. It looked like a freaking carp or something with its shoulders, but it was a brown. I got it upstream of me and was working it across the current when another perfectly respectable brown took the perdigon. After some wild shaking, the big one broke off. I landed the interloper and was never less happy to see a 15" wild brown in my net. But it was still cool. I went a flopped down in the leaves and tried to gather my wits, not sure if I was pissed or elated. That fish will haunt me.

Attached are a few fish that I snapped pics of before I got too lazy and cold to take pics.

Ouch! At least you know where he lives. Better luck next outing.

 

[Dave_W]

Neat story!

 

[Acristickid]

Keeps you coming back.

 

[jifigz]

I have landed some bruiser browns in my life, but about 2 winters ago I, too, hooked and lost the biggest brown of my life on a large, central PA limestone influenced stream. It ate a streamer across a big, swift current lane and I was using a very moderate action 4 weight which, given the distance and lack of backbone the rod had, led to me not getting a good hookset. Either way, I caught good glimpses of the fish but eventually lost it. I immediately backed off the water and sat in the gravel. I called a fellow forum member to share my joy and woe all at once. It truly is a blessing and curse when it happens and a mixed bag of emotions. It is one thing that makes fishing great. If the angler ALWAYS won it would lose a level of appeal and excitement.

Good story though and congratulations on discovering the bruiser brown.

 

[Clams]

The ones you see and miss can stay with you longer than the ones you catch

 

[discomidge]

Thanks guys. I talk a lot of smack about "just enjoying being on the water" but then that happens. Plotting my return.

 

[JeffP]

Had a decent day on BFC euro nymphing. The sky was partly cloudy and air temps were in the upper 30s. There was a little color in the water but it was clear enough that I had to be sneaky. I fished from 12:30 to 5:30. #16-18 BWOs and little midges came off pretty much the entire time. Fish were occasionally rising to emerging bugs but seemed happy to eat nymphs as well. I fished perdigons and iron lotuses and had consistent action.

BUT, that's not exactly what I came here to post. I lost the biggest trout of my life today. It ate a #14 olive iron lotus on point in a deep pool. The water was clear enough for me to see it emerge from under a big rock and as soon as I saw it move I lost my mind. Lots of tense/giddy cursing and hollering ensued as I fought it. Every time it decided to come up a bit I freaked out. Maybe not great form. But hoo boy it was an order of magnitude larger than anything I've run into. I'm reasonably familiar with 19-20" fish, or at least as much as one can be, and this fish was much larger than that. It looked like a freaking carp or something with its shoulders, but it was a brown. I got it upstream of me and was working it across the current when another perfectly respectable brown took the perdigon. After some wild shaking, the big one broke off. I landed the interloper and was never less happy to see a 15" wild brown in my net. But it was still cool. I went a flopped down in the leaves and tried to gather my wits, not sure if I was pissed or elated. That fish will haunt me.

Attached are a few fish that I snapped pics of before I got too lazy and cold to take pics.

Which pool exactly? 🙂 Beautiful fish! Any brookies?

 

[pcray1231]

I lost a biggun on Jan. 2 this year as well. Still did very well, but, yeah, I wanted to see the one.

 

[sarce]

Cool story. It's crazy to think about how many times either you personally plus other anglers who frequent that stream have likely drifted flies past that exact spot without catching (or seeing) the monster brown living there. At least, we don't know that it's ever been caught. They really are unbelievably challenging at that size.

 

[wildtrout2]

Now, that's a neat fishing story. You can look forward to fishing that pool again!

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I've lost some big fish on last year's steelhead outing. Had many a heart-break when a fish broke off (I rarely bounce steelhead just break them off). I estimated some of those fish to be in the 12-14 lb. category. It happens. When the fish get into the crazy big size they know a lot of tricks and their size just makes them a mess to deal with. Heck, all a big trout really has to do when hooked is turn and roll in the opposite direction of you and it's a guaranteed break-off. I'm pretty impressed that you were able even get the 15 incher after a fight like that. I would have thought the break-off was imminent when the other fish decided to hop on. Funny to think, it's possible that 15 inch fish was chasing the larger brown to get some of the food falling out of the larger brown's mouth, a balsy move considering that larger brown could have eaten the smaller brown. My advice on battling bigger fish is to remain clam. It's hard, I know. I know that when I get excited I have a tendency to make mistakes such as horsing a fish in that wasn't ready to come in.

"Fish don't get big by being stupid."

 

[pcray1231]

You seem to have a lot more break-offs than me. It happens. But I can probably use my fingers to count how many times it happens in a year for me. Including steelhead.

Most of my break-offs are due to poor knot tying, or knicks in the line that I foolishly ignored.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Oh, I am thee king of breaking off fish or letting them slide off (long distance release haha). I don't break off many fish other than steelhead. I use 5X tippet for steelhead in clear conditions. Some would say that is running light, I disagree. The Cortland fluorocarbon I run at 5X has a breaking strength of 5.7 lbs. That, IMO, is viable for steelhead. I like how the thinner diameter tippet sinks faster.

 

[pcray1231]

For steelies, and I don't do it nearly as often as I used to, like once every few years anymore, boo. But I generally used 3x, 4x if it was low and clear. I'd use fluoro tippet, because steelhead have teeth, teeth are a form of abrasion, and fluoro holds up better to teeth. But learned pretty quickly that having a sizable piece of a true mono built into the leader was key. If you've ever stretched a piece of maxima (the brown stuff) with your hands, you see why, it stretches a lot. That's tippet protection the same as a soft rod tip is, and absorbs the head shakes and such. I've even tried incorporating rubber bands into the leader, but fyi, it casts like he!!, so that was a step too far...

I'd run pretty long tippets, even like 8 or 9 feet, to get that drift, kind of euro style. They are small streams and there's not much traditional casting involved anyway, just water hauls. But I always made sure I had 3 or 4 feet of stretchy maxima at the butt.

 

[tboyer44]

Had a decent day on BFC euro nymphing. The sky was partly cloudy and air temps were in the upper 30s. There was a little color in the water but it was clear enough that I had to be sneaky. I fished from 12:30 to 5:30. #16-18 BWOs and little midges came off pretty much the entire time. Fish were occasionally rising to emerging bugs but seemed happy to eat nymphs as well. I fished perdigons and iron lotuses and had consistent action.

BUT, that's not exactly what I came here to post. I lost the biggest trout of my life today. It ate a #14 olive iron lotus on point in a deep pool. The water was clear enough for me to see it emerge from under a big rock and as soon as I saw it move I lost my mind. Lots of tense/giddy cursing and hollering ensued as I fought it. Every time it decided to come up a bit I freaked out. Maybe not great form. But hoo boy it was an order of magnitude larger than anything I've run into. I'm reasonably familiar with 19-20" fish, or at least as much as one can be, and this fish was much larger than that. It looked like a freaking carp or something with its shoulders, but it was a brown. I got it upstream of me and was working it across the current when another perfectly respectable brown took the perdigon. After some wild shaking, the big one broke off. I landed the interloper and was never less happy to see a 15" wild brown in my net. But it was still cool. I went a flopped down in the leaves and tried to gather my wits, not sure if I was pissed or elated. That fish will haunt me.

Attached are a few fish that I snapped pics of before I got too lazy and cold to take pics.

BFC is truly an awesome stream. I thoroughly enjoyed the commentary! Thanks for posting.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

Had a decent day on BFC euro nymphing. The sky was partly cloudy and air temps were in the upper 30s. There was a little color in the water but it was clear enough that I had to be sneaky. I fished from 12:30 to 5:30. #16-18 BWOs and little midges came off pretty much the entire time. Fish were occasionally rising to emerging bugs but seemed happy to eat nymphs as well. I fished perdigons and iron lotuses and had consistent action.

BUT, that's not exactly what I came here to post. I lost the biggest trout of my life today. It ate a #14 olive iron lotus on point in a deep pool. The water was clear enough for me to see it emerge from under a big rock and as soon as I saw it move I lost my mind. Lots of tense/giddy cursing and hollering ensued as I fought it. Every time it decided to come up a bit I freaked out. Maybe not great form. But hoo boy it was an order of magnitude larger than anything I've run into. I'm reasonably familiar with 19-20" fish, or at least as much as one can be, and this fish was much larger than that. It looked like a freaking carp or something with its shoulders, but it was a brown. I got it upstream of me and was working it across the current when another perfectly respectable brown took the perdigon. After some wild shaking, the big one broke off. I landed the interloper and was never less happy to see a 15" wild brown in my net. But it was still cool. I went a flopped down in the leaves and tried to gather my wits, not sure if I was pissed or elated. That fish will haunt me.

Attached are a few fish that I snapped pics of before I got too lazy and cold to take pics.

I read your story at least four times. I missed the latitude and longitude coordinates where that giant fish was. Could you restate them?

 

[Silent Ocelot]

@pcray1231. I'd try out that Cortland stuff in 5X. It's expensive, but if you're steelheading once our twice a year (in terms of trips) it'd get you through the year. I somehow burned through a 50m spool on a 4 day trip. Not even sure how that happened. I know I broke off a lot but I didn't think it was that much. I ended up copping the 100m spools ($50 a piece!). I bought two and gave one to a guy I was fishing with so he could test it out. With 5X you get more suppleness than 4X and the Cortland 5X is stronger than the Orvis 4X. I do think that steelhead are quite shy, having come out from under 70ft. of water over their heads and with a multitude of anglers harassing them as they make their way up the creek to pretend to spawn. This only applies to clear water, I bump up to thicker stuff (8lb+) when the tribs get turbid.

I have not tested the breaking strength on the Cortland to see if it is stronger than other brands of similar size and lb. strength. I haven't measured it's diameter either. From fishing it it feels a bit stronger. My usual trout "tippet" is Seaguar Invizx fluorocarbon (yellow box) in 4lb. I can't afford to fish the Cortland stuff constantly. In terms of breaking strength the Seaguar definitely breaks before the Cortland.

I agree wholeheartedly on your choice of leader building materials for steelhead. The guy I gave my other spool of tippet to builds his leaders entirely out of Maxima. Shock absorption for steelhead is critical. The rubber band idea sounds neat in theory but I'm sure it was a failure. I can only imagine that leader splashing down hard on a creek and alerting every steelhead to your presence. I will say my current 8wt I use up there is pretty good at tippet protection. I was going to bump down to my 9ft 6wt but I loathe my 6wt (Orvis H3F).