The Big Brown

I’ve been looking for new water. I am targeting quality over quantity. If possible, I want to ping only wild fish.

To that end, as I journeyed to the Salmon River, I stopped quite a bit, visiting en route about 12 spots. If one looked fishy, I fished it. If it didn’t, I moved on.

Many rivers I tagged long ago on Google Maps. I may have read about them in a book or heard about them from a friend. Then, I would look at Google Maps to find structure, bends and likely parking spots.

One unstocked stretch looked particularly promising. A friend told me about it. (Per my personal policy, if someone shares with me a fly or a spot, I won’t share it with others. Their secrets are not my secrets, and so, I won’t name the river.)

I fished it for a few hours, and it was very cold and windy. Then, I saw this.

It taped at 22″ and is a wild fish. In fact, it is the biggest wild fish I’ve ever landed and is just shy of my personal best, a 23″ old broodstock trout.

Honestly, my hands shook as I took the pictures. It was a stunning hen. I was exhilarated and relieved.

My Thomas and Thomas Contact 1133 #3, with its much-stronger fighting butt, had no problem quickly taming the beast.

Thankfully, my knots and 5x fluorocarbon worked as planned. Thankfully, when the fish darted towards structure, I held it back.

And, thankfully, immediate and downward side pressure, the George Daniels fish-fighting technique, let me pull the fish above me right away, so that I had the upper hand. Then, I put the bend to the rod’s butt end, with more side pressure, to quickly tire the fish. It worked!

What a morning! Here are two videos of the nice brownie.


 

401 views

Discover more from BlogFlyFish.com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

8 thoughts on “The Big Brown

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *